help - slow roast boston butt

[id10t]

Slow roasting a boston butt in the oven. Been going for a while, things are good.

However, while researching this cooking method and temperatures (of the meat) I found several references to a plateau in the temp of the meat where things (connective stuff, etc) would start to break down, and then after that process was finished the temp would continue to rise as normal, eventually ending up in a nice pile of pulled pork.

What temp should I expect to see the plateau at?

8lb hunk o pig, started with a rub and some moisture added with a sprayer using apple cider and apple cider vinegar (8:1ish cider:vinegar), smelling good, hoping to have it out of the oven in 4 hours...

[Shuie]

Not sure if this will help, but when I do pulled pork I set my oven to 225 and cook for ~1.5hrs/lb. I monitor the internal temp of the shoulder with a probe thermometer that has an alarm set to go off at 200 degrees. It always works out to 1.5hrs/lb in my oven at that temp. Once it hits 200, I turn the oven off at watch until the probe thermometer in the shoulder cools down to ~170. When it hits 170 I move it's ready to be pulled & served. Perfect every time.

[id10t]

Originally Posted by Shuie

Not sure if this will help, but when I do pulled pork I set my oven to 225 and cook for ~1.5hrs/lb. I monitor the internal temp of the shoulder with a probe thermometer that has an alarm set to go off at 200 degrees. It always works out to 1.5hrs/lb in my oven at that temp. Once it hits 200, I turn the oven off at watch until the probe thermometer in the shoulder cools down to ~170. Perfect every time.

Same method I'm doing - just wondering about the temp plateau ....

[Steve Viegas]

Plateau will happen at almost anytime, but you can assume it will be somewhere between 140 and 155.

I have had meat bounce between 153 and 148 for 4+ hours. The energy that was used for heating was then being used for breaking down the connetive tissue and the meat actually cools. It is a very interesting phenomena to witness.

Also, the plateau will last for different time frames. It all depends upon the meat. 4+ hours is an extreme case. Sometimes it will only last an hour or two and I have heard people say that theirs never plateaued at all.

[Joe Bob]

I like a slow cooker. Check it after 6 hours. Poke it, if it starts to fall apart it's almost ready.

I imagine low heat in an oven would be the same. I saw a pulled pork recipe on the Today show and he did 200F for 12 hours, added a can of coke with it.....his pork shoulder was 12lbs.

[Tobra]

I thought this was going to be a bad thread about Shaun