Using my bradley w/ a pid. Put in butt w/ oven temp set for 210F and to finish w/ I.T. 180F. All seemed to go well. After 12 hrs, however, the I.T. was only 165F. After 24 hrs!!! I.T. is still only 175F. Wrapped butt w/ foil after 12 hrs. and returned to smoker. Expected loss of evaporation would speed up final heat. Didn't seem to help at all. Increased oven temp to 220F after 24 hrs. This seems like one heck of a long time for a single butt!! BTW, unit has dbl element mod, and pid kept oven temp 2 within 1F whole time???? Should I have started w/ oven temp closer to 250F or so?
How big was the butt?
I smoke/cook butts at an average cabinet temp of 205. To reach 190 meat temp often takes me 18+ hours. You should do the fork test to see if it is done enough for pulling. You may find that with the real slow cook it is ready at a lower temp like 170 or 175. IMHO the butts turn out better with the lower cooking temps. Sometimes when cooking really low (like 190 - 210) if you continue to a meat temp of 190 or above the meat could get to a mushy stage. Although I try to avoid this stage, I do not mind if it does get to it. Some folks do not like it to get THAT tender.
It could be that you were not cooking at the temp you thought. Your cabinet probe placement is critical for determining just what temp the meat is actually being exposed to.
I have had butts take as long as 26 hours. It all depends on the pig and the amount of connective tissue in the butt. The more connective tissue there is, the longer the stall takes before the IT begins rising again.
After I increased the smoker temp to 220F, the butt reached 180F w/in an hour. I couldn't wait to FTC it. It was fall apart tender, and I could hardly control myself from eating too much!!!! Until I gain some more experience, I'm going to document what's happening and when.
I don't remember exactly how large the butt was, but it was on the large side. I'll go see if I can find the wrapper when I get home.
I can see I just need to do much more of this so I can get the hang of it!!!
As long as your happy with your cook, that's all that matters.
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As Wildcat mentioned, if you were cooking at 205°F, you should have tested the butt for tenderness at 175°F, and you may have found it was tender enough to pull at that point.
I prefer to cook mine at 200°F cabinet temperatures, but I have tasted pulled pork that has been cooked at 325°F; and it was good. So if you want to try 250°F, give it a try. The only issue I can see, is when I use a temperature at 250°F or higher, dripping on the drip tray tends to give the meat a burnt smell. You may want to try a temperature around 240°F.