I started a butt this morning before church. The method that I've settled on is to smoke for 4-4 1/2 hours at 225, double wrap with foil, turn up the smoker to 275, and remove when the internal temp hits 202.

This one hit 195 about 15 minutes ago. Then it dropped to 190, back to 192, then dropped to 188, and now it's down to 186.

I've read about a "stall" while smoking, but I've never watched the temp close enough to notice that.

Is that what's happening? I still don't understand the temp dropping.

It dropped all the way to 182, now it's heading back up in a hurry.

EDIT: I watched it go from 182 to 186 in about 20 seconds, now it's at 182 again.

Stalling, hang in there, it'll come up

That's what I figured, but I thought I had read that happened around 165 internal temp.

Can happen any temp, depends on the butt itself and when all that collagen decides to break down if I understand correctly

10-4. I hope this one is juicy. It didn't have much fat cap on it. I should have looked closer while picking it out.

I'm just glad this post is about food.

In medicine when you get an abnormal result like a fluctuating temperature, then you switch to a different thermometer to rule out a faulty thermometer. If you have another thermometer, verify your temp with the other one.

Do you have a separate thermometer monitoring the smoker temp ?

Thought about that. This is the only digital I have. I still could, but it seems to be coming up to temp okay now.




Yes. Smoker is staying between 274-277

I came real close to leaving the "while cooking" off my thread title.

GROSS......AZZ Thermometers are NOT Mean't for Cooking.....ROW TIDE!!

I wiped it off under my arm before sticking in the pork.

Never measured the temp of the meat. Only watched the temp of the cooker and let it ride for about 10-12 hours. Works everytime.

Idk nothing bout the temp but for me, I season mine heavy, let it sit in fridge over night or a day then wrap in foil and smoke it for 12hrs.

I use a wood smoker and don't care about the temp. I just ad wood every couple hours to keep the fire going good enough to where I don't have to watch it. She's always tender, juicy and good. Sam's club Boston butt.

Yeah not monitoring the internal meat temp works until it doesn’t. Some butts do fine with 10-12 hours some don’t. Internal temp just gets you a more consistent pulled pork. I used to do the same thing until I dried out 3 huge butts that didn’t have a good internal fat content. Ruined a football barbecue. Had to go to the local barbecue place and buy 4 trays of pulled pork. Now I monitor the rack on the temp by the meat and put a thermometer in each butt unless there is more than 3 of them. If there is more than 3 I put a hand held one in there to get the internal temp.

Good I was afraid you might have licked it clean for a minute.

Now Brad… you know I’ve got to check the temp. 😀

Why do you seal it up in foil , and use a smoker?