Hey guys, new here, just posted in Roll Call. It is taken extremely long for my Boston Butt to cook. Mind you I did stall it for a while to sleep. I'm just curious if I have anything worry about, safety wise or not. Step by step details below.
Yesterday
8:30AM: Turned on the smoker, opened the 8lb Boston Butt, threw a bunch of Pappy's on there
9:00AM: Put it in the smoker along with some apple wood chips.
3:00PM: As the smoker has been sitting around 225-250F (analog, so I had to mess with it from time to time to adjust it right), I put in my CDN digital thermometer in the center of the cut. 154F was the reading
6:00PM: 154F it seemed to hit an early plateau.
7:00PM: 156F Progress
8:00PM: 158F
9:00PM: 162F
At this point we were planning on committing to the long haul and eating it in the middle of the night, but the woman and I were dead tired. So to make sure I didn't over cook or dry it out, I adjusted the smoker to 200+F but below 225F.
Today
5:30AM: 154F The temp dropped. But the smoker was still sitting at/over 200F. Removed the therm probe and placed it in a new section to confirm. 154F still. Adjusted the smoker to 225-250F as I had yesterday.
3:00PM: When I last checked, it's at 180F.
Now, it might have taken a while yesterday because I did open it a few times to add some more chips. From what I've read that can slow down a lot. My only concern is, I didn't put the probe in until 3PM Yesterday. Is it safe to assume it progressed through the danger zone as it should? I also think that with it being at 154F at 5:30AM today, it did not decrease past that back into the danger zone considering it stayed at a oven temp of 200+F?
I'm just cautious, so please bear with my noobness and questions.
Yesterday
8:30AM: Turned on the smoker, opened the 8lb Boston Butt, threw a bunch of Pappy's on there
9:00AM: Put it in the smoker along with some apple wood chips.
3:00PM: As the smoker has been sitting around 225-250F (analog, so I had to mess with it from time to time to adjust it right), I put in my CDN digital thermometer in the center of the cut. 154F was the reading
6:00PM: 154F it seemed to hit an early plateau.
7:00PM: 156F Progress
8:00PM: 158F
9:00PM: 162F
At this point we were planning on committing to the long haul and eating it in the middle of the night, but the woman and I were dead tired. So to make sure I didn't over cook or dry it out, I adjusted the smoker to 200+F but below 225F.
Today
5:30AM: 154F The temp dropped. But the smoker was still sitting at/over 200F. Removed the therm probe and placed it in a new section to confirm. 154F still. Adjusted the smoker to 225-250F as I had yesterday.
3:00PM: When I last checked, it's at 180F.
Now, it might have taken a while yesterday because I did open it a few times to add some more chips. From what I've read that can slow down a lot. My only concern is, I didn't put the probe in until 3PM Yesterday. Is it safe to assume it progressed through the danger zone as it should? I also think that with it being at 154F at 5:30AM today, it did not decrease past that back into the danger zone considering it stayed at a oven temp of 200+F?
I'm just cautious, so please bear with my noobness and questions.
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