MadMedik Posted November 20, 2012 Report Share Posted November 20, 2012 Okay, so I cooked two 4 pound Pork Butts, bone in, on Saturday. I cooked in the used Green Egg i bought several weeks ago. The location of the cook was in the mountains, about 3400 feet elevation. As usual, i cooked the pork at 250 degrees, with IT goal of 195 degrees. I was thinking this would take me 7 to 8 hours based on my previous experience with my KK. So i put the pork on at 9:45 a.m. At 7pm, we were hungry and did not want to wait anymore, so I pulled 1 of the butts off...at IT of only about 182, and we ate it with only a few minutes of "rest". The outer portions pulled okay, and further in was done, but not soft and pullable as a 195 IT would have been. I left the second butt on for another hour, coming off around 8pm with an IT of 194 degrees. This one rested for over an hour and pulled quite nicely. So, observations and questions. To me, it seems 10 hours (butt 2 was 10 hours) for 4 pound pork butts is a long time...compared to my limited experience. I have done 8 and 9 butts at a times, all average 7 to 8 pounds each, and they have not taken this long to cook. I had a very long "stall" at around 154 degrees IT... Elevation: does BBQ/Smoking at higher elevations affect cooking temps as it does in an oven? Should I expect to cook things longer at higher elevations? Keep in mind, i am at about 275 feet elevation in Central California when using my KK, 3300 or so in the mountains with bGE Is it the inefficiency of the Big Green Egg that caused a longer than expected cook? The temps settled and 250 to 260 and i held it very close most of the time. The last hour and a half i raised the temp to 300-310 to speed things up. Perhaps my Thermometer on the BGE is not quite accurate...although I did put it in boiling water to check it and calibrate, which i thought was successful...so i think the Thermometer was ok??? At higher elevations, should i could at a hotter temp...not 250 in this case , but maybe 275 or 300 for the whole cook? Even though the dome temp was 250 most of the time....is it possible the BGE is not as "heat soaked" as a KK gets...or said another way, is 250 in the BGE not as hot as 250 in the KK....seems like a stupid question...isn't 250 just that...250?? Anyway, some thoughts of mine. The meat was quite delicious. Made some Cuban Pannini sandwhiches with it...that was very good ! the BGE is okay, but a Komodo Kamado Overbuilt freakin OTB Kooker it is NOT !! MadMedik Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Loquitur Posted November 20, 2012 Report Share Posted November 20, 2012 Re: Cooking at High Altitude with Big Green Egg MadMedik: I've never cooked a big pork butt though I have done several cooks of multiple small pork butts about 4 lbs each. This cut of meat is new to me so I did a lot of research online on the BBQ forums about approximately how long I should cook them to get them to a temp where I could pull them. The main conclusion I found from this online research is that the small pork butts are just plain unpredictable when it comes to timing, more so than the large ones which can roughly follow a rule of x min/lb for an approximate time of when they might be finished, give or take an hour or two. Each of my four small pork butt cooks went way longer than I expected and I had to not only increase the temp of the KK at the end but also wrap them in foil to finish them, per advice from our own pork butt expert - Doc. Just something to consider in addition to the other issues you raised. Susan Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mguerra Posted November 20, 2012 Report Share Posted November 20, 2012 Re: Cooking at High Altitude with Big Green Egg I wouldn't over analyze it. Just cook it to 195 and enjoy some porky goodness. You never know with any given pork butt. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cookie Posted November 21, 2012 Report Share Posted November 21, 2012 Re: Cooking at High Altitude with Big Green Egg Maybe it was a difference in the ambient temp outside? Cold? Maybe it wasn't really heat soaked and operating at the dome temp as early in the cook as your low altitude cooks? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
maherussell Posted November 24, 2012 Report Share Posted November 24, 2012 Re: Cooking at High Altitude with Big Green Egg It is natural for things to take longer for items to cook at higher then sea level. It has to do with atmospheric pressure. It is a phenomenom that is a matter of physics. At above 3000 ft., you WILL experience longer cooking times. No getting around that. By the way, the temperature of water boils under 212F above 3000 ft. I use to work in metrology many years ago. I don't remember all the formulas now. But trust me when I say, at the altitude you mention, it will take longer and nothing is wrogn with you equipment. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mguerra Posted November 27, 2012 Report Share Posted November 27, 2012 Re: Cooking at High Altitude with Big Green Egg At standard atmospheric pressure, the boiling point of water at 3400 ft. is 205.9 degrees F. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mguerra Posted November 27, 2012 Report Share Posted November 27, 2012 Re: Cooking at High Altitude with Big Green Egg From one of our favorite vendors, here is a nice calculator: http://www.thermoworks.com/software/bpcalc.html Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mguerra Posted November 27, 2012 Report Share Posted November 27, 2012 Re: Cooking at High Altitude with Big Green Egg We posted on this before but here it is again. At any given altitude, the boiling point spread under almost all normal weather conditions will be about plus or minus one degree from what you calculate for standard pressure of 29.92 mm Hg at your altitude. So just use the calculator for your altitude and plug in 29.92 for the pressure. On a really low pressure day the boiling point will be about one degree lower. On a really high pressure day it will be about a degree higher. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mguerra Posted December 3, 2012 Report Share Posted December 3, 2012 Re: Cooking at High Altitude with Big Green Egg 29.92 inches of mercury, not millimeters. My mistake. I use mm Hg in one of my clinical measurements and just defaulted to those units. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
