HELP!....Cooked too fast?! Now what...

[RobG4]

Arrgghh...

20 lbs of boston butt in the smoker at 7am this morning.

Set temp at @210. Monitored internal temp and smoker temp with Maverick wireless thermometer.

Left to run errands for a couple hours. When I came home, the smoker (which had been in the sun for a while) was showing smoker temps of 245 and internal meat temps of 185-210.

I opened the door to let it cool down some, and am rechecking the temps on the meat.

Could it be that the butts (20 lbs) are actually done in only 7 hours?

The internal temps seem to be dropping now that I have brought the temps down in the smoker.

Should I take out the butts? Leave them in?

I originally planned to have them in for @ 24 hours. They need to be ready by 12 noon tomorrow (Sunday).

[mikeradio]

Have you moved the temp probe around? maybe its in a fat pocket  It cant be done in 7hrs

[RobG4]

Yes. I have taken reading from multiple areas in both 10 lbs butts.

Seems the thermometer is stabilizing around 180. I had one reading of 230 that kinda freaked me out haha.

[FLBentRider]

I'm with Mike... Stick it in multiple places.

180F that's still pretty fast.

[RobG4]

One of the butts is sticking around 200 internal temps from multiple readings.

[classicrockgriller]

You might have a bad IT probe.

[KyNola]

I'm with CRG.  I'm not buying those readings.  Not sure what you're taking those temps with but I wouldn't trust it.  7 hours won't bring 20 pounds of butts up to those temps.

[classicrockgriller]

I have TURBO cooked two 8 lb'ers in 10 hrs at 250*

[Habanero Smoker]

I don't believe that the collagen converted to gelatin in that time frame, but did you try the fork test? Insert a fork, and if you can twist it easily, it should pull easily.

How many butts where there, and what is the average weight of each? Although you have a total of 20 pounds, if the butts are small, once your cabinet gets up to temp, they will get done much faster then larger butts.

Where they boneless or bone in? Boneless will cook get up to temp. faster.

What were you using to monitor the cabinet temperature, and if you used a probe where did you locate it? If you rely on the door thermometer, or placed your probe above, near or between racks, you will get a lower reading. When meat cooks, a lot of moisture escapes, and evaporates. This evaporation will cool the area near the meat, thus dropping the air temperature around the meat.

[RobG4]

Habanero,

I'll try the fork test.

There were two 10lb butts, bone in.

Using the Maverick wireless. Have the smoker probe hanging from the top rack, near the front.

One of the buts, the one that showed >200 for a while, has backed down to 190 with a 200 smoker temp. It seems very tender and succulent. I'll try the fork on it.

[RobG4]

Ok, did the fork test on the 10lb butt that was reading >200 for a while and >190 for the last couple hours.

It's comes right apart and seems totally done. It's juicy and literally falls apart.

Total time in the smoker: 9.5 hours.

There is another 10lb butt still in the smoker at 180 degrees.

Now...how to keep this butt good until 1pm tomorrow? I'm sure I can find that answer around here somewhere.

[Mr Walleye]

Using the Maverick wireless. Have the smoker probe hanging from the top rack, near the front.

Hi Rob and welcome to the forum.

Like Habs indicated, try the fork test for sure.

In the future you should monitor the cabinet temp below the meat and not above it. The meat itself influences the temp readings above it and the meat is really being exposed to much higher temps. You want to monitor the temp the meat is exposed to and therefore should have the temp probe at the lowest meat level.

Mike

[KyNola]

Rob, that's amazing but good for you.  I take back all I said about temp readings being off.  I'll yield to the others about the best way to keep it but I would simply foil it up and into the frig until tomorrow.  Then, tomorrow pull it and put it in a slow cooker(crockpot) on low with a little moisture of some sort, like apple juice to bring it back up to heat.  Another alternative would be to pull, vac seal and then reheat in a roasting pan with hot but not boiling water for 30 minutes or so.

[RobG4]

Awesome everyone, thanks for the help.

I'm giving it some time to cool, then i'm going to pull it to make absolutely sure its all done. It's already falling to pieces.

Bag it, put it in the fridge, tomorrow put in pan with some vaunted vinegar, cover in foil, put in oven on 300 for an hour or so.

Sound good?

[classicrockgriller]

What a nice accident!

My luck usually goes the other way, like 30 hrs to smoke a butt!