Butts not defrosted


 
J

Joe. P

TVWBB Member
I’m about to put 4 8lb butts on the WSM. All of the centers are still frozen. I’m not sure what to do. I can wait another 2 hours with them sitting out but I’m sure the centers will still be very cold.

Anyone have this happen before?
 
Joe, I have thrown in almost fully frozen butts, without any issues whatsoever. Remember, they're incredibly forgiving. So throw them on and grab a cold one. Have a great weekend.

Erik
 
Great… I have cooked them straight from the fridge before but never frozen . I had a feeling it would be ok. I’m just so used letting meats get to room temp …
Thanks for the fast reply
 
Joe, the only issue I have had was the rub not being able to adhere to the meat, however the outside was still frozen.

In your case, since only the center is still frozen, you shouldn't have this issue. If for whatever reason it does become a problem, you can always slather on some mustard, which won't effect the taste and will act as a glue.

Erik
 
Joe,
Hope it's not too late, but you can put the butts in your kitchen sink still in the wrapper and fill the sink with cold water. Change the water every 30 minutes and the butts should thaw in a couple hours. I do this with turkeys as well and can have a frozen 20lb turkey thawed in three hours SAFELY.
 
Erik - I'm glad to hear you can have success with frozen pork.

At my first competition I had one butt that wouldn't get up to temperature, but I ran out of time to smoke it. When I pulled the pork, the meat on the outside was great, but the center would not pull. I later concluded that it still frozen in the middle.

Jim
 
Thanks for all the replies. Butts went on half frozen. I Had a real bad time controlling the temps throughout the night. Big Spikes and hard drops. It was light rain very little wind about 50 degrees. And now I can’t get the temps up past 215
Note to self “ AGAIN “ : Don’t leave charcoal outside in the deck box for weeks .
If my coal was kept indoors I would have been fine
 
<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">Originally posted by Joe. P:
Thanks for all the replies. Butts went on half frozen. I Had a real bad time controlling the temps throughout the night. Big Spikes and hard drops. It was light rain very little wind about 50 degrees. And now I can’t get the temps up past 215
Note to self “ AGAIN “ : Don’t leave charcoal outside in the deck box for weeks .
If my coal was kept indoors I would have been fine </div></BLOCKQUOTE>

Joe crack the side door and give the coals a quick light stir, that should help you get your temps up.
 
Thanks Larry. I’ve been doing that every hour or so .
I didn’t use lump this time because I didn’t want the possibility of getting up and going out in the rain. That didn’t work out too well haha
 
It's been a few weeks since I've had a frozen butt, but I digress. I had a question along these lines two months ago and was advised not to worry. My two weren't half frozen but weren't all thawed either. They came out just fine. As a matter of fact, better than I'd hoped for since it was my first butt smoke. I think I'll do butts tomorrow now that I think of it. You put me in the mood
 
Flip the door over so that the knob is at the bottom. Prop the door open with something--stick of wood, whatever; I use a grill brush--and prop open about 1/4-1/2 inch. See what happens. If your fuel is moist you'll need more airflow to counteract it.
 
I ended up going for a 9 mile run this morning and in one of the neighborhoods somebody was smoking something that smelled delish. Only thing I had available was 2 small (3 lb. and 5 lb.)frozen solid pork butts. After reading your post I decided to put them on. Slathered with mustard it then froze- so I salted them and put them on to cook at 275-300. About an hour later I finally got some rub to stick. On at 10 am off at 7:30 pm and not bad at all. Money on the bark! Probably because I had to keep temps up a little bit to finish. Inside not quite as pullish(had to pull at 185) as normal but still very good. The finishing glaze of brown sugar, mustard and vinegar was so good I made up another batch just for sauce.
 
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