Attaining finished temps

chowhound

chowhound

New member
I put a butt on the WSM yesterday and for the first time, I could not reach about 200F for the finished meat temp. That butt was on there for around sixteen hours at decent smoking temps, and the last two were foiled, but it was stuck on 177F.
Now, the meat had already stalled at 163 for a couple hours, then started to slowly climb again, but it never waivered from 177 for at least four hours, even with the butt foiled and the smoker temp raised to 240 for the last two hours. Was this a second stall? I have never read of or ran ionto two stall temps before, so don't know.
And for the record, besides the digital probe already in the meat, I also tested the temp with another digital probe and an old analog meat thermometer, which didn't even get above 160 before I was done pissing around. The other digital read 180 in one spot and 178 in another.

Regardless of the temp, and because the thermometers were sliding into the butt so easily, I took it off and brought it into the house to pull. It was obviously done. I never had a butt pull so easily. If there wasn't any breakdown of connective tissue, you coulda fooled me. Moist and wonderful.

Any thoughts?
Is the magic number at which connective tissues break down a scientific number, or a magical number?
Or did I had a special, magical pork butt, one which was extra moist and tender and didn't require the normal finishing temp?
And is there such a thing as two stalls?

Tell me this was just a fluke and normally you have to get above 195 for tender, moist pork butts, briskets and the like, otherwise I may need to rethink these finishing temps.
 
Was there anything different with the meat (more or less fat then usual)? How were you measuring the smoker temperature?
 
Nothing looked different at all, Blues. I prepared and cooked it the way I always do, with the exception of the Texas Crutch to try to get over 177. The meat looked like the typical smaller butts that I get, half the size of a full butt (as you can probably tell from the dinner thread last night).
I use a Maverick thermometer that measures both the smoker and the meat. I compare the smoker temp reading to the lid thermometer as I Q and like I said, double checked the meat temp with other thermometers when it seemed like things were taking too long. And I just had a few pinches of the pulled pork this morning and it was just as juicy and tasty as I remember it from last night, even cold.

I fully expected to have to bring out a knife and slice it, but was totally blown away.
Pork butts are forgiving, but are they that forgiving? Shoot, I'll stop cooking them all at 177 if that's the case (lol).
 
That's really a strange one. I'm with you, I would also have expected to have to slice it at any internal temp below about 185. Nice surprise! it sure looked good. Usually, when I cannot get the internal temperature of the meat above a certain point (after the initial stall) it is usually a problem with the smoker temp rather than the meat temp. Hummmm......

I usually see the temps go through the stall and then the temps climb very steady (if I can hold the same temps in the smoker) up to the 190 - 195 level (I foil at 160 - 165). After the stall you can almost set a clock to when they will be done.
 
I usually cook pork butt for pulled pork at 225 degrees for about 1.5 hours per pound to and internal temperature of 190-205 degrees. Now with that said I take the meat out and let it rest at an internal temperature of 175 - 180 degrees. Once rested a bit (about 15 minutes tented with tin foil it will get to the 190-205 temp. Pork is pretty easy to cook regardless with most over cooking it especially smaller cuts like pork loin etc.
 
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