Micro-Butts - Advice Wanted


 
B

Brian B.

TVWBB Fan
I have only ever cooked large butts on an overnight cook and usually make about 40-50lbs per cook. My local farm that delivers meat to us had a special, so I grabbed a couple of 3.5 pound "shoulders" to try out. After reading through the threads on this topic, I'm guessing they will take about 6-8 hours at 225-250 depending on whether or not I foil.

So my questions are:

1. Should I try the HH method that other people have discussed or assume that I probably have less fat to work with than normal and stay low.
2. Should I put the fat side up so it bastes the meat as it renders of fat down to protect from the heat below?

Any other commentary greatly appreciated. Just to make sure I have enough variables, I'm going to do this as my first cook with the clay saucer....:) I figured winter in the midwest was as good a time as any to have my heat get out of control.

Thanks
 
I cook them with the fat cap down and it seems to work fine. Just did a 7# and 9# overnight new years eve and my guests said they were the best pulled pork they ever had. I really depends what works best for you. I always go low and slow. Helps to break down the connective tissues and gives me very tender meat. I always use water in my pan but I may try a few with no water and with a clay saucer just to see. Good luck with the cook and let us know how it goes.
 
Thanks Bob. It's pretty windy here today and the temp is dropping, so I'm doing a clay saucer only only cook with those two and another 5.5 pounder that I was able to quickly grab. Going to try to keep the temp right at 250 and see how that turns out for the next couple of hours. My worst case scenario will be to pull one and put it in the oven to finish in time for dinner if we need to, but I think it will be ok.
 
One hour in and I already have figured out my first mistake with the clay saucer. I used a minion start with a 3/4 full chamber on the 18.5, which I now realize is waaaaaaay to much fuel. All bottom vents are now closed and I'm getting ready to start throttling the top one if I can't climb down from 270.
 
Ouch, how many lit coals did you use? Actually, I usually do my butts and briskets at 270, and it seems to work out well. These days I typically light about 25 and put the meat on right away (full water pan). It takes about 45 minutes to get up to 250.
 
I put 3/4 a chimney of lit coals on it, so that was probably my issue. I'm just now down to about 240, so I'm going to try to stabilize here and hope I didn't starve it too much.
 
Everything seems to be progressing ok, but I've run at a higher temp than I would normally want. Just pulled the first micro off, wrapped in foil and put it in a 300 degree oven. This will be the first time finishing a butt in the oven, so I'm interested to see how it will turn out.

The other two are still on with the smoker around 270. I can definitely see how much less fuel I'm using without the water pan, so I'm just going to have to learn how to judge my temp from this now. I can see that it would be a problem on a really hot day.
 
I actually prefer the "partial" butts that I find at my favorite grocery store. More surface area per pound, which means more rub and smoke and therefore more flavor. Plus, they cook faster. I even went to far as to cut a couple full butts in half with a Sawzall when I couldn't find any partials. I don't recommend that procedure, by the way - quite messy.
 
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