Injecting Butt Slow Cook?


 
MattP

MattP

TVWBB Super Fan
Does injecting a butt slow its cooking time?

I ask because I've got an injected five pound butt that's been on the WSM for seven hours and the readings from my Maverick seem to be crawling. Pit has held steady in the 225-250 range the entire time. I know I'm still in the pretty standard window of hour to and hour-and-a-half per pound of meat, so maybe I'm just impatient?
 
It's possible. Your adding liquid when you inject and as it evaporates off the surface of the meat it will have a cooling affect. I don't imagine it would would change the cook time dramatically.
 
I wound up pulling it off after 7.5 hours-- just couldn't wait any longer. My instant-read was showing it to be around 170'ish. It wasn't quite as tender as I normally hope for, but I was able to get it pulled without too much difficulty. That thing was one stubborn piece of meat!
 
I've not noticed any difference in cooking times between a butt injected vs not injected. ...but I have noticed all cooks are different especially when cooking at lower temps like that.
 
MattP said:
My instant-read was showing it to be around 170'ish. It wasn't quite as tender as I normally hope for, but I was able to get it pulled without too much difficulty. That thing was one stubborn piece of meat!
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170, if accurate, would not correlate with tender. At 5 pounds at those cooktemps, the meat likely had a few hours - at least - to go. Instead of temping, use that probe to feel the meat. It will feel tender when it is tender. An internal temp won't tell you "tender". It might correlate but it's only a maybe. Feel the meat.

Cook at a higher temp to shorten the time. 250 minimum -275.

I don't really see a point to injecting butts.
 
Matt I have been doing my ribs and pork butts at 275 - 300 at the grate and they come out real nice. depending on what type of rib rub I want to use I may or may not foil but i foil the butts in a aluminum pan loosely on top with some AJ and ACV mixed with what ever sauce I am going to use in the pan when I foil. I foil the butts when I get a nice bark on them, usually between three and four hours. They are delicious and juicy like this. I also inject my butts. But I do not pull them based on temp, I pull them when my skewer slides into them, all the way through and the bone will pull right away from the meat. Some times the meat will be tender but the bone is still holding tough. I wait for both to be ready before i pull.
 
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This was the fourth butt I've done since getting my WSM earlier this year. However, it was the first one I've done since I installed a nomex gasket. I think therein is the difference maker for how this cook went. Thanks in large part to the gasket I was able to keep the temps maxed out at 250, whereas on my other butts I was usually holding in the 240-280 range.

Normally I would have kept the meat on longer than I did, but it was 9:00 p.m. and this was our dinner. :cool:

Welp, lesson learned-- being able to keep the temps lower really does add that much extra cooking time!
 
MattP said:
This was the fourth butt ...Welp, lesson learned-- being able to keep the temps lower really does add that much extra cooking time!
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Nice cook ...because you learned something about your cooker. That info will be valuable from this point forward. May I recommend a BBQ log? That way you can keep track of successes and your shortcomings to refer back to then next time you do that type cook. I keep mine on spreadsheets and save them with the type food and date. That way, if I want to remember what I did on that great brisket I did a couple months ago, I can go and review my log as a reference.
 
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