kravnh Posted February 5, 2012 Report Share Posted February 5, 2012 I had a frustrating cook last night; can't figure out why. I put an 8.7 lb Boston Butt on at around 1:20 am to cook overnight. Before putting the butt on, I started with an almost full load of 2003 Kamado ECC, and a small bit of Royal Oak on top. Setup was indirect: SS heat deflector with foil pan to catch drippings on lower grid, butt on upper grid. I started the fire in one spot, and then set my DigiQ DX for a pit temp of 235. Top damper was open 1/2 turn, airflow slider on my Guru fan was 3/4 open. After reaching 235, I waited 45 minutes before putting the butt on. When I went outside, my pit temp was 287, so I put the top damper to only 1/4 turn open, and closed the fan damper to 1/4 open - very little airflow. I waited another 15 minutes, and saw the temp begin to drop. Knowing that almost 9 lbs of meat would further reduce the temp, I put the meat on, and watched for another 10 minutes. Temp kept dropping. I went to bed with a temp of 264 and falling, so I was confident the temp would even out. Woke up at 8am this morning, looked outside, and found a grid temp of 329(!) and the meat done, temp was 213. I'm not worried about the butt, 213 isn't too high a temp, and it was still really moist. It's in towels in a cooler now. Weird thing is, this is the 2nd butt in a row that has finished in less than 1 hour/lb of cooking. I know that sometimes they go slower, sometimes they go faster, so no big deal. But this one is now done around 6 hours earlier than anticipated. The biggest mystery is, why did my temps run away from me? I did everything the same as always, and I've never seen this before. I had airflow so restricted, I was worried that I might wake up and find the fire snuffed. I have no air leaks - at least I've never noticed smoke coming out from under the lid. All bottom dampers were completely closed. Any ideas as to why my fire got so hot? BTW, I did a mojo marinated pork butt. It looks and smells incredible. Can't wait to pull it later this afternoon, and drizzle a little more mojo on it. Keith Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mguerra Posted February 5, 2012 Report Share Posted February 5, 2012 Re: Short cooking time, runaway temps. Wha' happened? I have had this happen more than once and it has to do with your fire start and early management. Even at the start, for a low and slow, only open the Guru fan slider to less than 1/4 open. By setting a target fire temp of 235, and with a 3/4 open slider, the fan blew until way more coals got started than necessary. Once all those coals were going, it was over. Set the fire target temp to 190, open the slider to 1/4 or less, and get the top hat off it's seat just enough that some slight smoke escapes when the fan is not blowing. Then go to bed. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bryan Posted February 5, 2012 Report Share Posted February 5, 2012 Re: Short cooking time, runaway temps. Wha' happened? Suggest that you run temp up in stages to better control temp overflow. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tnt Posted February 5, 2012 Report Share Posted February 5, 2012 Re: Short cooking time, runaway temps. Wha' happened? I use the same process to light my grill. I have a stoker so I simply set it to 225 and let the KK heat soak for about 1 hour. I find that a bone in Butt takes about 55 minutes a pound. Tony Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kravnh Posted February 5, 2012 Author Report Share Posted February 5, 2012 Re: Short cooking time, runaway temps. Wha' happened? Tony, my last two cooks tell me the same thing about time per pound. I also always use that same process to fire up my grill, using a DigiQ instead of a Stoker. I've never had this happen before. That being said, Doc and Cook_Shack make some great suggestions, which I will heed on my next low and slow. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mcsmoke Posted February 10, 2012 Report Share Posted February 10, 2012 Re: Short cooking time, runaway temps. Wha' happened? Just did a pork butt at 200 for 20 hrs. I was amazed at how steady the temp stayed. I lit a small amount of lump at the bottom. Got it nice and red then filled the entire basket with more and closed the lid with the top open 1/4 and the bottom about 3/16". No pork butt yet. Went inside and applied the rub then got on a conf call. Came out to find 300 and closed the top and bottom and she stayed at 300 for over 30 mins. I opened the lid, put my welding gloves on and pushed the coal down to knock off some of the embers. I pushed/stirred it up pretty good. Left it at about 1/8 on top and 1/16th on the bottom. She lowered to 225 and I closed the top a fuzz more and she dropped to about 200. Put the pork butt on and she stayed a steady 200 for the next 20 hrs!!!! I didn't bother getting up at night to even look. It was not only a great cook but tasty. I have never been able to hold a steady temp like this before on the RJ. Life is good, cheers. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DennisLinkletter Posted February 11, 2012 Report Share Posted February 11, 2012 Re: Short cooking time, runaway temps. Wha' happened? I lit a small amount of lump at the bottom. Got it nice and red then filled the entire basket with more and closed the lid with the top open 1/4 and the bottom about 3/16". It's best to light the charcoal on the top of the basket because it burns down.. if you light the bottom the new fuel needs to continually tumble down onto the burn. It can actually run out of fuel with a full bowl sitting above it. You really only need to light about a tennis ball to grapefruit volume.. then let it creep up rather than light more and cut it's airflow back to the desired temp. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mcsmoke Posted February 15, 2012 Report Share Posted February 15, 2012 Re: Short cooking time, runaway temps. Wha' happened? Interesting approach. I had the most successful long, low and slow cook ever. Will try this next time. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
