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Internal Meat Temperatures

FM Former Member
New to the smoking business but absolutley loving my Smokette. My question deals with the internal temperature of 2 pork butts I have cooked not reaching 190 degrees. Here are the specs --- 3.5 lb pork butt, outside temp 90 degrees, 70 percent humidity. Butt was seasoned by rubbing mustard and cookshack rub and placed in the frig overnight, as instructed in the Cookshack cookbook. I placed butt on middle rack (directly from frig), put 3 ounces of hickory wood in box, placed temp probe in center of meat and set the temp to 225 degrees. At 4 hours, temp was 165 degrees, at 6 hours, temp was 174 degrees, and at 7.5 hours, temp was just barely reaching 180 degrees. I opened up the smokette at the 6 hour time and moved the probe around and no significant change in readings. This morning I put a thermometer inside the smokette, no food, to check internal temp at 225 degrees and it was within about 2 degrees. Does this seem out of the ordinary? Is there something I am not doing? Help!
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FM Former Member
srady,
I'm no pro but I've had butt's go for 10 hrs or more, "It's done when it's done". I've had a butt sit at 175 for a couple hour's or more. Sounds normal to me. Just need to allow time for cooking, if it get's done early you can alway's foil,wrap and put in a cooler. Once again I'm no pro but have never had a problem.

Just my .02
F fresno (Guest)
Strady, don't fret pal. My first pork butt, 7.5 boneless took 24.5 hours to finish to 199 degrees. Worth the wait, but too long.

Some suggestions:
Use a bone in butt, I think the heat of the bone helps with the internal cooking of the butt itself. Plus it will probably taste better.

Go easy with the smoke....a little goes a long way. Did a tri tip yesterday, 1/2 oz. of alder chips and was perfect.

Allow more than enough time when smoking....you are just dreamin' if you think you can predict doneness.

Good luck from California!!
FM Former Member
My experience with butts, shoulders and fresh ham, using the kitchen oven or the ceramic Grill Dome, is there is a point usually around 165 to 170 that the temperature hangs forever. It will eventually start back up and then raise faster than before the plateau. Patience for the 198 to 205 degrees requires starting the cook way before you think you should. 20 hours at 225 degrees is not uncommon. I have not cooked a butt in the model 55, but I am sure the procedure is the same. Wink
FM Former Member
My butts seem to plateau at about 170-180* and may stay there for several hours. I assume the plateau is due to heat being carried away from the meat as fat starts to render. In any case, 18# of butt(2x9#) went in the smokette last night at 3:30am, and came out this afternoon at 2:30pm at 196*. 11 hours in-other-words.
T tomMember
Mornin' srady,

Some good advice above,but here are a couple of other thoughts.

In high heat cooking, weight/size can be a good indicator of time.

What we are trying to accomplish,with basically unusable hunks of meat,is cook them slow and low enough to break down collagen[tenderize] and render fat.

While I tend to tell people to think two hrs /lb on large butts,that is just sorta how they work out.

The more time spent in the plateau,often breaks down the collagen best,the rest of the cooking at low temp is rendering the fat.

Thus,a 1/4" thick slice of pork butt can cook quickly,but not be tender and fat free.

The time applied to the meat could be more important than the temp.

Small and boneless butts can completely throw out your time/temp lines.
FM Former Member
I should have mentioned that the cook times I sited above were with the smokette temp maxed out at 250*, and the butts were at about 50* when they went in. I was in a hurry as I wanted to eat and watch the 4:00 football games. I was trying to make the perfect day.

Same size butts at 38* and cooked at 225* usually take 14-17 hours for me as well to get to 195*. But some have taken as long as 20ish. I get consistent results from butts I buy from BJ's, but the butts from other suppliers seem to be all over the map as far as cooktimes are concerned. I assume it has to do with fat content.
FM Former Member
tom
saw the sausage sow. reminded me of when i was a kid my great uncles job was to put a 22 short with his pride and joy pump action remington into said lard hogs skull. he got too old and last time he just nicked it!!! man that old hog could run!!!!
but at least he wasn't as bad as my great grandfather he got so old all they let him do was heat water. darned if he didn't get the water so hot that he set all the bristles!!!! at 11 he was my favorite grand dad but when he did that he dropped a few notches Razzer
jack
ps don't know why i had to share that but for some reason it seemed ok
pps see they really do have rednecks in indiana lol
FM Former Member
I did an 18.5* fresh whole ham last wwekend. Cooked for 18 hours and never above 160. Ham was tender and nearly falling apart.
I done turkey, roast, chicken and now ham. I can never get to temp. to the recommend level in the manual. Oh, I've tried 3 different thermontors, all read the same.

All comments and advise welcome.

P.S. Just got this Smokette in November and love it.
FM Former Member
Parkstump.

Your post is kind of hidden inside another thread. You'll probably get some more response with a new post.

I'd suggest you just call Customer Service and they can walk you through the normal questions. If your smoker isn't getting to temp there are some potential issues and if any of them involve replacing parts, you'd have to talk to them anyway.

Is there an extension cord? Have you check the internal temp of the smoker, empty? Set it on 250, after it stabilizes, does it read 250?

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