Bone In Bone Out

[Mike Marlow]

When I have smoked pork butt up til now I have always got my butcher to prepare it bone out. Knowing that usually meat gets a lot of flavor when cooked with the bone in I thought I would do my next butt with the bone in. I intend to smoke with a smoker temp of around 300F. The reason for this (rather than 250F) is that I would like to start early in morning but finish about 5-6pm so as to rest for eating about 8:00pm onwards. Anyone any suggestions, ideas that might help would be appreciated.

 

[Paul G.]

I'm not sure I've ever done a boneless butt; however I've done many, many bone-ins. I think you'll be quite happy, though the difference may not be tremendous. You can "wiggle the bone" as a test for doneness - almost impossible to do this with boneless

. Your finish time will have a lot to do with weight, but a typical bone-in would be 7 to 9 lbs, so I would think you high heat would lead to a reasonable finish time. Perhaps you should be ready with some foil if you don't see that happening later in the cook. Most poke a hole in the bottom of the foil to let the juices out.

Bet it turns out great !

Paul