First Butt cook or first Butt/Brisket cook?


 

Brad Baker

TVWBB Fan
Starting the cook Fri night. I could do the two port butts, one on the upper, one the lower. Or I could do a butt/brisket cook. Will this work out? Heck. I guess I could even do two pork butts and a brisket. This is an 18 WSM.

If I do the butt/brisket, which should go on which grate?

TIA,

-- bradley
 
Hey brad,

Well i do not know how big is your brisket and your butt ... but they both shall fit on one grate !!! i did 3 butt on the top grate this summer
 
Is this your first cook or first butt or brisket cook? Reason I ask is if it's your first cook on the WSM I'd go butts, far more forgiving than a brisket and lots of room for error. If it's not your first cook go for it, the more the merrier in my book.

Enjoy your cook!
 
Agree with Larry...butts are very hard to mess up. I've gotten distracted on occasion, fallen asleep a few times and just plain forgot about them once and still they taste great.
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<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">Originally posted by Rich H (Va):
Agree with Larry...butts are very hard to mess up. I've gotten distracted on occasion, fallen asleep a few times and just plain forgot about them once and still they taste great.
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</div></BLOCKQUOTE>
Thanks all. This will be my fourth cook, but first overniter. So I'm going with two butts.
 
Three cooks under your belt, go for it!! If you do end-up going butts only put them both on the top, no need to dirty the bottom grate.

Rich, I'm embarrassed to say the condition I've been in during some of my butt cooks. I have one cook that I don't even remember putting on. The WSM took good care of the cook for me though and end product as always was great.
 
I like going with the butts over brisket. My feeling is any way you can get double duty out of your pork fat is a good thing! When I have done that I foiled the brisket three or four hours into the cook.
 
The cooked worked out great. It was not without a harrowing moment or two but it worked out okay in the end.

I followed the Renowned Mr. Brown recipe. I put the meat on Fri night at 10pm, switch my DIY cheap-but-good ATC into auto at 10:45, pit temp 225F. Went to bed. I got a low temp at 5:30am on the ET-732. Upped the max blower speed a bit, back to sleep. Low temp alarm at 7:30am. Before I could get to the cooker the temp had spiked to 270! The blower was on full; its temp probe had slipped and fallen on the meat. Fixed, back to bed. Up at 10. At 10:30 flipped and basted (of course I had to make coffee first). At around 1pm I needed to add fuel. This is where I ran in to a bit of a problem and I can see I will have to work out a strategy for this. Whether and when to chimney the charcoal and how much, or rather just add through the door. I removed the middle, chimneyed a few, added some fresh to the ring, dumped the flaming coals in. Next time I think I'll just add unlit fuel through the door. The fire was too hot. I did the remainder of the cook manually, flipping and basting with the Sop every hour or so, top vent 100%, bottom vents tweaked to regulate. Any tips on adding fuel on the downside of a cook are welcome.

I ended up removing the meat at around 6pm. That's about 15 hours - does that seem right? Internal temps with a Thermapen around 180 to 195. The butts went into a cooler for an hour while the Tater cups cooked on the gasser. The eight guests I cooked for didn't mind the 7pm dinner bell. Okay, they were all family so maybe that doesn't count. And it was MY birthday so they were being extra nice. The pork pulled easily, moist, bark perfect. Flavor. Accolades all around. The Carolina Red was a winner. Finished with keylime cheesecake and everybody took some pulled pork home. That meal was a heckovalotta fun.
 
<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">Originally posted by Brad Baker:
.....I put the meat on Fri night at 10pm.....I ended up removing the meat at around 6pm. That's about 15 hours - does that seem right? </div></BLOCKQUOTE>

Brad - dude if my math is right, that's about 20 hours. That should be more than plenty. I'm really surprised that it took THAT much time to get to 195 degrees. At the temps you reached - up to 270 degrees - I would think you'd hit 195 sooner. Unless your pork butts were near (or over) ten pounds.

Glad it all worked out well. Wouldn't mind having a sample or two myself!
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