Pork Butt Failure

No you're not the first

Didn't you by a thermometer? Turn the smoker on to 250, let it run for an hour or so and see what the temp is?

Is sounds like your smoker wasn't getting hot enough as a small one like that should be done well before you pulled it out.

Yes I have a thermometer. I had it in the meat the entire time. I even checked the meat with an instant read and it read about the same.

Mornin',

I think maybe Smokin' was referrin' to takin' the cooker's oven temp.

A good way to do this is to stick the probe through a potato or a ball of foil,and place on your center rack-so the probe doesn't touch metal.

The hour at 250� is to allow the empty cooker, itself, to come to temp and sorta stabilize.

This will give an idea of what the cooker is doing.

If it doesn't come to heat,then try the same thing without the extension cord.

Hope this helps a little.

Thanks Tom for the input. Guess I have new plans for the evening. Gotta get this worked out as my mouth is watering for some of that great butt I keep reading about.

Gibbler - You're certainly not the 1st to fail at smokin a butt. Really, you haven't failed yet, just trying to work out a few kinks. It will all come together. And when it does, you will never regret the investment you made. There's a lot of critters out there just waitin' to be Q'd

I would not think that the extension cord was at fault. If you used a three prong then you should be all set since the std for a three prong will be just fine for a 500 watt heating element that is int he smokette.

I intend to test the extension cord theory tonight. I don't really understand why I was able to get baby backs, spare ribs and chicken done before using the extension and had this failure, but I'll test it. I'll report results tomorrow.

CS has recommended many times that the extension cord might be an issue if you're not careful. Some people use really long ones and really bad ones, and it can affect the smoker.

It may not even be the extension cord, but the smoker itself, so it's good to test to see if the temp is close to what is set on the dial. Could be something faulty in the smoker that needs replacing

OK folks here's the report with the extension cord. Turned the smoker on 250 at 4:30 when the actual temp inside was reading 53. At 5:10 the temp was around 258 and peaked at 261. By 5:30 it was around 220 and fell all the way back to 204 by 5:40. By 6:00 it was up to 2:55 and started to fall.

Seems like this is about normal from what I've read on the forum; if it is I must have got a bad piece of butt (can't believe I just said that).

Look forward to any suggestions or input any of you have. I think I've proven the oven is working alright (of course I could be wrong here too)so I'm headed for the nearest sports bar.

Hey Gibbler, No such thing as a bad piece of butt, they're all good, it's just that some are a little better than others.(smile). I did one a while back and it seeme like it took me forever too. I think I can attribute mine to being a little bit impatient.

Performed the second test this morning without extension cord and the results were similar. Started out at 55 degrees and in 45 minutes the temp had gone to 260. 15 minutes later the temp had fallen to 230 and then fell another 10 degrees before recovering back to 230 in about a 15 minute time span. It would appear in doing the two tests that the temp dropped off a little bit more using an extension cord and doesn't recover as fast.

Took my failed butt out of the fridge last night and put it in the oven after applying more vinegar mop at 250 for about 3 1/2 hours. Needless to say it is no longer considered a total failure. Girlfriend was very impressed.

Anyone believe the difference in the two tests is significant?

I'm a new cookette owner with a similar "first butt". I had a 3-4 lb butt-Put in the oven at 12:00 noon @ 225.
My temp readings were:
4:00 - 138
6:00 - 153
8:30 - 161 (Opened door to put in oven thermometer and raised temp to 250)
10:00 - 163 (Opened door to check temp-230)
12:00 - 180
2:00 - 190 (Pulled it off)
Seemed like the bark and outer skin were pretty dry-maybe overcooked. The rest seemed good and moist though.
I checked my oven when I seasoned it @ 200 and it ran anywhere from 190-220, so I think the oven is working OK. Maybe I just got a stubborn butt?
Ralph

Gibbler,

The temps swings are normal.

Argulator,

Welcome, The darkness can be 1)normal 2)oversmoked 3) sugars in your rub. How much wood and what kind of rub did you use?

Mornin',

It sounds to me like the cookers are workin' just fine.

I have found that the Smokette has smaller temp swings and cooks even better, when I have a pretty good load in it.

Now about them butts.

My personal observations have been that cook times relative to weight are not linear.

A pork chop can be guestimated by thickness/time.

A butt needs time to render fat and to break down collagen.

This collagen breakdown is where you are seeing that long plateau around 160�.

Now a two pound piece of butt could take as long to break down collagen as a seven pounder.

Extreme example,but you get my point.

The meat departments like to cut those big butts, that come in the 15 lb. two pack,into a 3 lb and a 4.5 lb. roast to braise in the oven.

Since you are going to have around a 45%-50% loss after pulling,I like to start out with one of those 7.5 pounders.

Pulled pork keeps well.

Now some folks feel that the bone helps conduct heat and cook faster and more evenly.

At any rate ,you can jiggle or twist that bone and tell if it is loose enough to be done.

If your store sells country style ribs,blade roasts,boneless boston butt,etc.-they have uncut two packs back in the cooler.

Just ask for them.

They are happy to sell that way,because they don't have to cut,trim,and package.

Several years ago,I found a 3.5 lb. boneless butt in the freezer.

I charted the cook and it went forward and backward and took forever.

All Smokin' could say was" nice record keepin".

It wasn't very good either.

Well,I hope that helps some.

I'll get outa here ,before I'm accused of makin' a "Smokin post".

Smokin, the color was OK, just seemed dry and leathery on the exterior. When I checked it at 10:00 the exterior seemed moist and smoky charred-very nice. I used 3 oz of hickory and Cains BBQ rub (When I worked smoking ribs at grocery stores, etc, we always used it-don't tell anyone).

I'd cut the butt in half - it started out as a 7 lber. I think on the next one I'll also use a little more wood. I'm used to an offset, and have never had anything taste too smoky-unless covered with creosote.
Ralph

Gibbler:

I can see part or all of the problem. In your test when set at 250, the range was 204-261. This is similar to the range I got with my smokette (roughly 55-60 degrees). But you are averaging around 230 degrees. Now that is at a setting of 250 degrees. So if you extrapolate here, when you originally set it at 225 degrees, you were probably cooking at around 205 degrees which could account for the slow rise in the internal temp. My experience has been with the CS thermostats is that they are off some and to really cook at say 225, you need to use a polder type temp. gauge to find the mid point of the swing and adjust the thermostat knob to get a swing that averages at 225 (regardless of the knob setting). I currently have a non-CS thermostat on my unit which does have an adjustment screw on the knob to match the actualy mid-point swing temp. with the setting indicated by the knob. It would be nice if CS's would also be able to do this.

I would suggest on your next cook to use a seperate polder type thermometer to get the actual cooking temp. (mid-point of the swing) to be at 225 even though the knob may show otherwise.