Successful BBQ pork butt and brisket is science (2018)
The secret to successful BBQ pork butt and brisket is science

                      
                      
          Imagine this nightmare Labor Day scenario. You've invited a large group of friends over for pulled BBQ pork or a delicious beef brisket. That morning, you confidently place your meat in the smoker, handy digital thermometer in place so you'll know just when the internal temperature reaches the perfect point. Everything seems fine for the first two hours, but suddenly the temperature stops rising. And it stays constant for hours and hours, as your friends get hungrier and hungrier, and you're forced to order pizza in desperation.
You've just encountered the bane of aspiring pit masters everywhere: the Stall (also known as the Zone or the Plateau), a common phenomenon in low-temperature cooking. What, precisely, causes the stall is a perennial topic of debate among BBQ enthusiasts. Is it a protein called collagen in the meat, which combines with water to convert to gelatin at the 160°F point? Or is it due to the fat rendering, turning lipids to liquid?
Several years ago, Greg Blonder, a Boston College professor, did the experiments and came up with a definitive answer: evaporative cooling. The meat sweats as it cooks, releasing the moisture within, and that moisture evaporates and cools the meat, effectively canceling out the heat from the BBQ. These days, Blonder is the resident science advisor and myth buster at the popular BBQ and grilling site called Amazing Ribs. "I spend a lot of my time settling bar fights, basically," he joked.
A slow-cooked passion for 'cue
Blonder has been an avid, inventive cook ever since college, when the only tools he had to work with were a single hot plate and pot. When a friend once visited from Hawaii, they roasted a whole pig on hot rocks in the backyard. Ever the scientist, Blonder stuck a pair of thermocouples into the carcass to monitor the changing temperature as it cooked. So naturally, when he heard about the stall, he decided to test it experimentally.
First, he charted the actual stall. He used brisket and pork butt for his experiments, since they are the most popular meats for slow-roasting and smoking. He used a thermostatically controlled smoker for the cooking and maintained a careful 225°F. [corrected] As expected, the stall set in after the first two to three hours, and it lasted roughly six hours before the internal temperature began rising again. It's a handy example of a simple phase transition, with an initial rise and then a long leveling off, before rising yet again to move towards the critical tipping point.

          
                      
                  