The advice to cook until probe tender rant

[greenmountainsmoke]

I will add that the probe tender idea, learned from this site, made a HUGE difference in my cooks. To me, it comes down to using the thermo, then the probe tender. Till I came here and got the probe tender idea, I was strictly using thermos and my cooks were ok. I was stumped that, according to what I read, my shoulders should be perfect when I reached 204. So why weren't they always perfect? By adding the probe tender method, I was able to take things one step further and better understand where the meat was.

In reality, this is not a 'either or' type or discussion. Like life, it involves the gray area where things combine.

.02

 

[Dweverett]

I think a lot of the problem with us giving advice to cook to a temp is that we don't do a very good job communicating the other variables that are tied to that finish temperature. A pork butt cooked at 225, unwrapped is going to pretty consistently finish under 200. Same but cooked at 275 and wrapped halfway through won't.

A lot of the old rules of thumb were defined when 225 was the "right" temp. Around here, most are cooking higher than that. I see that all the time with 3-2-1. It works well -- if you know what ribs it's designed for and cook at the right temp. If you cook baby backs at 275, which would be a widely recommended temp here, you'll probably end up with mush.

One problem that there isn't an easy way for us to deal with in our recommendations (other than by telling people to probe) is that the cooker itself, and the volume of food in that cooker, can matter. Malcolm Reed knows that on his cooker, at whatever temp he cooks at it's ready when it hits 200.

Folks need to figure out what works in their cooker based on what and how they cook. Once they do, they probably can pretty reliably repeat it by monitoring temp

 

[Dr. Trout Bum]

Brisket, butts? or all of the above?

We agree
My telephone teaching went way down when most of my callers got pellet cookers(and temp probe display) Some are gradually coming back to charcoal but in my experience the pellet people have a short learning curve and seem to nail the cook quickly.

I watch a lot of cooking shows. Lots of celebrity cooks use temp.
275* Cooker
165* wrap
203-205* vent 15 minutes and into cooler couple hours

I’ve told many friends this. It works fine.
Fine tune later