I tried my first Pork Butt Sunday. I used Alton Brown's pulled pork recipe from the old Good Eats show. Brined a 6 lb bone in pork shoulder for 12 hours. I used the little Coleman cooler in the pictures to do so, that worked well. This was a "test" since I have promised a friend I'll bring pulled pork to his Memorial Day party. I wanted to try an edible experiment since this was my first long smoke in the 3D. Put some Bells Two Hearted Ale in the "water" pan inside the smoker, used the stored pork butt program. Put the pork on at 9AM, everything started out fine, probe temp was 43. Went to Church got back home about 11:30 and the internal temp was about 140F. Probe temp about 100F. After a short time internal temp fell to 132. I had to leave to go to a funeral service so I decided to end the program, program the PID for 225 and run until 5:30 (5.5 hours more).
Got home at 5:30, internal temp showed 172F probe temp about 130F. At 9PM with the internal temp showed to 220 and the probe temp at 160, I decided to shut it down for the night, put the shoulder in the frig (after it had cooled down some). I reheated the pork the following day in the oven to 192 and we had good pulled pork.
Good news - pork was delicious. I have been brining for a long time and swear by it.
Bad news - the temp swing was excessive - fell way too low and the time (13 hours) seems long for a cut that size, just over 6 pounds. I made sure the internal temp probe did not touch the pork, easily cleared it. The probe was very accurate as I tested the temp with my Thermapen instant read and there was 0.1 degrees difference. I cancelled the program because I did not want to potentially stay up all night watching it, I figured the manual setting, given the situation was the best route.
Questions - any idea what might have happened? What I might have done wrong, etc. Should I have let the pork warm up a bit? It started at 43 and that means the 3D had to add 147 degrees to hit 190.
No pride here just want to learn.
Thanks
Got home at 5:30, internal temp showed 172F probe temp about 130F. At 9PM with the internal temp showed to 220 and the probe temp at 160, I decided to shut it down for the night, put the shoulder in the frig (after it had cooled down some). I reheated the pork the following day in the oven to 192 and we had good pulled pork.
Good news - pork was delicious. I have been brining for a long time and swear by it.
Bad news - the temp swing was excessive - fell way too low and the time (13 hours) seems long for a cut that size, just over 6 pounds. I made sure the internal temp probe did not touch the pork, easily cleared it. The probe was very accurate as I tested the temp with my Thermapen instant read and there was 0.1 degrees difference. I cancelled the program because I did not want to potentially stay up all night watching it, I figured the manual setting, given the situation was the best route.
Questions - any idea what might have happened? What I might have done wrong, etc. Should I have let the pork warm up a bit? It started at 43 and that means the 3D had to add 147 degrees to hit 190.
No pride here just want to learn.
Thanks