225° vs 275°

[XDAWG_15]

When I first built my UDS, I did a few cooks at 225. But, I was constantly messing around with the intakes to keep that temp and food took forever to cook. After doing some research I did a cook at 275 and one at 250. For that particular cooker, 250 seems to be the perfect temperature. At 275 the texture was a tad dry. This couldve been due to the meat itself rather than the temp. I also had to keep tinkering with the intakes to maintain that temp. At 250 the cooker ran like a champ, I barely had to touch the thing the entire cook and the meat was noticeably better. The cook time is definitely less too. For an 8 pound butt it's 7-8 hours vs 10-12. My Old Country Offset likes to run somewhere between 250-275 as well. Long story short, every cooker is different and generally the entire experience is better when you can let the cooker run at whatever temperature it likes to run.

 

[lunchman]

When I first started out, I tried my best to keep temps at 225. Why? Because that was the low n slow consensus in the bbq world and I didn't know any better. Fortunately the Bubba Keg could hold temps that low for 10 or more hours.

The Goldens' on the other hand simply refuses to cook at temps that low, so 275 - 300 is about its minimum and I simply go with it. I don't have time to worry if I'm cooking at some arbitrary temperature. If food's done at 275 or 300 or higher, so be it.

So 275 camp for me. Or higher. :-D

 

[1MoreFord]

My ole stick burner didn't like running at 225° but it ran great a 250° so I ran it there. It ran great at 275°-325° too so I started running it at No Lower than 275°, all was good and the food cooked a lot faster.

 

[Smoke Dawg]

any adjustments for humidity over 53%?

ice cold beer!

 

[pmad]

What was all the original hype about smoking at 225*?

No hype - fat renders at 130-140°. Collagen breaks down at 160° and stops breaking down at 180°

So your window between 160° and 180° will be longer at 225° than at 275° and you'll break down more collagen.

 

[smoke ninja]

short answer? 275 bit honestly I'm good as long as the dial points up

more detailed? 275 is a base temp. I'll often start lower to ease into things maybe 225-250. helps set the ring and let the rub do its thing. at some point I want to get a little hot as high as 350 sometimes. hear that sizzle and get some color. as the cook goes on I'll lower the temp more and more. heck brisket spends a third of it's cook at under 200....I'm sorry what was the question again?

 

[Bob C Cue]

No hype - fat renders at 130-140°. Collagen breaks down at 160° and stops breaking down at 180°

So your window between 160° and 180° will be longer at 225° than at 275° and you'll break down more collagen.

Interesting! I just found this article that discusses this and other benefits of cooking at 225°, although it suggests that the collagen breakdown range is 150° to 170° but does say it is slightly different for every piece of meat.

Here is an excerpt:
1. If you are cooking brisket or a pork butt those big pieces of meat needs time for the collagen inside of the piece of meat to break down. This will give you a tender finished product once you cook the meat to the target finished internal temperature. Collagen breaks down in a brisket and in pork butt at an internal meat temperature range of 150 to about 170 degrees. Every brisket or pork butt is a bit different so there is no exact temperature that we can pinpoint to know when the collagen is beginning to break down and when it has finished breaking down. If you keep a nice low temperature while cooking through that internal meat range you will get the collagen actually changing from a tough connective tissue to a melt in your mouth gelatin substance and that is where the great taste and tenderness will come from. But remember for the brisket or pork butt to be really tender you are going to need to keep cooking until you reach an internal temperature of about 200 to 205 degrees.

2. We all know that water boils at 212 degrees. What does that have to do with cooking meat you might be asking? Well since meat is made up of mostly water it has a lot to do with cooking meat. If you constantly keep the temperature of a pit running at say 250 degrees then you have a tendency to be actually boiling out of the meat some of the water that is inside the meat and thus making it dry out. So to keep the most moisture inside the meat keep the temperature running at the 210-240 degree range and avoid this issue.

 

[rwalters]

Interesting! I just found this article that discusses this and other benefits of cooking at 225°, although it suggests that the collagen breakdown range is 150° to 170° but does say it is slightly different for every piece of meat.

Here is an excerpt:
1. If you are cooking brisket or a pork butt those big pieces of meat needs time for the collagen inside of the piece of meat to break down. This will give you a tender finished product once you cook the meat to the target finished internal temperature. Collagen breaks down in a brisket and in pork butt at an internal meat temperature range of 150 to about 170 degrees. Every brisket or pork butt is a bit different so there is no exact temperature that we can pinpoint to know when the collagen is beginning to break down and when it has finished breaking down. If you keep a nice low temperature while cooking through that internal meat range you will get the collagen actually changing from a tough connective tissue to a melt in your mouth gelatin substance and that is where the great taste and tenderness will come from. But remember for the brisket or pork butt to be really tender you are going to need to keep cooking until you reach an internal temperature of about 200 to 205 degrees.

2. We all know that water boils at 212 degrees. What does that have to do with cooking meat you might be asking? Well since meat is made up of mostly water it has a lot to do with cooking meat. If you constantly keep the temperature of a pit running at say 250 degrees then you have a tendency to be actually boiling out of the meat some of the water that is inside the meat and thus making it dry out. So to keep the most moisture inside the meat keep the temperature running at the 210-240 degree range and avoid this issue.

Very interesting stuff! Love the science of smoking meat!! What throws a wrench into this though is those that went from 225 to 275-300 and say they can’t tell any difference… in fact, some say they prefer the end result of 275. And to know Aaron Franklin smokes his briskets at 275 makes me wonder. As originally stated, I have long been a low n slow kinda guy. All of these replies and other things that I have been reading/listening to have me questioning 225°. [emoji848]

 

[Porcine Perfection]

short answer? 275 bit honestly I'm good as long as the dial points up

more detailed? 275 is a base temp. I'll often start lower to ease into things maybe 225-250. helps set the ring and let the rub do its thing. at some point I want to get a little hot as high as 350 sometimes. hear that sizzle and get some color. as the cook goes on I'll lower the temp more and more. heck brisket spends a third of it's cook at under 200....I'm sorry what was the question again?

I'm in this camp as well. My Battle Box works really well at 275. If the bark isn't looking how I want, I will turn up or down accordingly. I don't panic if things get a little hot, but I have never gone past 325.

Very interesting topic.

 

[mbt]

Basically, I try to stay at 225. But without stress ..
If I go over, I just close a bit one vent
All at all, I never noticed big difference between staying at 225 or 275. Or, better, I can't understand if difference is due to the temperatures or to different meat!
And, frankly speaking, I don't think that the first smokers had probes for the temperatures...
Magic became boring if too much science is applied

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[frognot]

275 to 325. Haven't smoked at 225 probably since when I first started smoking. Better results at 275 as I feel like temps too low draw out the moisture of the meats. Plus it's done faster.

Ditto. My Egg is old and getting temperamental and that is the range it wants to run at for smoking. To get it to run at 225 would take a lot of work on my part and I'm old and lazy.

 

[Biloxidman]

Ditto. My Egg is old and getting temperamental and that is the range it wants to run at for smoking. To get it to run at 225 would take a lot of work on my part and I'm old and lazy.

Me too on both my Big Joe and Classic. Anywhere between 275-300 is typical. Up or down 20-30 degrees doesn’t bother me.

 

[jbounds286]

275 ftw!

 

[SmoothBoarBBQ]

Interesting! I just found this article that discusses this and other benefits of cooking at 225°, although it suggests that the collagen breakdown range is 150° to 170° but does say it is slightly different for every piece of meat.

Here is an excerpt:

2. We all know that water boils at 212 degrees. What does that have to do with cooking meat you might be asking? Well since meat is made up of mostly water it has a lot to do with cooking meat. If you constantly keep the temperature of a pit running at say 250 degrees then you have a tendency to be actually boiling out of the meat some of the water that is inside the meat and thus making it dry out. So to keep the most moisture inside the meat keep the temperature running at the 210-240 degree range and avoid this issue.

This has to be some of the biggest bunch of nonsense I've ever heard. For the sake of this argument lets pretend that water vaporizes at exactly 212F (this changes due to pressure, as well as additives to the water such as salt). The water is inside the muscles of the meat, so you'll need to take the INTERNAL temperature of the meat up to and beyond 212F to vaporize (or boil as used in the article).

The notion that a cooking temp of 250F will boil the water out of the meat, but 240F won't is such a digression from science that it negates the entire article.

 

[Back9Q]

Interesting! I just found this article that discusses this and other benefits of cooking at 225°, although it suggests that the collagen breakdown range is 150° to 170° but does say it is slightly different for every piece of meat.

Here is an excerpt:
1. If you are cooking brisket or a pork butt those big pieces of meat needs time for the collagen inside of the piece of meat to break down. This will give you a tender finished product once you cook the meat to the target finished internal temperature. Collagen breaks down in a brisket and in pork butt at an internal meat temperature range of 150 to about 170 degrees. Every brisket or pork butt is a bit different so there is no exact temperature that we can pinpoint to know when the collagen is beginning to break down and when it has finished breaking down. If you keep a nice low temperature while cooking through that internal meat range you will get the collagen actually changing from a tough connective tissue to a melt in your mouth gelatin substance and that is where the great taste and tenderness will come from. But remember for the brisket or pork butt to be really tender you are going to need to keep cooking until you reach an internal temperature of about 200 to 205 degrees.

2. We all know that water boils at 212 degrees. What does that have to do with cooking meat you might be asking? Well since meat is made up of mostly water it has a lot to do with cooking meat. If you constantly keep the temperature of a pit running at say 250 degrees then you have a tendency to be actually boiling out of the meat some of the water that is inside the meat and thus making it dry out. So to keep the most moisture inside the meat keep the temperature running at the 210-240 degree range and avoid this issue.

Haha. Sorry had to laugh at this. Ill put in my $.02 from a competition side. Myron cooks 350F and has how many wins? Tuffy, johnny, and a lot of other top pit makers cook 275+. I was a 225-250 guy and did ok. When I went to 275-300 I had a call in 93% of contests I competed in for 14 mnths.

I dont believe judges score higher for dry meat


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[Beentown]

275+ for me. Now that changes if using the IVS and it is running while I am sleeping. I mainly cook to fit time windows now.

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[Happy Hapgood]

To the OP. Your premise is flawed as are many others here. Your 225-275*F reference according to the lid thermostat is not the actual grill temp. You do have a reference point though. It is +/- 20*F from actual grill temp. Alot of folks learn to live with this point of reference. Example (I'm cooking at 275*F when their actual grill temp is 295*F.) They just don't know it and call it good.


I'm a retired temp control guy. I know temps but I've followed this fine site for 10 years to find out how these Pros do it. To answer your original question, 275*F for me on brisket, pork butt and beef/pork ribs. Grilling for steaks, burgers and chicken higher temps.


After reading Aaron Franklin's Meat Smoking Manifesto, I donated my other BBQ books to the Church sale.


Bottom line for me is an accurate 275*F BBQ.

 

[gtsum]

For ribs, brisket, butts etc I’m around 275-300…wherever the fire likes to run. Chicken around 325-350


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[16Adams]

I was told decades ago real barbecue is 18 hours at 180* using green mesquite

Who the hell has 18 hours and green mesquite for a Sunday Smoke

Both were restaurants

 

[Swine Spectator]

I'm just going to post this here and point you to DaveAlvarado's quote in my signature.