Pulled Pork Taking a While....

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wes

Newbie
Original poster
Mar 30, 2008
9
10
Need a little advise guys, this is my first smoked butt.

So picked up a 7.75lb pork butt last night and set it on my ECB around 2:20am this morning. It came up to 159 and plateaued, came back down to 152 and then up to 165 around an hour-and-a-half ago so I double wrapped it in foil and set it back down in the smoker after I fixed up some new coals. I've got my temp gauge stuck in the butt and I'm little confused. Temp went up to 171 and now it's back down to 162. So did it not really plateau before? When do you usually hit that point? At what temp?

Thanks in advance for the help!

Wes
 
As long as your pit temp. stays up at 225 or there abouts, what's happening to the meat now is pretty normal. Juices redistribute sometimes accounting for temp. fluctuation in meat. I did a butt last weekend, pit temp stayed at constant 225 - 235 and it took right at 16 hours to finish off. Plateaus are part of the cook... be patient.

If you are sure your thermometers are calibrated... you're cool.

Forgot to add... when it gets out of plateau... sometimes that temp will climb steadily up. Some people foil at 195 but I don't. Matter of preference. Take off the pit at about 205, wrap it up and toss in cooler for an hour minimum to rest before pulling.
 
It probably hit the plateau earlier and could just be toying with you now.
If the temps don't start to rise soon I would readjust the probe and see where that takes you.
 
Also - two factors I think of:

1 - taking the butt out of the smoker to foil it will lose you a tiny bit of heat on the meat.

2 - The juice you put in the foil there was probably chilled or at best, room temp. So that's say 70° juice that you set the meat on. The outside temp of the meat is what, 180° by now? That juice will TEPORARILY cool down the meat inside that foil. Like it's been said, just be patient - don't be afraid to readjust the probe - and eventually you will start cruising upwards again.
 
You're doing fine. It will get where it needs to be, eventually. Lots of factors can cause temp changes, depends on your individual circumstance as to which one it is. Did you move the probe? Sometimes, moving the meat will cause the temp to change.
 
Well the temp has started coming back up... it will come up to 183 and then dip down the 179 as soon as I walk past again, and then go back up to 183, lol.

I've got a high school football game to be at in 2.5 hours, this crazy pig is killin' me! haha!
 
You have always heard that the meat has a mind of it own yours just has a sence of humor.
 
Yep pork can hit more than one plateau on its way to driving you right bloody nuts!

I think it depends on how well or not well that you have treated hogs during your lifetime. The Great Piggy who lives in a hollowed out giant pumpkin called the Great Piggy Palace keeps meticulous notes on every Pig/Human encounter. When a pig passes on to that great mudpit in the sky and back here on earth, its body is hacked up for people food the Great piggy makes a note of it.

When you go to smoke a butt, shoulder or what have you part of the pig the length of the plateau depends on the Great Piggy's notes.

She knows when you are sleeping,
She know when you're awake,
She know if you been bad to pigs,
So be good for goodness sake.

Woe betides the man or Woman who once slighted a pig.

PS. The Great Piggy Palace is in no way a relation to the Great Pumpkin of Charlie Brown fame. The Great Pumpkin sadly is just a figment of Charles Shultz Imagination, whereas of course the Great Piggy Palace is real.
tongue.gif


This is the great thing about SMF there is always someone who knows the straight skinny on almost any subject.
biggrin.gif


( He said modestly )
 
Well I got impatient b/c we were going to the football game, haha... so I pulled the butt at 186 and stuffed it in the ice chest for an hour. I dont know if maybe my thermo was off or those extra 10-20 degrees just didn't matter, but that thing was delicious! I made the finishing sauce to go along with it... DAMN GOOD! The family ate it up!

And our football team won too!

points.gif
 
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