Question about Pork Butt and temps - 1st smoke

[esblair]

Hi all,
I just assembled my BPS and have done a few test runs to practice maintaining the temps and plan on smoking a 10lb Boston Butt this weekend. My initial plan is to put it on approximately midnight and take it off around 3 the next day.

Any suggestions? I really don't want to get up early to fire it up and put meat on, etc. if I have it steady at 275 in the middle of the grate for approximate an hour, what will that so to the temp in the grill - ie, what kind of adjustments will I have to make to airflow once I put 10lbs of meat on? I've got an ET732 and plan to set it to alert me if the temps get too hig/low.

Anyway , thanks for all the wisdom you've shared on this site. I'm very impressed w/ every aspect of the BPS and can't wait to try some meat from it.

Thanks,
Scott

 

[Kevinish]

I think you've got the right idea. I'm assuming you're preparing for dinner? If so, you can pull it off, wrap up in tin foil (if it's not already), then wrap in towels and put in a cooler. It will stay hot for hours (I've left them in there for 4 or 5 hours before, no problem). In fact it's recommended to do this for at least an hour or two as it lets the meat relax and tends to pull easier in my experience.

Generally speaking it's about 25 degrees hotter in the center of the grill than what your BPS thermometer is reading on the outside. You're right on with setting up your ET732 to warn you for high and low temps, hopefully you won't hear that dreaded beep beep beep in the night.

When you put the cold meat on, it will probably drop your temps a little, but they will self adjust and come back up over some time. You want to avoid making too many "over-corrections". When you light your coal drop it in the basket in one little corner so the lit coals will percolate throughout over time. I've gotten at least 15 hours on one basket with this method. Generally to keep a nice low temp for pork butts, I usually have one hole open, sometimes only a half hole.

Also, every piece of meat is different. Some will cook faster than others. Most people like to go up to about 170 degrees IT and then wrap that baby up in foil to finish. Then pull around 200 IT.

Good Luck!

 

[wneill20]

To start with if you haven't installed a heat deflector the center of the grate will be 20 to 30 degrees hot then what the gage is reading. I would use a full basket of coals and fifteen light coals to get it going with one bottom vent hole open each side. Give it and hour to come up to temp and put the butt on at 275 it should take anywhere from 6 to 8 hours. If you are going to cook at 225 then 11 to 12 hours. I hope this helped good luck
Wes

 

[esblair]

Thanks fellas. I really appreciate it. Will update when I try it out.