Second cook Pork Butt How many lit coals


 
J

Jim G.

New member
I just got a WSM. I have already started to season it. Last week I cooked butterflied then halved chicken, following the recipe on this site, and it turned out perfectly. This time I want to try a pork butt. Yesterday I bought a 9.2 lb. pork butt.I know this is big, but it was the smallest one they had. It is what it is. Since it is so big, I''ll probably use a full load of coals. I'm wondering how many coals to lite using the Minion Method ? I will be using water in the pan for this cook. From what I have read, WSM will probably run in the 275-300 range. How long might this cook take? Forgot to say WSM is 18.5. Thanks Jim
 
I've never used more than 15 using Minion.

I know there's an hour range per pound, but it's really relative to your smoke temp. I use 1 hr per # at 225-235.
 
Honestly, I've never counted the starter coals before. I just use enough to fill the bottom the chimney. Maybe I should count 'em.

Good luck on your cook. A butt that size should cool off the smoker for a while until the heat catches up.
 
The general rule of thumb in 1.5 hours per pound but as Harry Soo says bbq is done when it's done. Cook by temp and not time. What I do is wrap mine at 160 then continue cooking and start checking around the 190-195 mark for doneness.
 
Good luck with your cook. I usually use about 15-20 lit briquettes on top of a full charcoal chamber of unlit. I don't use water anymore, but when I did, I would use a half-chimney to get the fire going and to get the water up to temp quicker (I rarely started by using hot water, doh) anyway let your WSM go for about 45 minutes, bring it up to temp, then put your meat on. Another thing, your WSM will run in whatever range you want it to run in, you can control whether you cook low and slow or hot and fast. Another thing if you're looking for a quicker cook, you can always cut the butt in half and cook two smaller pieces.
 
Thanks guys for all the feed back. I filled the coal chamber with as many coals as it would hold and 20 lit coals. I had the top vent 100% open and the bottom vents open 1/4. The pit ran at 288 for 3 hrs. then started to plummet, so I added 16 unlit coals. The pit temp. came back up to 288 for 3 hrs., then the coals were burned out, so I saved the hot coals, refilled coal chamber and used the hot coals to restart the fire. I opened all vents to 100% for 1 hr., then closed the bottom vents to 50%. The pit temp. came back up to 288 for 2 hrs., then started to rise to 300. At this point the meat temp. was 203, so I pulled wrapped and put into the oven at 160 for 2 hrs. The meat was tender and juicy. I know I made some mistakes,but hopefully I'll get better with experience. I forgot to say that I had water in the pan. Any input would be appreciated.
 
Hi Jim,

I also like to do pork butt at 275. If you're running your smoker at the temp, you don't want any water in the pan. The water pan is to keep the temps low primarily. Using water at higher temps means your coals have to put a lot of energy into heating up the water to steam. I filled my water pan with ceramic briquettes and covered everything with foil. Other people use sand or nothing. I like the thermal mass of the ceramic, it helps steady the temps, especially after lifting the lid to spritz or check the meat.

Finally, don't hesitate to finish a long cook in the oven. After the first few hours the meat won't pick up any more smoke. I foil my pork butts, and usually just finish them in the oven at that point.

Just keep practicing, you'll learn from every smoke, and don't forget to have fun doing it.
 
Sounds like a successful cook. Congrats.

You burned a lot of fuel. If you use water in the pan and try to cook at 275-300 then a lot of heat goes into boiling water. Since water boils at 212 the water pan is constantly trying to keep the temp lower than your target. Next time either cook at 225-250 (which takes quite a bit longer) or get rid of the water.
 
Paul Wells said:
I filled my water pan with ceramic briquettes and covered everything with foil. Other people use sand or nothing. I like the thermal mass of the ceramic, it helps steady the temps, especially after lifting the lid to spritz or check the meat.
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Is that similar to char rocks that came with older gas grills, Paul? I assume the grease has to be burnt off of them after a while?
 
Rusty James said:
Is that similar to char rocks that came with older gas grills, Paul? I assume the grease has to be burnt off of them after a while?
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Rusty, They're not lava rocks. The ceramic briquettes are used similarly though. They're smooth and about the same size as a charcoal briquette. I got mine cheap at a supermarket. I foil the whole water pan inside and out first, then put the ceramics in and cover the whole thing with foil. If the grease gets onto the briquettes, I just put them on my gas grill and burn it off.
 
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