84Tigers
Found some matches.
Greetings all. New to the forum as a poster, but I have been a reader / lurker for years Been smoking since 2011, so while I am new to the forum, I am (somewhat) experienced in smoked pork butt and brisket.
I would like to tap the collective intelligence of the forum for a problem I had a couple weeks ago. My old electric Masterbuilt had just died, so I bought a Pit-Boss vertical pellet smoker. On this new unit I placed two bone-in pork butts (injected with apple juice) on the top shelf. Each was about 9-to-10 pounds. Started smoking them at 11 PM Friday, set at 225 degrees. When I woke up at 6 am I inserted a temp probe into each. One was 155 (where it should be at that point in the smoke) and the other was 133. Of course, I inserted another temp probe into the under-cooked one and it also read 133. Crap! For food safety reasons (way too long in the danger zone) I **reluctantly** decided to pitch the under-cooked one. The only difference between the two was I placed a pan of apple juice mixed with some rub about 12 inches beneath the one that was under-cooked. It would be my guess that the pan somehow acted as a heat shield for the under-cooked butt. However, I have done this before in my old Masterbuilt without any problems (I use the pan to catch more of the drippings, which I would later add in the serving dish to help keep the meat moist).
Does my assessment make sense about the heat shield causing the issue? All feedback is appreciated. Thank you!
Todd
I would like to tap the collective intelligence of the forum for a problem I had a couple weeks ago. My old electric Masterbuilt had just died, so I bought a Pit-Boss vertical pellet smoker. On this new unit I placed two bone-in pork butts (injected with apple juice) on the top shelf. Each was about 9-to-10 pounds. Started smoking them at 11 PM Friday, set at 225 degrees. When I woke up at 6 am I inserted a temp probe into each. One was 155 (where it should be at that point in the smoke) and the other was 133. Of course, I inserted another temp probe into the under-cooked one and it also read 133. Crap! For food safety reasons (way too long in the danger zone) I **reluctantly** decided to pitch the under-cooked one. The only difference between the two was I placed a pan of apple juice mixed with some rub about 12 inches beneath the one that was under-cooked. It would be my guess that the pan somehow acted as a heat shield for the under-cooked butt. However, I have done this before in my old Masterbuilt without any problems (I use the pan to catch more of the drippings, which I would later add in the serving dish to help keep the meat moist).
Does my assessment make sense about the heat shield causing the issue? All feedback is appreciated. Thank you!
Todd