1st Pork Butt and 1st Overnight Cook On New Years


 
P

Phil Warren

New member
Never wanting to back away from a cooking challenge I decided to smoke my first butt on the WSM for New Years using the Mr. Brown method. I wanted the butt to be ready in time for the Fiesta Bowl kickoff at 730pm, so I was faced with doing an overnight cook. After coming back from a New Year's eve party I fired up the WSM around 2:30am with the outside temp around 10 degrees. I set my Maverick's alarm and went to bed. Around 730am the alarm went off and I was surprised to see that the temp was actually getting too high. After minor adjustments it chugged along all morning. In the afternoon I was helping my brother-in-law move and came back around 5pm to find the smoker temp at 105 and the butt temp around 155! Just a couple of hours before the internal temp was around 180. I was really concerned that I had screwed up, but luckily I had read enough on this forum to know what to do. I quickly threw the butt into the oven and warmed it up for about 45 min. I then threw it into a cooler to rest for about an hour. Once I began pulling I knew that I had overcome my mistake. The pork was so tender and moist! With a little bit of Arthur Bryant's Original sauce and some baked beans it was the perfect meal for football. I apologize for the lack of pictures I have yet to set up site to upload them from.
 
Congrats!

Your experience is a major reason why Butt is recommended for newbies. It's very forgiving, almost bulletproof, and even wild temp rollercoaster rides don't seem to hurt the end results.
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And a valuable lesson learned! When you have a butt on the smoker, you cannot perform any duties that could be characterized as "work" lest your smoker temp get out of whack! You must remain in sight of the smoker (in good weather) or within range of the Maverick (in bad weather), lest something go wrong. Hydration with adult beverages is recommended since smoking meat can dehydrate the cook!

Congrats on your first overnight!

Pat
 
I always tell my wife that I am really working hard monitoring the smoker when she sees me sitting in my lawn chair with a beer in hand.

Mike
 
Did you start with a pan full of hot water? Just one pork butte isn't much of a heat sink, especially on the big wsm.

Kingsford blue?
 
Dave,

I did start with a full pan of water and was using Kingsford Blue. I added about 3 wine bottles full of water around mid morning. I think one of my problems was the wind came up from the west-southwest during the late morning and afternoon. That may have caused the remaining charcoal to burn out sooner.
 
Phil, the wind is your enemy. I know the big WSM is a little harder to find an adequate windbreak for, but I'd come up with something. Also, it's just not as efficient as the smaller wsm. That's not something you can't overcome, though. You could get a smoker jacket from the bbq guru company, or go cheap with a wool blanket from a surplus store. They're supposed to really help, and I even saw the bbq champion Myron Mixon throwing wool blankets on his smoker a while back on bbq pitmasters.

As to the Kingsford blue, I'd suggest tapping the cooker legs every few hours to knock the ash off. This will definately help to maintain consistant temps. If you don't mind the extra cost though, you could go with a low ash briquette like Stubbs or Royal Oak.

Personally, I love the water pan on overnight cooks with my wsm, but to each his own. Just be sure to add hot water when you add.

Good luck with it, and it's no big thing if you have to add fuel. Lots of guys report having to refuel the big wsm on long cooks. At least the door is bigger to make refueling much easier than the smaller wsm.
 
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