1st pork butt on WSM currently cooking


 
B

BryanSW

New member
Hello all,

After a beer-can chicken attempt (average), a chicken breast attempt (quite good) and shrimp (good) I am going for a pork butt today. It's currently in the smoker, and is a test-run for a football-watching party next weekend. We'll see how my Big 10 friends handle watching SEC football all day . . .

1 6.5 lb bone-in pork butt, enhanced ($0.99/lb and wife said I wasn't allowed to spend the $$ at Alwan's). Rubbed with a slight variation of the rub recipe from Adam Perry Lang's newest book BBQ 25 overnight:

Paprika, brown sugar, garlic salt, pepper, cumin, old bay seasoning (none on hand, substituted dry mustard).

I combined some tips from this board on the charcoal - I had alot left over, which I used with some new, and added some hickory chunks mixed in. Hickory is all I have, thinking about getting some apple. Lit with a quasi-minion method, as I probably didn't do it 100% correct. It took a bit for the smoker to come up to temp, but once there no issues so far.

I expect about 9 hours to cook, and will turn & baste (apple juice & honey), foil and put the meat thermo in after 6 hours. Will pull @ 200-ish.

Since this is a practice butt for next week, some questions (and feel free to opine on what I should have done differently):

- 1. With the minion method, do I need to wait for the smoker to come up to temp (200) before putting the butt on? Seems like I lost alot of good smoke waiting.
- 2. Is using "old" but barely used charcoal okay?
- 3. Should I go buy some apple wood and skip the hickory for a long butt cook?
- 4. Anything else I should do differently?
- 5. Is this post too long and detailed?

Will post pictures/links later.

Thanks,

Bryan
 
Bryan, Welcome to the smoke!
No, your post is not too long. You are asking good and common questions. There are various methods to BBQ and you will find different answers to most questions.

If you want to let the smoker temp come up before your meat goes on, then wait to put the smoke wood in till 5-10min before the meat goes on. Some here feel that you will get a better smoke ring if you put the meat on early, it has more exposure time to the smoke. Meat supposedly will stop accepting smoke color at about 140 degrees.

I use old coals to start my chimney and new coals in the coal ring cold.Again differing opinions.

When adding smoke wood try to get a complimentary flavor to the meat. Traditionally apple and pork go together, that is why we serve apple sauce with pork chops. Hickory is a heavier smoke, but use what tastes good to you.

Good smokin'.

Mark
 
Bryan.
-1 In my opinion, you should definitely let the cooker come up to temp before loading the meat.

-2 I frequently use "recycled" charcoal.

-3 Your choice.

-4 Post pics and send me samples.

-5 No.
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1 - Depends. If you like a big smoke ring and a good smoke flavor, put the meat on sooner, even as soon as you assemble the smoker. Else wait until the smoker comes up to temp.

2 - Yes

3 - meh, *I* wouldn't bother at this point. Just don't go overboard with the wood. As long as you've got a nice light bluish-white smoke, you're good. Whisps of smoke

4 - No

5 - No
 
Alright, thanks for the help so far.

It's the 6 hour mark, so I foiled it and drizzled the honey/apple juice mixture over it (pre-foiling - just thought that made more sense).

It was at 160, and the WSM has been chugging away with no added charcoal. Smoke looks good so far . . . I could probably add a chunk or two, but am concerned about over-smoking as I over-smoked my first item, chicken.

Later,

Bryan
 
Big chunks of meat like Butt and Brisket are more immune to over-smoking. Fish and Poultry are the easiest to over-smoke.

Butts are bulletproof. Unless you've got a disco fog pumping out, you're good.
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Once you foil you don't need any more smoke wood. Hope I didn't misunderstand your post re this.

Mark
 
Ha Mark . . . remember this is NEW WSM owners so embarrassingly . . . yeah, I threw a couple of chunks in AFTER foiling. I realized about 30 seconds later that it was a waste of some perfectly good wood chunks. Can't believe I did that, not sure what I was thinking. Feel free to have a laugh at my expense, I can take it! To be fair, it was the best smoked aluminum foil to be found this side of Texas.

Anyway, the butt was finished a little early per an internal temp of 200. It turned out quite well, no complaints. Used the "Memphis Magic" bbq sauce from Smoke & Spice, which I liked. Too many of my ketchup-based homemade sauces taste like . . . ketchup, so this one is a nice change of pace.

One small question/issue - the only time I'd cooked a butt previously was on a kettle grill, so the temps would have been 50-75 degrees higher than the WSM, and I did not foil that one.

The non-foiled, kettle-smoked butt seemed to have a better "bark" - mine today was not very crispy, which I missed.

So . . . suggestions on getting a more defined bark from the WSM? I had the water pan full as well, so perhaps too much moisture all around?

Thanks everyone for reading, and for the advice. I enjoyed it, and look forward to future cooks!

Bryan
 
For better bark - no foil. Once you foil it, the bark is getting 'steamed'.

To firm it back up, remove foil and put it back on for an hour or so. But it won't be the same.

Personally, I don't foil butts. I just let them go.
 
Bryan,

I'm a newbie, but I'll share my pork butt experience. I had a 5.5 lb, bbib. I got a good bark by rubbing yellow mustard on before I applied the rub. However, I was impatient and pulled off the smoker with an internal temp of 188. Parts of it pulled easily and parts did not. I did not foil, but I learned my lesson of leaving it on until it is done.

Cheers,
 
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