Renown Mr. Brown

[dave32063]

Been smokin' a few year but hadn't tried pulled pork yet. I tried the Renown Mr. Brown recipe last weekend on the recommendation of a friend and loved it. I followed the recipe to a "T". I thought it was too much black pepper but it mellowed, and with the bark mixed through the entire batch of pulled pork, it was just fine.

Here's my question. I was smoking right around 250 and was expecting the two butts to take between 9-12 hours. I checked the temp at 6 hours and they were already up to 180 and I was afraid if I left them much longer, they would turn to mush. I ended up leaving them 3 more hours and they were at 190. I wrapped them in foil for two hours and held them in a cooler, and they pulled perfectly, not overdone, not mushy at all.
Does pork butt peak early and plateu like this? I had two bone in Boston Butts, about 8lb each.
What's your experience?

[landarc]

Yes, a butt, and many other large cuts of meat as well, will plateau just like that. It is called 'the stall'.

[Jaskew82]

yes. Pork butts hit the "stall" around 175 and can take 3-4 hours (or more) to get out of it. This is the temp where the fats and connective tissues begin to break down. As they break down they moisten the meat and keep the internal temp down. once they are done, it will rise to the perfect temp of 195 with some ease.

[swibirun]

The Jamison's famous recipe is a great one, for sure!

The stall is very normal and predictable. However I did have one butt that never really stalled, it was weird (I usually track temps every hour).