Trailblazer Grill Notes - Boston Butt Tuesday, 7 July 2020 (Includes Notes/Comment on Burner Flameout Event)

[Sscottfitz]

• General Info:
  • Grill Location: Hot Springs Village, AR.; 34 37 60.0N 92 54 55.4W
  • Weather at time of Grill: You guess it, another warm Summer Day in the Natural State, High Temps ~90F, Humidity ~78%, Mostly Sunny
  • Total Grill Time: ~11.8 hrs , Total Cooler Rest Time: ~2 Hours (includes the grill mishap with the burner/auger event - see comments below)
  • Total Event Time: (Prep, Grill, Rest) ~13.5 hrs
  • Grill Start to Target Temp 225F: ~11 Min
  • Pellets Used: Rec Tec Ultimate Blend
  • Smoke Tube Used: Yes, Also Ultimate Blend
• Meat & Meat Prep
  • Meat: Butt Roast (Boston Butt) from Clampit’s Meat Market, 10.5 lbs
  • Total Meat Prep Time: ~15 min, Molasses & Dijon Mustarrd Binding agent, & Mix of Dizzy Pigs Dizzy Dust & Raging River
  • Started prepping the Butt ~10:00'ish right after the mid-day dog walk
  • Considering the early/mid grill mishap, the Butt Roast actually came out quite good & tender.
  • I’m now a believer in some comments I’ve seen from friends that it’s almost impossible to screw up a Pork Butt.
• Misc Grill Observations - all times are CDT
  • On the grill at 10:40’ish at 225, fat side down, Probe A at 43F at start, Probe B at 45F
  • At the point of the Grill Burner/Auger issue, and transfer over to the oven, meat temps were about 110F (14:40’ish)
  • At the point of transfer BACK to the Trailblazer, meat temps were at ~140’ish (16:30’ish)
  • Achieved ~165 at ~18:55, pulled the butt and wrapped, double foil and placed back into the Trailblazer
  • Finally pulled the Butt at 21:30, it was at or near 195F, and placed into the cooler for another 2 hrs of rest. ?
  • Unwrapped Butt at 23:30, too late for THIS baby boomer, containerized the butt along with juices and placed into the fridge, this project will extend into Wednesday (8 July)
  • With the exception of the "emergency period" in the oven, all during the Trailblazer session, I used dual temp probes, both sides of butt (see pictures), both before and during wrapped cook periods

General Cpmments:

• GRILL ISSUE:
  • Noticed a significant temp drop at 14:10 hrs into the cook, temp started to plunge all the way down to 177F, even after I’ve raised the target temp from 225 all the way up to 250…….this happened with no opening of the grill, it just started to happen……around 14:18 I’ve bumped it up to 270, but it seems to be hung right at 177, no movement at all…..
  • So after talking to Avery (sp?) at Rec Tec on the phone, and trying to “unjam” a suspected pellet jam, the temps continued to drop. After about 15 min, I turned the system off and back on. That’s when it get’s pretty exciting (see the pics/video).
  • Long story short, after getting the system off (transferring the Boston Butt to the Oven, and getting everything cooled down where I could see what was going on, I THINK I’ve determined that it the burner/firebox is what stopped working , HOWEVER the auger was continuing to push pellets into the system. By the time I restarted the system, the burner kicked on, but now it had a huge pile of pellets sitting in and around it (see the pictures…..), so that is when the smoke storm started…THAT WAS AN EXTREME SMOKE EVENT!
  • After shuiting down the system, moving the meat to the oven, and a total clean out of the lower chamber, I re- primed and restarted/tested the grill, at 16:30, I transitioned the meat from my oven, back to the Trailblazer. and the rest of the cook went off without issue..
  • Lesson Learned…….if you start to have problems, fire up the oven……! It easily saved this particular cook! HAVE A COOP PLAN!
• Boston Butt is probably impossible to screw up….
• A little frustrated with my inability to get Rec Tec on the phone for event follow up, so sent them an e-mail yesterday afternoon, as of 08:00 CDT, still no response. My impression is that Rec Tec’s customer density has exceeded their current customer support infrastructure, that is certainly a supposition on my part, and is base solely on this one event. Note: The one interface I was able to have with Rec Tec support, the support agent was very helpful.
• In retrospect it would be helpful if one could figure out if either the Auger or Burner or Both are non operational, like maybe a menu or warning light. In my scenario, that would have helped be greatly in troubleshooting the problem. Maybe something in future system upgrades - I will of course communicate this directly to Rec Tec.

 

[Mannydog]

Thanks for the very detailed notes on your cook! I'm a new Stampede owner, and although I've cooked many pork shoulders on a kamado-style cooker and Weber Smokey Mountain, this weekend will be my first one on the RT (so far have done bacon, turkey breast, and mac-n-cheese).

Love seeing the Dizzy Pig rubs in your pix!! DP is my favorite brand, and the Raging River is terrific on so many foods. If you have the chance, I recommend their Mole' rub on chicken, the Red Eye Express on beef/steaks, and the Tsunami Spin on chicken or seafood. I live about 25 miles from DP headquarters here in VA, and have taken a couple BBQ classes there over the years. They are quality folks who make great tasting rubs.

Sorry to hear about the firebox issue - saw from your other post that cleaning out the pellets and restarting seemed to resolve the problem. Good to know.

 

[Sscottfitz]

Thanks for your note. We recently retired from Northern Virginia and moved back to Arkansas (our state of origin). I'm still oveall happy with our Trailblazer, it serves a purpose for most of our daily/weekly grilling. We still love our BGE (Large), but in retirement, we grill a lot more, and it was becoming a level of effort for each grill that we wanted other options for...... And I agree, the DP rubs are great. We still have a lot of new stuff to try, and look forward to the journey......