What temperture am I cooking with

Babyboomerboy

Babyboomerboy

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Just fired up my UDS and want to cook a Boston Butt for supper. However, I noticed the temperture on my drum gauge, which is below the lower grate, is about 45 degrees less than the Mavrick gauge sitting on the grate. I put the probe in a block of wood so I am not measuring the grate temp and the probe is sitting just above the grate. I know that heat raises and its hotter near the top as oppose to the drum gauge, but is 45 degrees differents correct? If I keep the drum gauge at 225, am I cooking the butt at 225 or 270? Thanks to all that help and explain this to me. I love my UDS.
 
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I should have added that I have the butt is sitting on the top grate and the drum gauge is below the lower grate. Also the probe was sitting on a block of wood on the upper grate when I got the 45 degrees differents in temps. Thanks
 
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There's a temp difference of about 50* from the edge of the Drumpit to the Center.
When our gauges on the side read 225* it's around 275* @ the center.
The mounted dial gauge is limited in measuring the temp by the shortness of the probe protruding
inside the Drumpit.
 
N8man said:
There's a temp difference of about 50* from the edge of the Drumpit to the Center.
When our gauges on the side read 225* it's around 275* @ the center.
The mounted dial gauge is limited in measuring the temp by the shortness of the probe protruding
inside the Drumpit.
Click to expand...

Does that mean that I am NOT cooking this meat low and slow at 225 as my drum gauge is measuring? Should I drop the temp in the barrel to about 175 in order to cook at 225? Thanks
 
Cook by what your grate temp is telling. Ignore the thermometer on the side. At least until you understand your pit, it's grate temps and what happens when you add fuel or open vents etc. Scott
 
I too see the 50 difference. Im using a deep frying temp probe that is 12inches and reaches the center of the grate one inch below and when it reads 250 my temp on the side is about 200 on the edge of the drum 7 inches below the grate on the lower grate. The lid temp reads fairly close to the same as the cooking temp.

You can get a 12 inch deep frying probe at Wally world for 6 bucks I think, they seem to be accurate so far.
 
My Friend Norco always says 200* on the side dial. It works well.
And 275* is still low and slow smoking....You won't be able to tell a difference with that Pork Butt, except that it'll
be done sooner, I promise.
 
Here are the results of the Boston Butt cook today.
11:44 AM @ 225 degrees internal temp 44
12:44 PM @ 225 internal temp 100
1:48 PM @ 200 internal temp 143 ( This is after I got feed back from above posts about the differents in side gauge and actual top grate temp)
2:50 PM @ 200 internal temp 165
3:54 @ 200 internal temp 174
4:48 @ 200 internal temp 183
5:48 @ 200 internal temp 186
6:52 @200 internal temp 190

I took the butt off the UDS and wrapped in tin fold. That is where I am now. My question is, does the above time and temp sound right? Again the weight of the butt was 3.3 pounds. It seems to me like it took a long time to get to 190 degrees internal temperture and a very long almost 7 hours. Any thoughts about this cook? Thanks
 
I can't give you a good answer since it's your smoker... but I can tell you that most butts have a tendency to "hang" for a good while at a temp before going ahead and heating up. I think I read that this is a point where the fat is rendering. My first cook on my Pro Q 20 was an 8# butt that took 21 hours to get done. Not decisive but hope it helps.
 
I too was seeing a difference in my digital vs manual thermometers. I was believing the manual unit as it was a high end meat thermometer (or at least, that's what I thought). Just to verify, I put both in a pot of water on the stove and brought the water to a boil. Low and behold the digital was dead nuts on the money and the meat therm was reading high :shock:. Not sure how high as it was off the scale. Needless to say, the manual unit is history and headed to the great meat thermometer resting place...
 
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