MadMedik Posted September 17, 2011 Report Share Posted September 17, 2011 Well, my brother had asked me to cook pulled pork for his Mens Group Retreats Saturday Night Dinner (approximately 45 men). How could I say no? I had cooked 8 and 7 butts/shoulders before so this should be a piece of cake. Previously I had not taken pictures...this time i did. Here are the 8 pieces of pork prior to getting doused with Chris Lillys World Championship pork rub, and of course the apple juice injection: I seasoned on Thursday night, cooked them on Friday night. My last big cook i had forgotten to take the meat out of the refrigerator early so they went on cold, right out of refrigerator. This time I took out 2 hours before cooking. First cook, the total cook time was right at 13 hours. I planned for this cook to be the same, however it only went 9 1/2 hours and i easily could have removed at 9 hours...and these pieces were actually bigger pieces of meat then the first cook. The difference in cook time....NOT SURE, however I highly suspect that the meat being nearly room temperature (not right out of refrigerator) was the difference. Since the meat was warmer to start, it did not take as long to cook?? I did not think of this prior to the cook. Would you guys agree? Oh, cook temp was 250 this time....previous cook started at 230, then i began increasing temps because it seemed to be going slow...and ended up at 260 for last hour or two. I used Indirect Stone also Here is the meat on the grill racks: 8 butts here The meat just fit. I dont really think I would want to try 9 or more...8 seems to be perfect...4 at middle rack, 4 at upper rack. I had several things occur that were interesting and I would like some feedback if you have a mind to... First, I used the Stoker System to control the heat. I had the fire going for about 1 hour before adding the meat. It was very stable, solid at 250 degrees. I put the meat on, which took several minutes, with the lid open and of course more air, more heat. However, once I closed the lid, the temp bottomed out just below 200...and slowly, slowly got back up to 250....it took about 1 hour for the temp to reach 250. The Stoker blower was on nearly constant for this 1 hour. Based on my limited experience, the KK generally recovers to its desired temp after opening/closing fairly quickly. I would have thought within 10 minutes or so this would have occurred here. But, with So Much meat on 2 racks, I just figure it took a lot long. Not as much room inside, air flow not as efficient, and it just took longer.... Does that make sense to you all? Oh, the Pit (heat) Sensor was on main grill, not touching any meat and had an inch or so clearance on either side... Another oddity with this cook is the Stoker Graph and the temperature that was maintained, or NOT maintained during the night. Previous cooks, while using the Stoker, my Temps varied by about +/- 2 or 3 degrees from the desired Temp all night. The graphing of the Temps was nearly a straight line and vary consistent. For this cook, I thought my KK was going in to V-Fib....Very Coarse waves graphing the Temps. The temps varied +/- 10 degrees throughout the night. Not really desirable or good. In fact, my low limit alarm setting was at 240 degrees...meaning if the Temp goes below 240, set off alarm on computer and wake my sleeping butt up...well it did. I reset lower limit to 235, figured this was a fluke and i would allow 5 more degrees decrease before going outside in the middle of the night. The Stoker recovered and got my temps close to 250 again.... I did notice in the middle of the night that the Meat Thermometers were raising faster than anticipated, 1 in particular. by 0600 one probe read 195....meat done...but the others were still low 180s....so i figured that probe was just inserted poorly and i kept cooking, not removing the 1 butt at 195. I realized later, like around 0700, that the Stoker Graph Chart was indicating my Blower had been on continuously since 0500...for 2 HOURS it had been blowing, yet my Temp was slowly decreasing...not staying the same and not getting hotter. This is NOT suppose to happen...remember, you have fuel, and when you had more air, the fire gets hotter....mine was decreasing in Temps...could I be running out of fuel??? So about 0730 I could not stand it any longer....the 2 other meat probes were reading 192 and actually starting to go down with the decreasing temps of the fire. I have pulled the meat from KK before at 185...so i figured at 190ish it would have to do... i pulled one off the KK, the bone came out extremely easy, so i decided it was all done. Pulled them all off, double wrapped in foil, put in Preheated IceChest, topped with a a blanket...completely done with cook by 0800. I was not suppose to be done until 11:00am or 12:00pm. I finished 3 to 3 1/2 hours earlier than anticipated. The good part of it was the meat got to rest in the foil until 17:00 hours...much longer than i wanted of course, and the meat was GREAT. Moist, tender, and tasty. 43 men had a filling dinner and were able to snack on it several more times during the night. So you may ask....did i run out of fuel and was that the cause of my Temps decreasing, even while the blower was blowing continuously for 2 hours? See next post about THAT ! Thanks for reading. Feedback welcome ! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mguerra Posted September 17, 2011 Report Share Posted September 17, 2011 Re: Cooked 8 Pork Butts/Shoulders for my Brother... Maybe your top vent was closed down too much. Or spun down on its own. Also be SURE you have your Stoker fan plugged in right side up! The little swinging door needs to have its' hinge up. I'm sure you know all this: For a Stoker or Guru cook close all the bottom vents. The device IS your bottom vent. For a low and slow be sure the top vent is just cracked so that when the fan is off, a little smoke is escaping; and when the fan is on, a fair bit more is obviously being blown out. Don't know if any of this is a factor, just throwing out some possibilities. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Loquitur Posted August 31, 2012 Report Share Posted August 31, 2012 Re: Cooked 8 Pork Butts/Shoulders for my Brother... Mad Medik wrote ........I realized later, like around 0700, that the Stoker Graph Chart was indicating my Blower had been on continuously since 0500...for 2 HOURS it had been blowing, yet my Temp was slowly decreasing...not staying the same and not getting hotter. This is NOT suppose to happen...remember, you have fuel, and when you had more air, the fire gets hotter....mine was decreasing in Temps...could I be running out of fuel??? That is exatly how my Stoker acted when I ran out of fuel cooking a 17 lb turkey so my guess is Yes - you ran out of fuel. Susan Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Syzygies Posted September 1, 2012 Report Share Posted September 1, 2012 Re: Cooked 8 Pork Butts/Shoulders for my Brother... Thanks for finding this thread, as eight butts are in my immediate future. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MadMedik Posted September 1, 2012 Author Report Share Posted September 1, 2012 Re: Cooked 8 Pork Butts/Shoulders for my Brother... I am 4 1/2 hours in to today's 8 butt cook. Temps at 159 and 164 on 2 probes. All is good Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
