About to smoke about 10 pounds of meat, Need advice. (Pork Butt / Tri Tip)


 
S

SMalki

TVWBB Member
Thanks for anyone who replied to any of my previous posts / cooks. I got a lot of help on ribs from here. I managed to cook some decent ribs last week because of this message board, still trying to get that perfect ribs. Going to try again on the next cook, but before that On friday I am planning on a larger cook with 2 pork butts and 1 trip tip roast.

Here are my new ribs (came out much better than my old ribs check out my other thread on ribs):
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I have never smoked either cut of meat before. And I know it takes a longer time to smoke the more meat you do. I'm looking to be smoking around 225-250 the whole time. Here's a few questions I have hopefully some of you can answer asap.

I have 1 (6.5 pound) boneless pork butt I bought yesterday I'm planining on rubbing down with the mustard recipie on this site
I have another (3 pound) pork shoulder roast I will rub down with same mustard recipie
I have one (2 Pound) Tri Tip USDA roast That I'm not entirely sure How I will cook


My question is, how long do you think this cook will take in my 18.5 inch WSM. I'm wondering if it's best to cook this roast overnight or if it will be under 8 hours. Another question is Will the 3 pound pork shoulder finish before the 6 pound pork shoulder? Is it worth cutting the 6 pound roast into two 3 pound roasts, to match cooking time with the smaller roast i have? Also what is the cooking time on Tri Tip if i'm cooking low and slow (I do not like to go medium rare, I like my steak well done).

Thanks for any info anyone might have for me.

I'm cooking so much meat because I just bought a Foodsaver and I want to have some leftovers. Pulled pork seems like the perfect meat to have around for leftovers in the freezer.
 
Just started the cook. Decided to cook today instead of tomarrow, I'll be cooking into the night which is ok. So far I'm about 2.5 hours in and temps are around 215 constant. I'm sure it will go up as the meat heats up. These pics are from when I first put the meat on

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I smoke Tri-tip to an internal temp of 121* then sear it for 3 minutes or so per side over very hot coals, remove from heat & loosely tent it with tin foil & rest 15 minutes or so. Tri-tip is ez to overcook & just doesn't taste "good" when this happens. This takes about an hour or so. I have read of cooks where Tri-tip is smoked much like a brisket to much higher internal temps, but I have not tried cooking it that way.

The small piece of pork will probably cook faster than the big one.

Let us know the results of your cook.
 
Tri-tip should be cooked over hot coals to an IT of about 125° then wrapped and rested for 15 min. or so. Butt takes much longer and should be cooked low and slow to about an IT of 200°. Don't try to mix the two on the same cook, just won't work.
 
Robert-R said:
I smoke Tri-tip to an internal temp of 121* then sear it for 3 minutes or so per side over very hot coals, remove from heat & loosely tent it with tin foil & rest 15 minutes or so. Tri-tip is ez to overcook & just doesn't taste "good" when this happens. This takes about an hour or so. I have read of cooks where Tri-tip is smoked much like a brisket to much higher internal temps, but I have not tried cooking it that way.

The small piece of pork will probably cook faster than the big one.

Let us know the results of your cook.
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V_Rocco said:
Looks good! Enjoy the cook!
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KevinInUtah said:
Tri-tip should be cooked over hot coals to an IT of about 125° then wrapped and rested for 15 min. or so. Butt takes much longer and should be cooked low and slow to about an IT of 200°. Don't try to mix the two on the same cook, just won't work.
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Thanks for the replys. Here's a 3-4 hour update. I went to the mall and then went to excersize while the meat was on, came back from running to take the tri tip off I thought it may be overcooked. Luckily it has been smoking pretty slowly and seemed cooked pretty well. It came out good! This is pretty much how I like it. I didn't want to cook it on high heat because I like it brown all the way through. I'm not a fan of medium rare steak, I'm suprised this was still pretty juicy and tender! I guess tri tip can be cooked low and slow after all! I originally bought tri tip thinking i could make bbq beef with it, turns out i need beef chuck roast. Oh well. Still learning, but I'm happy overall!

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Still a long way to go on the pulled pork, smoker is still going strong and putting out decent smoke. I filled it to the brim with charcol so it should last me the whole cook. I used almost a whole big bag of kingston briquettes. About 3 medium chunks of hickory and a few smaller chunks added in for smoke flavor. The tri tip tastes perfectly smoked I can't believe it! Its kinda windy today it was supposed to rain but the temps have been good. They are starting to get a little higher now I'm getting closer to 250 if it goes over 250 I'll close the vents a little on the bottom
 
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you do kalifornia proud, some great cooks, love the ribs! How you like that lightening and thunder today? Crazy huh? :)
 
ChuckO said:
you do kalifornia proud, some great cooks, love the ribs! How you like that lightening and thunder today? Crazy huh? :)
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Thanks! yeah i was suspecting the rain so thats why i wasn't going to cook until tomarrow, but we never got it over here. Good thing too because at the last minute I decided to cook today. I was going to bbq in the rain if need be! Where are you located?
 
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update at 3am pork is finally done!!!! Poor lighting so pics don't look as good, if this was well lit, whooo you wouldn't believe!!! Best pulled pork I ever had, even better then the bbq joint pulled pork i had that inspired me to get the smoker!!! Took around 12 hrs to smoke . Put the pork on between 2 and 3 pm and pulled the last of it off at around 220 am. The smaller 3 pound piece of pork I was able to take off around midnight. It was soo good and now I have lots of leftovers!!!!

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edit: I looked in the smoker after i took all the meat off, I still had a few hours left of fuel! Incredible burn time with this charcol! It was a windy day too so the charcol burned faster than normal. I think I could have went 15 hours on this fuel, but maybe 17 or 18 with no wind!

My last question is: What's the best way to turn the smoker off? Today I dumped the water out and removed the pan, and closed all the vents, but i did not put the water pan back in the smoker. Sometimes I notice some rust colored soot on the inside of the smoker when I leave the water pan in and close the vents. even when i dump all the water out. I have to clean it off sometimes before I smoke. Is that from the water pan or is it something else? I have my pan wrapped in foil, maybe the foil burned and since i'ts trapped in there it goes on the inside of the smoker? I'd like my smoker to be seasoned but I always wash off the nasty looking rust soot. Let me know why that is appearing and if there is anything I can do about it. Thanks
 
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