I Had To Pull My Butt Out After 24Hrs But All Worked Out In The End

[thehead]

So - it's been a while since I posted.

I've done a lot of smoking since my brisket and cold-smoked chocolate.

Mainly ribs and bacon-wrapped boneless chicken breast.

Anyways - this past weekend I decided to do a couple of pork butts for my mother's birthday party on Sunday (party time, around 4:30pm).  I thought to myself, self - 24hrs should be plenty - turns out I was wrong! :(

Sorry - no pics of the following - camera was hiding this weekend.

Rubbed up 2, 7-8 pound bone-in butts and into the smoker at noon on Saturday.  The rub was basic: Brown Sugar, Cinnamon, Chipotle powder, Paprika, Garlic Powder, Salt/Pepper and some other spices.   Set them up similarly to my brisket that worked out so well with the bigger butt on 2nd rack from the bottom (with temperature probe in), slightly smaller butt above it, and a large tray of water on lowest rack.  Smoke was set to be 4.5 hrs with alternating 2 pucks Hickory, 2 pucks cherry.  Temperature started at around 40 degrees for the bottom butt and the smoker was preheated to just over 210 (about the best I get on a preheat).

Anyways - my smoker sits in my garage so I leave the garage open while smoking and close it up when just cooking, so after the smoke was done, I emptied the spent pucks and added water to the long tray and let it go.

Before bed, the butt was at about 140 and I refilled the water again and went to bed.

Got up around 7AM (kids) and the butt was sitting at only 150. 

Now it's been very hot around here and not getting too cool at night so I wasn't sure what to make of this.

Went outside to check the water level and temp and the temp of the smoker (per outside thermo) was over 200.

Anyways - let it run to see what would happen.

By the time 11AM came around - the bottom butt was only sitting at 158, top butt - no idea.

Decided to preheat the oven to 350 and bring the butts in around noon.  Note - the top butt was at 168 (which struck me as slightly odd, considering it was further from heat source).

Put each one in a foil pan (excellent bark on both) with a little apple juice and foiled the tops of the pan.  Put the probe in the hotter butt and hoped for the best.

Within a half hour the hotter butt was 'done' at 190.  I took it out and tried the probe in a few spots - and there were some registering much colder, so back in the oven.

After another 15 mins, it registered done again, so out of the heat and checked a few spots with the probe and it matched/worked out.  Checked with a fork and it seemed to be very good pulled pork - so foiled, toweled and into cooler.

Second one went off about 1/2 hour later.  Checked it and same result - fork showed great consistency so foiled, toweled and into cooler.

Got to the party and pulled all the pork (still nice and hot) and well - it was some of the best pulled pork I've ever eaten.

Anyways - my biggest surprises:

1)  The bottom butt closest to the hear was so much cooler than the top butt.
2)  The amount of time this all took (my bad on budgeting time).
3)  The fact that cooking at 350 for an hour to an hour and a half to finish, didn't cause any issues with the finished product.

Keep smoking!  This is a GREAT addiction!

TheHead

[classicrockgriller]

I think what happen is the water pan shielded the heat with

the water evaporating caused the bottom butt get the benefit

of the full force of the element.

The heat went around the pan and converged on the top butt.

I have used a secondary water pan, but left a rack space in between

that and the meat.

Is nothing wrong with doing it, but like you found it it will make your cook

time longer.

Sure wish we could see some pictures. ;D

[Uncle Pigfat]

I had the same problem once when I put a bacon explosion in a foil pan on the bottom and ribs on top. I was hoping to catch some explosion juice for later use but my temp readings were all over the place. I 86ed the pan and things were fine after that. Except for the lack of delicious grease.