Bad Start Butt Cook

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Cliff H.

Master Chef
Joined
Mar 18, 2006
Messages
6,143
Location
Jonesboro, Arkansas
I attempted to put two butts on the wsm last night around 9:00. I got everything fired up and went in to rub the butts down while the smoker came up to temp. 180 came real quick. I shut the vents down to 1/2. Before I could finish the prep work the smoker was already at 210 so I shut the vents down to 1/4. The jump from 210 to 260 was almost seamless. I shut all the vents off. The temps stabalized at 270.

At this point I decided to change the clay dish heat sink in the wsm pan to a pound of sand in a brinkman pan. I got that done and the temps stabalized below 250 very soon.

Then I ran into all kinds of issues trying to get my probe wires threaded thru the grate while the RO lump and hickory were burning like a forest fire down below. I had to alternate leaving the lid on for 30 sec to lower the temps and then removing it to work for 30 sec until the flames reached the grate.

I even dumped the butt loaded grate into the water pan because I didn't have it positioned good on one of the brackets.

Things are looking up this am. Butts are at 170. The smokeer has been holding between 230 and 260 all night.
 
Way to rebound Cliff..you gotta watch when using lump the temps tend to spike quick...but go back to normal if the lid wasn't off for to long
 
In my quest for the perfect mod to control temps I tried the clay saucer last week on a brisket. I started with sand in a wsm pan, then made a base from four golfball size foil balls. I then placed a 14" clay saucer on top of those. That was kind of a modified piedmont pan and it worked ok. I was trying the clay saucer by itself on this cook and I don't think it works so good.

Once I replaced it with sand, everything went back to normal.
 
Cliff,

Butts are very tolerant of temp spikes and cooks at a little higher than normal temps for a while. I always have my meat prepped and and everything set up when I fire up the WSM. Once I put some lit coals in the WSM (Minion Method) I assemble the cooker, put the meat on and start monitoring the temp rise.

Also with butts I'm not that concerned with internal meat temps until much later in the cook. I place a therm probe in one top vent and shoot to hold that at or around 250. Yours will be fine, you really have to try hard to screw up a couple of butts in a WSM.
 
Bruce B said:
Cliff,

Butts are very tolerant of temp spikes and cooks at a little higher than normal temps for a while. I always have my meat prepped and and everything set up when I fire up the WSM. Once I put some lit coals in the WSM (Minion Method) I assemble the cooker, put the meat on and start monitoring the temp rise.

Also with butts I'm not that concerned with internal meat temps until much later in the cook. I place a therm probe in one top vent and shoot to hold that at or around 250. Yours will be fine, you really have to try hard to screw up a couple of butts in a WSM.

I was in the running last night. :LOL:
 
The temps went down rather early on this cook. I needed to throw some unlit lump and stir the coals a little. I decided to add Rancher instead of RO so I could keep the heavy smoke to a minimum. This seemed to have worked out well.
 
Good rebound Cliff!

FWIW, when I cook on the WSM's I always load the meat onto a cold assembled cooker, then dump the lit coals into a steel bowl and scoop them onto the center of the unlit coals/wood chunks with a metal spoon. Put the door on with all vents 100% open until the dome temp hits 190* then I shut the bottom three vents down to a little less than a 1/4 open. The temps will initially drop but then slowly but steadily climb to 250-260 dome temp and stay there. Try this sometime, because everytime you're opening or disassembling the cooker you're adding oxygen thus feeding the fire and giving you constant heat spikes.
 
Cliff H. said:
Since I didn't get a pic in last night, I will break with better judgment and take one now.

Butts are at 175

Your a good man sir. Good looking bark you have there.
 
Great catch Cliff ;)
Let's see some pics of those sammies you posted the other day 8)
 
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