Help please. Dry pork butt on my UDS.

[Petee_c]

I just tried to do a 6.7lb boneless pork butt on the UDS on Saturday. I injected and rubbed on Friday night and put it on the fridge.

I slept through my 5am alarm and woke up at 6am. Got the chimney going and did a light re-rub of the pork butt while waiting for the UDS to come up to temperature. I used about 1/2 a chimney of briquettes ashed over to start the fire. The charcoal basket is the standard size (propane tank diameter).

My plan was to aim for about 275F for the majority of the smoke.

I am a newbie and used Royal Oak Briquettes (Orange bag in Canada) instead of the KBB briquettes that I had used my previous 3 times while cooking with the UDS. I used 4-5 fist size chunks of hickory mixed into the basket.

In the morning, I was able to maintain temps between 250 and 300F with 1.5 intake vents open. Exhaust is the stock exhaust on a weber kettle lid. Those were wide open and stayed that way throughout the cook.

The temperature of the butt climbed fairly quickly to the 150F range, and slowed down a touch from 150F to 170F. Then I hit a stall. My only previous butt was the week before and the stall looked to start at 160F.

My fire wasn't doing so well. I kicked the UDS lightly with my boot for a few taps on each size to try to get some ash to fall out of the basket, but I think with the Royal Oak Briqs I was using, the ash was choking out the basket?

Around 2pm, the temps look to have fallen to the 200F range, and my butt's internal temperature was 180F and fell to 177F. I was away from home from 1-2pm, but was trying to keep an eye on the temps with a webcam pointed at the gauge on the UDS. (6" long deep fryer thermometer installed 1" below the main grate.)

I got home and opened up the intakes from 1.5 open to all 3 being wide open. The temp on the UDS climbed to about 250F after about 30 minutes.

Ambient temps throughout the cook started around 25F and climbed to probably 30F during the day. No wind to speak off. The smoke coming off the exhaust pretty much rose straight up.

I was away from home again from 4:15-5:30pm to go see my daughter play at the rink, and when I left, the butt was at 184F and climbing slowly, I believe all 3 intakess on the UDS were Wide Open, and the grate temp was close to 275F. I rushed home at 5:30pm to find the internal temperature reading 197F. I decided to take the butt off and wrap it in tinfoil and rest it in towels in a cooler. The temp spike to 202F, and then slowly dropped to about 194F over 40 minutes.

I "pliced" the meat (started out at thinly sliced, but the meat looked pulled as it fell apart) The meat was kinda dry on the bun, drizzled with a bit of warmed up store bought bbq sauce and raw onion slivers. Edible, but decidedly a dry overdone texture to my mouth.

I am going to see if my wife can use the leftovers hidden in a crockpot chilli or maybe heat them up with a bit of apple juice to use in fajitas.

My 1st butt the weekend before was much moister, and I only took it up to 190F and it sliced better and was juicer. I'm trying to analyze my mistakes to try it out again.

1. Diffuser for higher temp cooks? The bottom bark of my butt was definitely very hard. Maybe there was too much heat on the bottom of the butt. The previous butt at 225F(ish) had better overall texture and moisture.

2. Back to KBB briqs for the UDS on longer (> 5 hr) cooks. The RO Briqs (orange bag here in Canda) were smaller in size than the Kingsford brand I had used previously. Maybe not enough air was getting through the basket. I read about people knocking the ash off. How do you do this during a cook. Do you try to jar it off the briq's by kicking the outside of the UDS?


3. I may have to try Foiling the butt at 160F to try to go for the texture I'm looking for. Maybe my probe needs to be tested and reading low? I am going to try next butt up to a temp of 190F and try to rest it at least 1 hr before serving.

4. Maybe my butt was too lean? No signs of fat to speak of when I was getting it ready to serve.

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Any other ideas on how to use up less than perfect butt sliced/pulled meat?

 

[SmokinFatties]

You have listed four different variables you might change. I would just change one variable per cook. I've had issues and changed too many things at once. Then with the changes the issue was fixed. Then I wasn't sure which variable was the fix.

 

[eddieh70301]

I think part of your problem may be the thermometer on your UDS. I've never used a deep fry thermometer for smoker temp but use them to check the grease temp and I find they are not accurate. I would get a temp gauge for a smoker and not use the one you have.
I've cooked plenty of butts and never had one "dry". My guess is it was over-cooked.

What are you using to check the temp of the butt?
If you foil, it will ruin the bark. I never foil a butt during a cook-only when resting. I also pull my butts when the internal temp hits 195 or so or when the blade bone wiggles freely and comes out with no resistance.

 

[thesemicullen]

Stop cooking to temperature and cook to feel. As soon as you hit probe tender, pull the butt.

 

[landarc]

What product are you looking to end up with, sliced pork or pulled pork? If you are going for pulled pork, my bet, based on an overall cook temperature around 275°F and what I am guessing was a cook time of 8am to 6pm, you were right around 10 hours. Given outside temps, you pulled it too soon. A butt cooked that is over-cooked and dry will not hold a slice at all, in fact, it tends to fall apart the minute you try to move it. The fact that you could slice it, then it fell apart, suggest that it was almost done to pulling. Of course, these things are hard to tell just by words.

 

[Petee_c]

I think part of your problem may be the thermometer on your UDS. I've never used a deep fry thermometer for smoker temp but use them to check the grease temp and I find they are not accurate. I would get a temp gauge for a smoker and not use the one you have.
I've cooked plenty of butts and never had one "dry". My guess is it was over-cooked.

What are you using to check the temp of the butt?
If you foil, it will ruin the bark. I never foil a butt during a cook-only when resting. I also pull my butts when the internal temp hits 195 or so or when the blade bone wiggles freely and comes out with no resistance.

The deep fry/candy thermometer is only a week old. I tested it before I used it for the 1st time with a pot of rolling boiling water. Needle settled in right at the 210F mark, or a touch under 100C. This was about 2" of the business end of the thermometer in the water.

I figured by that it was accurate enough for grill measuring.

For the meat temp, I have a wireless thermometer it's about 5 yrs old. I use it mainly for our oven turkey roasting at Xmas. it's got a good temperature range... I think it's safe til 500F or so. I haven't calibrated it to boiling water recently.

 

[Petee_c]

What product are you looking to end up with, sliced pork or pulled pork? If you are going for pulled pork, my bet, based on an overall cook temperature around 275°F and what I am guessing was a cook time of 8am to 6pm, you were right around 10 hours. Given outside temps, you pulled it too soon. A butt cooked that is over-cooked and dry will not hold a slice at all, in fact, it tends to fall apart the minute you try to move it. The fact that you could slice it, then it fell apart, suggest that it was almost done to pulling. Of course, these things are hard to tell just by words.

I'm going for sliced I guess. Pulled pork is still fairly foreign to my palette.

I'd love to get it to 1/8" to 1/4" slices depending on my carving skills, but served warm, not always a easy task.

Peter

 

[mikerooooose]

Where did you get the meat from? Starting with quality meat is easily the most important step to any cook.

 

[eddieh70301]

Still think you need to get a thermometer specifically for a smoker. Or invest in a Maverick that will monitor pit and food temp.

 

[ITBFQ]

I only use Royal Oak briquettes for long smokes, and I never have a problem with ash choking out the fire. My fire basket is similar in size to yours, I bent the expanded metal around a propane tank to make it round. Sure, sometimes a little shaking helps things out every few hours, but I don't think that is the problem. I just lift the UDS a couple of inches and let it fall back down to knock the ashes off.

 

[bwsawman]

I don't think the thermometer is any problem...that is all have used in mine for three years now. If you test it with boiling water and it is reading right you should be good.

The Maverick to monitor the pit & meat temps would be nice though.

 

[1buckie]

"Around 2pm, the temps look to have fallen to the 200F range, and my butt's internal temperature was 180F and fell to 177F. I was away from home from 1-2pm, but was trying to keep an eye on the temps with a webcam pointed at the gauge on the UDS. (6" long deep fryer thermometer installed 1" below the main grate.)"


Most likely it would have sliced pretty well at this point......either way, a good rest period (in my own experience) really helps, but esp. for pulled.....

In that case, the rest time lets the juice settle & even out all thru the piece
& you get this:

 

[Smokinitup]

I've personally never cooked a boneless butt,could that be part of the problem? Maybe try a bone in butt next time around. Also for slicing you should try pulling when the IT is in the 175f range and see if you like the results.

 

[Sweat'in Pig]

Stop cooking to temperature and cook to feel. As soon as you hit probe tender, pull the butt.

True!! I go by bone wiggle more than anything (up to temperature first) then bone wiggle test

 

[okiej]

I have cooked several boneless butts. I truss them so they cook more evenly and wrap at 165 IT. I pull when they are probe tender for pulling. I would pull at 185 for slicing. The juice in the foil kinda helps tell where your at as far as the fat rendering if you iffy. Sounds like your temps were all over the map so it's hard to say what went wrong.

 

[ITBFQ]

I've personally never cooked a boneless butt,could that be part of the problem? Maybe try a bone in butt next time around. Also for slicing you should try pulling when the IT is in the 175f range and see if you like the results.

When I compete, I use boneless butts from GFS because I am cheap. Never had a problem with them being dry at all. I wrap at 165 or so (when the color is good, it just happens to be around that time and temp) and rest for at least a couple of hours. I think the rest time will help your pork.

 

[AlwaysSmokey]

I think that your uds should be running much smoother than that. You should be locking in a temp. not temp range, and holding it for a longggggg time. Even up north in the cold, you guys should still be getting 8 hours or more at 250 on a full basket. Wind, rain, extreme heat, snow, etc.. mine "locks in".

The temp gauge may or may not be the culprate. I would change it out with a bbq thermometer... but that's just me. It certainly sounds like you were chasing temps. which is def. no fun. If you have run the uds at a constant temp. with success already, your air flow (intakes and exahust) should be fine; and it sounds like they are.

The different charcoal could also be at fault. I would go back to KB since you have used it already, >> and maintained constant temps. with it. < ??

You certainly have no shortage of possible problems. But having a butt with a bottom as solid as a brick tells me it took way too much heat. Diffusers, as you were getting to, are a solution. However, I don't use one and have never needed to. I am really leaning towards a uds that was running hotter than you think it was. I wish I could put my hands on her and watch her run. Then we might figure some things out. Even throwing a small oven thermometer on the grate and comparing temps would help. Make sure your fire basket has enough room off the base of the drum to allow air under it. Remeber that changes to your uds air intakes, opening or closing, take about thirty min. to fully show themselves on your temp. Switch back to the Kb and do another run. try to "lock in" a temp... 225,250,300 whatever,.. and hold it. A steady temp. means everything. Get your results and make other choices like heat deflector or water pan etc.. Throw a fatty on there if you can't stand to watch your smoker run dry. Good luck and keep us posted.