Tough Butt

[woodsman]

Yesterday, I did up 12 pork butts. It was pretty much a textbook smoke and they came out perfect

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except for one. It was tough and chewy and pretty much had to toss the whole thing. I have no idea what happened. The other 11 were perfect. Took to 200 degrees. The meat just fell apart, except for that one. Has anyone ever had this happen?

 

[pit 4 brains]

I rarely get 91% of anything right..  

Sounds strange though. Got me stumped.

 

[ddigitalpimp]

were you taking internal temps of each and pulling them off as they finished or did you just smoke them all at for the same length of time? 

 

[danielh]

yeah I'm betting it just didnt make it to 200...  They never all cook the same.  My last smoke I did 2 small identical chuck roasts, sat them side by side on my reverse flow (identical pit temps), and one took 3.5 hours longer than the other one..  One was foiled in the cooler resting (@ 205*), before the other ever got foiled in the pit at 160*..  I was cussing every thermometer I had thinking they were screwed up because it was impossible..  But 4 different maverick probes and 2 taylor instant reads all said the same thing so i waited it out and it turned out perfect..

 

[woodsman]

Thanks for the ideas.  I didn't check every single butt, but did probe 5 of them and they were all 198-205 degrees.  Guess i need to check every single one.  Lesson learned and thanks for the help again.