Challenging cook day

So.... interesting cook today. I'm a noob and am attempting my second Boston butt ever. First butt had to be pulled before the desired temp because I ran out of time. Had guests over and needed to eat. Today, no guests. Got up and got busy early (for a Sunday). Had the 7# butt on the cooker as of 8:15AM. Decided to try some Bovine Bold rub, broke out the injector for the first time and shot in a mix of Bovine Bold and apple juice.



Out of the wrapper, rubbed with care...


Had some temperature control issues initially... on a gas cooker! Temps were initially stable (appearing) at ~ 230. Then, they climbed to over 300 in ~ 45 minutes! Nope, I hadn't made any adjustments to the burner... I think I just decided things were stable too soon. After checking the cooker regularly for ~90 minutes with the temps staying stable, thought I had things under control at ~ 225. Next time I check ~75 minutes later, temps are at 165. What the fark!?!?!

Rookie mistake: ran out of propane.:doh:

Got the backup tank going and temps soon went back to ~ 230 for much of the rest of the day.

The butt went into a serious stall... butt temps hung out at 159 for ~ 3.5 hours. They finally got to 175 after ~14 hours. Unfortunately, I had to shut things down for the night. Arrggh!!!!

Here's the just-out-of-the-cooker pic.



I didn't try tooooo hard, but the bone seems pretty adherent...didn't budge. Seems consistent with the butt having an internal temp of lower than 200. I do NOT have this pulled pork thing down... yet.

Fortunately, the fattys did fine:


So did the mac n cheese:


So... two butt's, two extended cooks... still haven't gotten to the final desired temps where the meat falls apart. I think next week, will have to start this whole process at 9PM the night before in order to get the thing cooked all the way. Of course, with a new can of propane. :becky:

Bruce

Thanks for the feedback. No worries! I'm persistent. Just need to start early (like, the night before..), AND I need to remember to check the propane tank BEFORE starting to cook :doh:. If it's done sooner, can just wrap and cooler if needed.

I would have loved to take the time to finish it today, but I gotta clean up and get to sleep. So, I just finished cutting it up and packaging it for the fridge. The process provided the opportunity to sample the porky goodness. The verdict: Not bad! I can SEE where the flavors and textures are heading and I'm really liking where they're going. Will see if I can get there next weekend. :becky:

But, for this week, I've got a fridge full of butt, a large (BJs sized) fatty (plus the other fatty in the freezer), and a decent amount of Mac and cheese. Not only that, I got to go sledding with my son while the butt was cooking! And, I learned some things along the way. It was a pretty good day.

Bruce

Thanks all for the advice and encouragement!

This weekend, will start the process at ~ 10PM on Sat, hopefully get the temps stabilized before going to bed, re-check in the morning. Will plan to load up the smoke box, make sure that I've got enough propane, and give it a whirl. What could go wrong?

Bruce

BTW: Chopped up some of the pork, mixed it in with some of the Mac N Cheese, added some BBQ sauce + sriracha for dinner tonight. YUM!!!

Bruce