1st smoke with new hood

[Thor]

Smokin 2 butts today.  MacGrubbered a new el cheapo hood hanging from my lumber rack vented out under the garage door.  Using 6" flexi and fan on high working great.

Temps at 8am Outside 27f 62%  garage 33f 51%  Hormel cryo butts in solution .99/lb  Smoking for 4 hours 75% mesquite, the rest apple and hickory. Start time 8:45AM  Happy hour 4:30

The plan:  Bring one out at 165 IT and boat in oven at higher temp then FTC for dinner.  Let the other cook naked in OBS.  Compare results.


All rubbed up


Nice messy garage


In they go


Good draw.  Just a nice aroma in the garage.


Hope the building inspectors are out hunting


At 10:15 Smoker temp 180  Mav 162  Vent wide open. 

[Tenpoint5]

Thor I hate to be the one to burst your bubble of a first smoke. But I have never started a butt at 8:45 am and had it done and pulled at 4:30. I usually start at 4am and finish cleaning up at 11pm. The tricky part is going to be the plateau. Your butt is going to stall at about 160-165 and it is going to stay there for awhile, the temp may even drop some. Then it will start climbing again. It is at that time that the magic is happening and you just have to let it happen. One never knows just how long your butt is going to sit in that plateau. I hope it works out for you but don't cheat yourself by turning up the heat during the plateau it will just dry out the outside of your butt, It will not help things move any faster.

[Thor]

Thanks 10.5, no bubble burst here.   Been there many times with the old Brinkmann.   8pm run to Menards for yet another bag of charcoal.  Temps are around 174 now in the tower, time the inform the Admiral to start implementing plan B.  The Mav under the bottom roast says 174, I have an old Oregon Scientific beside the top butt and it reads 194. The OS actually transmits through walls, but tops out at 199F, have to switch to C and pull up my c/f excel conversion chart.  (Metriclly challenged)   Interesting readings.  I expected the lower probe would read higher.  Thoughts?

BTW I start Happy Hour with martinis not pig.  Dinner comes after I get sauced. 

I have some 2" Porterhouses vacked in the freezer that need to be used soon.  The Admiral calls them roasts.  I call them queen cuts.   

This is my 5th smoke with the OBS, first with the new hood.

Several new variables in this smoke:  9x13 water pan, 2 bricks (concrete, Menards did not have any clay), Hood is on a different outlet, but I am unsure if it is on a different circuit. The OBS is on a GFCI and when I trip it, the hood/garage door outlet stays on, but that could just mean the hood outlet is wired first.   Bought the house 4 years ago and told myself on of my first projects would be to map out all the circuits.  Love to start projects, hate to finish them.

What did that Mexican say in the Treasure of Sierra Madre "Maps? We don't need no stinkin' maps!"

[Thor]

Update:

6:03 Rotated racks at 2, trouble getting cab temp over 200.   Now things are starting to gel.  Cab temp rose to 218 so I can start sliding it back a little.

Bottom butt IT 171, top IT 163.  Going to stick with the plan and leave the bottom in the OSB and pull the top at 165, boat in oven.   Not sure what IT I should shoot for.   Habs says 175-185 (on recipe site) others say 190.   Sounds like at that point it is personal preference.     

Please give your opinion and experience.

[MPTubbs]

I pull my butts @ 195*.

Sounds like you have a while to go there Thor.

[FLBentRider]

I noticed that there is a chunk of "white" meat on a butt, My observations are if they are going to be tough, that will be the part.

It's hard to tell where it is before you pull it, so that's why I stick them with the thermometer in multiple places before I put them in FTC.

[Thor]

I noticed that there is a chunk of "white" meat on a butt, My observations are if they are going to be tough, that will be the part.

It's hard to tell where it is before you pull it, so that's why I stick them with the thermometer in multiple places before I put them in FTC.

I check in a few places also, sometimes there can be a wide range.   Could you explain further about the "white" meat?  Not sure what that is.  I assume you are not talking about the fat.   I am color blind so it may not be as obvious to me.

Going to be a late night.  Thank you God for Sundays.

[FLBentRider]

I noticed that there is a chunk of "white" meat on a butt, My observations are if they are going to be tough, that will be the part.

It's hard to tell where it is before you pull it, so that's why I stick them with the thermometer in multiple places before I put them in FTC.

I check in a few places also, sometimes there can be a wide range.   Could you explain further about the "white" meat?  Not sure what that is.  I assume you are not talking about the fat.   I am color blind so it may not be as obvious to me.

Going to be a late night.  Thank you God for Sundays.

It is a little hard to explain, I'll have to take a pic next time. When you pull the butt, you should notice that some of the meat is a darker color than others. Kinda like on a pork loin, about half way down the slices have a light side and a dark side.

[Thor]

UPDATE:

At midnight I turned mine down and went to bed.  This morning the Mav under the meat read 200* and the door read 150*.  Not normal having that big a gap.  The IT of the bottom was still at 175* the top at 160*. Vent at 3/4.   Meat is still springy, so I do not think it has dried out.  Cranking it back up to 220.  I used the WallyWorld pan and still had water.   23 hours and counting.   

I think I found the "white" meat.   There is a place on the side of the top one that seems real tough when I poke the Pyrex therm in and it reads 4-5* colder than the other parts.