17lbs worth of butt


 
S

Steve Colby

TVWBB Member
For the tailgate this weekend I am smoking 17lbs worth of butt tonight. Got everything set up and ready to go earlier today. the pics will show my make shift lean-to. It is raing, windy and about 44 degres out as of right now and it is supposed to rain most of the night and tomorrow as well. Set this up just to try and keep soem of the water of the wsm. With hopes of not having a temp swing once the water is gone I went with no water in the pan and am just going to get things set with the vents. Right now I think I am getting the wsm to settle in at around 250. the vents are at about 10-15% and I am using mostly lump with some briquettes mixrd in. I also have some apple wood for the smoke. Hopefully eveyything will turn out good come tomorrow. Here are some pics of everything from the day.
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Calling this the torch of smokin
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tight fit but there on and ready to go
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Here's a shot at 5:30 this am. (Not the best picture.)
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So for some reason, which I am not sure of at this momonet, the butts were almost done. I was checking temps and was gettign 180 almost everywhere. I did come across an area on both of them though that was just 170. I debated for some time about pulling them, wrapping them up in foil, and bringing them along with me to work so I could pull it apart at break. Well I finally decided to leave them on for a bit longer. I am going to have my wife pull them and wrap them up for me this morning. Just don't wan tthem over done and if they stay on till I get home they would be.
 
don't try to rush things. butts will very often 'plateau' at 180 or so for HOURS before creeping up to the 195-ish range.

and as kevin says, they're done when they have the consistency of warm butter, not when they reach some magic temperature.

looks great though, and thanks for making me hungry so early in the morning
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Thanks fo rthe reassurance. The one thing that kept me from pulling them was the fact that the bone did not want to just pull right out. I did close up the vents some to bring the temp down a little. According to my wife it is around 200. So will they make it another 4+ hours with not being over done? I hope so. This way I can take care of them at lunch today.

Oh yea, btw sean you are welcome
 
The one thing that kept me from pulling them was the fact that the bone did not want to just pull right out. I did close up the vents some to bring the temp down a little. According to my wife it is around 200. So will they make it another 4+ hours with not being over done?
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Looking good! That was a good call to leave it on. Put some gloves on and feel it if you can, otherwise try with a fork. Pry at a muscle segment, if it feels like it could come apart with little effort it's done or insert the fork, twist, then pull and if the strand pops right out it's done.

I'd probably get the temp back up to make sure it finishes on time. Better to sit in the cooler with blankets/towels for a couple hours than not be done. Believe me, I've had some doozy dragged out cooks due to low temps.

Don't worry about getting it off the cooker the very instant it's done ... it will take tons of abuse before the results suffer.
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Thanks for all the reassurance to everyone. Last time I did two they were smaller and didn't seem to move along as fast.

I am not to worried about time. I need them done for tomorrow. So I am planning on leaving them on till noon, wrapping them then, and pulling apart them when I get home.

I will let you all know how they turn out then.
 
Well here is what it looked like at noon. I guess I jumped the gun alittle bit worrying about the temps. I know they are pretty forgiving. I just wasn't expecting them to be at 180 this morning.

So I guess you can say I had a pretty good lunch.
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