smoking a butt today, worried about smoker temp?

[webowabo]

Im in arlington tx and its a lovely 16 degrees outside, and Im about to throw in a  9.9lb pork butt, I got the smoker for christmas and  the temp gauge that came with it only reads 145 degrees, so its smoking alot hotter than I believe. SHould I just watch the internal temp til it reaches 140 of the meat (Im then gonna wrap it and put it in the oven over night.) and not worry about the heat. Ive never seen the temp gauge when it worked ever get over 240degrees. I also have two digital therms, can I rig one up to give me a more accurate smoke temp inside? any quick help would be great. Im reading about 15 hours for pulled pork with my wieght, and Im thinking of putting the pork in about 4pm today, so its ready for lunch tomorrow. 

thanks

Mike

 

[sqwib]

If you have 2 digi therms I would put one in the butt and one inside the smoker to see what temps your running at, keep it in the smoker till 165 then foil.

you can use a potato onion or carrot to hold the probe, just make sure it sticks out about an inch

my 2 cents

 

[SmokinAl]

You can take one of your therms & stick it thru a potato or a block of wood or an onion etc. Just make sure the probe sticks out of the other side a couple of inches. Set it on the grate a few of inches from the butt. That will give you an accurate smoke chamber temp. You want to have it at about 225 degrees. If you put the probe in the butt right at the start then you also have to make sure the internal temp gets to 140 in 4 hours to be safe. If you haven't put a probe in the butt yet & you didn't inject it you don't have to worry about the 4 hour rule, let the butt smoke foe 4 or 5 hours then put the probe in it to monitor the internal temp.I would take the butt to 165 internal temp in the smoker before you foil it and put it in the oven. Good luck Mike

Al