my first butt pork

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dalglish

Fire Starter
Original poster
Jun 6, 2008
70
11
Portland, OR
I've followed meowey's step by step guide for this and have made up soflaquer's finshing sauce recipe.

Right now I'm 7 hours in on a 4.5lb butt pork, I've read about the plateau but my concern is that mine did so at 126F, it actually peaked at 127F then dropped back down to 126F. It stayed there for around an hour and is now slowly creeping up, currently at 130F.

Everything I've read says plateau occurs at around 160-170F, is this just down to the physical make up of my cut? I.E does mine contain more connective tissue so the collogen to gelatin conversion is happening earlier?

My set up :-

Perfect Flame smoker set at 225F, hickory chunks, spraying hourly with a 3:1 mix of apple juice and capt morgan's (with a bit of my fav whisky The Glenlivet)

I'm also wondering about my wireless thermometer - Oregon Scientific AW131, I think it may be transmitting at 2.4GHz as it disconnected from the sensor at the exact same time I lost my connection on my laptop (wireless G run's at 2.4GHz) so there could be some interferrence there.

I may stick in a secondary thermometer just to put my mind at rest on this one. I don't like opening the smoker so I'll wait until I'm due to spray again. Sure do go through a lot of beer with this smoking lark!

Pics will follow of course :)
 
Meat will stall when it stalls most of the time my does it in the 140's. Check the thermometer then just ride it out it'll move in time
 
You'll be ok. You are doing everything correctly. I would stick that backup thermo in to make sure you don't have any trouble. Are you going to foil at 160?

I've got a 7.9lbs butt in myself. I'm at 158. Almost ready to foil. I started 11:00am and it is now about 10:30pm. I thought I'd be at 200 at 11:00. Looks like I'll be having to go on a beer run.
 
yeah going to take it out and foil it at 160F, I haven't decided if I'll finish in the oven or in the smoker...summer hasn't quite arrived in Oregon yet!

My other thermometer reads within a few degrees so no problems there. Beer run on the cards here too :)
 
Don't let the stall spook you... just give it time.
 
Chalk it to a normal night by the smoker!
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Meat does what it wants when it wants!
Theres nothing wrong with cooking at 250.....helps out those long stalls!
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Updated with pics, it total it took 14hrs which was a bit of an ordeal. I need to plan things better and not worry about it so much while it's smoking. It was so good I have to do another one! This time I'd like to start it late at night, that way I won't be waiting to be woken up by the therm alarm at 3am!


 
looks very good. Here is a couple ways to shorten smoke times.
Take meat out of fridge 1-2 hrs before putting in the smoker, it can warm 15-25 degrees in that time, leave it out of the sun(if there is any at that time of day), and beware of larger pets!
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Leave the door closed as much as possible, and when you do need to open it, have a plan of what you are gonna do, and have the stuff right there with you. If you are taking pics, have the camera ready before the door/lid is opened.

Meats like Butts, chuck roasts, and briskets can be cooked a little bit warmer like 235-255 if need be without too much trouble, might save ya an hr, might not.

Hope this info helps, perhaps you already knew this! After you get more experience in "scheduling your smoke" it will become alot easier and alot less stressfull. Just remember, there are some things you can NOT rush. You can be more efficient with your fuel, timing, prepwork, and clean-up, but the actual smoking/cooking is gonna take as long as the meat wants to!

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Looks good nice job
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Doing my second today, started it earlier this time and took the advice given. I got it out of the fridge a couple of hours before smoking and the temp is ramping up way faster, after 2 1/2hrs smoking it's already at 107F.

@Lee Forst, I'm in West Linn which part of the Portland Metro area. Powell Butte isn't familar but I'd guess it's not far from Mt.Bachelor, lots of Buttes around there and great for skiing :)

Oh and I'm doing spare ribs next, I've looked through the site at the various recipes techniques etc but if anyone has a must try set I'd love to read it. 3-2-1 method is what I think I'll be doing...
 
Looks great there dalglish.

Sounds like you done everything right.

I've done two butts now, one 4.5 lbers took 10 hours and an 8lber that took 12. Both plateaued at around 140 - 150 range.

You never know how a piece of meat is going to cook. Just plan accordingly and add a couple of hours just in case.

Question for ya .... did you get your screen name from the legendary Kenny Dalglish ??

Good luck on the second one.
 
There's a Powell Butte over on the dry side of the mountains by Redmond, but there's also an area of Portland called Powell Butte, it's just east of I-205, south of Powell Blvd (US26).


BTW, good lookin' Qview...
PDT_Armataz_01_37.gif
 
@Teeotee I did, there are no heroes left in the game these days but he was/is certainly one of mine. A gentleman off the pitch and a model pro on it; more rare than how a Texan likes his steak :)
 
Ha I should have known about the one just east of 205, I probably drive passed it often in winter on the way to Mt.Hood.

I need to get over to Cornelius pretty soon, there's an MG Spe******t (British sports cars) over there. Don't suppose you know anything about it?

Edit: my mistake, it's in North Plains doh!
 
How confident are you that your 225 reading is correct? Man that is a long time......hats off to you for hanging in there.
 
I wasn't at first, yesterday I fired it up and held it at 225F and measured with my digital therm and an extra analogue one just to be sure and they (including the built in one) came out within a few degrees of each other.

Right now I'm putting it down to very cold meat and maybe starting off the smoke lower than 225 as I had to adjust a couple of times early on. I was probably guilty of being a bit too eager to get going. This time I've made sure the temp is fully stabilised and allowed the meat to stand at room temp for a couple of hours.
 
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