2 butts for Super Bowl - just put them on


 
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Jon Liberman

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Well, I just put two Mr. Brown's on the WSM. I figure I will stay up an hour or so until the temperatures stabilize and then I will go to bed. I'm looking forward to waking up and having butts that are well on their way to being done.

I am going to put them in a cooler when they are done, but what do you think is the longest they can wait in a cooler?
 
Jon,

I have pulled butts at 205, double wrapped in heavy duty foil, wrapped both in heavy towels, placed in well insulated cooler. They have stayed in the cooler above for nearly 6 hours and they were still above the 140* mark.
 
Jon,

I'll join ya /infopop/emoticons/icon_biggrin.gif

I've got my butt on the smoker now too. Put it on Saturday 9:30 PM (PST).

At noon 1:00 pm on Sunday, I'll reconfigure the smoker to cook my first rib-eye roast.

Plenty of food for Superbowl.

Enjoy yours.

-Albert
 
Man, I love this site. Quick replies and it always seems like there is someone else cooking at the same time you are (no matter the time zone).

The cook is going pretty well except the temps are hovering around 280 and don't want to come down. I've been slowly closing the vents a little, so once it stabilizes at about 250-260, I'm going to bed.
 
You know what, I think I am ready for bed even though the temps are a little high. I mean, hey, this is a butt. If it was a birsket, I might be a little more concerned.

Gonna mop it quickly and I am off to bed. Have a good night everyone. Hope the smoking goes well for my fellow Q'ers.
 
Not much on internal temp thing, but like Bruce, have held for 6 hours in cooler after the aluminum/ towel thing, and they still had some steam after I started to pull them. Also believe they taste better after being held like that as opposed to pulling them immediately after letting them sit for a half hour
 
Just woke up and checked the cooker. It was sitting pretty at 228. Man, this thing rocks.

I just flipped and mopped the butts. I also put a probe in one of the butts. 168.

I knocked some of the ash out and there seems to be lots of life left in the coals. Awesome.

Time to lay back down.
 
I, too, put some butts on the WSM last night before going to bed. I put mine on the smoker about 10:30pm EST. I use the bbq guru so I'm a cheater and get to sleep through the night /infopop/emoticons/icon_biggrin.gif Actually, I woke up at 3am to heed the call of nature so I went ahead and stirred the coals and added another chimney full of unlit coals just in case. It was about 0 degrees so I figured I'd be needing the extra fuel.

Woke up at 7:30 with the guru alarm going off. The temp probe was reading 195 (my setpoint) but I knew better. I moved it to a more muscled spot and it dropped back to 165. While I was at it, I flipped the butts and squirted them liberally with apple juice.

I can't wait until the smoking jacket arrives. I expect my fuel usage to go down on these frigid nights.
 
I threw two Chuck Roasts on this morning for the superbowl. They've been on for about 3 hours now and it's been pinned at 156f internal temp for atleast an hour and a half. I'll expect another platue later around the 170's I'd imagine.

I used the Mr Brown's rub for it too. I love it on pulled pork. Figured it would be good on chuck roast as well.
I wanted to make some smoked BBQ beans as well. But the wife put a stop to that (she does'nt like them). Maybe next time. I had some at a rabbit tournament a few weeks ago and they were awesome!
 
Just pulled two butts and a brisket at 8:00 this morning. I put the "Mr. Brown" rub on everything too, but I also add some garlic powder.

Just put a turkey and ham on to come out this afternoon.
 
Ed wrote:

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><font size="-1">quote:</font><HR> I use the bbq guru so I'm a cheater and get to sleep through the night <HR></BLOCKQUOTE>LOL. To a stick burner, a WSM is a cheat, I think /infopop/emoticons/icon_biggrin.gif . In general, the WSM is a "Set it and forget it" cooker but sometimes, certain conditions cause unexpected results ~ With the bbq Guru, most of this is removed. Some of us cheat a little more than others /infopop/emoticons/icon_razz.gif


I love my WSM, my BBQ Guru, and my Silver Jacket! (and the other related toys):

http://www.virtualweberbullet.com/coldtemp_photos/silverjacket.jpg

Ed, you're gonna love it!
 
Checked on them at 10:00 and thecook temp was 219 and the butts were showing 168. Good thing I started them last night because the plateau at 5:00 starts to get a little scary. At 10:00, it isn't any big deal.

Right now the butts are still at 169 and the cooker is up to 250 (it went up when I added some unlit charcoal.

Looks like I have several more hours before I need to put them in the cooler. Good deal.
 
The butts came out tasing pretty good, but not great. This is my opinion since everyone else raved about them, but I have definitely made better. The first one I served was the second one I took off and it seemed to be a little too soft. I don't know if that description makes sense, but instead of having a little chew to it like meat normally does, it was almost mushy. The second one was better than the first, but the bark was a little tougher than usual and it was harder to integrate with the rest of the meat.

Overall, it was good, but I as I said, I have made better.

One thing I wonder is whether I put the rub on to early. Since I was starting the meat Saturday night, I rubbed the butt Friday night around midnight. Since the meat went on Saturday night at 11:00, it was rubbed for almost 24 hours. Is that pushing it for Mr. Brown?
 
Jon
I have very little refrigerator space and usually can't put two butts in there for 24 hours. So frequently I apply the rub to butts and briskets just 1-2 hours before putting them in the WSM.

I know this isn't exactly according to the recipe. I would suspect that judges in professional competition can tell the difference, but so far my family and friends can't.

Peter
 
Peter and Jon......

Nothing wrong with applying rub and cooking immediately. That is what we are forced to do at the competitions....at least those of us who arrive later in the afternoon on Friday.

You only have time to prep, rub and then onto the smoker.

The tough bark can be caused by a couple of things............too much sugar in the rub, too high a cooker temp or rack of mopping.

I have no idea how folks can get by without mopping something that will be cooking for 14-18 hrs.....no matter how low the heat. I have tried this and the bark is terrible at the end.

So, I am a big believer in mopping and think it helps to soften that bark. You can also wrap in foil for a rest period after cooking and that will soften it as well.
 
I definitely agree about the mopping. The first cooks I did in my kettle were done without mopping and I pretty much had to get rid of the bark (and the flavor). Since then I have been mopping and it has made a huge diffence in the overall quality of the Q.

My bigger concern is not the bark, but the fact that one of the butts seemed mushy. Is this what happens when it is overcooked? Does the meat get mushy or tough when overcooked? Or could it be that it was rubbed too much in advance (23 hours)?

One other thing I want to point out is that I tried to extend the "zone" cooking times based on other conversations on the board. This was by far the longest cook I have had of butts (17 hours), so I wonder if this contributed to mushy pulled pork.

Thanks for all the feedback.
 
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