Butt triming/cooking question

[Justin F]

Went by my local butcher and got two fresh bone-in butts, about 10 lbs each. Going to cook them overnight, but a few questions for the masters:

1) They came with the fat (seems to be about 1/4-1/2 inch) and skin on. The butcher insists that I should not trim at all, but we like the meat on the leaner side. Should I trim the skin and fat off or will it all render off in the cooking process? If not, skin/fat down or up? Do I need to put rub on the skin? I assume not.

2) at 225-250, how long would you expect it to take (20 lb total of untrimmed meat)?

3) Does injection really do anything? Is it worth it?

4) Are bone-in butts better for smoking than boneless?

Thanks for all the help as always!

 

[Bill S.]

Haven't done a butt in a while, but I would remove the skin. And just trim away what ever fat you don't want. There is plenty of internal fat on butts. I prefer bone in. Are they butts or picnics? I've never seen a "skin on" butt before, then again I don't smoke them often.

 

[TravisH]

1 - As Bill said, I've not seen 'butt' with skin on. I'd trim the skin off and the false cap. But you could leave it on but I'm not sure how to cook it as such so I'll defer to others.

2 - With skin and false cap off, about 12~14 hours. Multi-butts don't really take more time but will take more fuel to reach and hold the target temps.

3 - If I do anything, I prefer to marinate.

4 - meh, I've had excellent results with boneless. IMO, if you inject/marinate, you won't notice a difference.

 

[George Curtis]

not a fan of injection but you will not know what you like unless you try it. as to the skin, i have done three with the skin on and realized that the skin was not doing anything but getting in the way of the rub and smoke. so trim away ! as to bone in and boneless, i think you would be hard pressed to really know the differance. i usually get boneless cuz the bone in's are usually bigger than i want.

 

[Chris Bjork]

I would trim them. I dont think there is a whole lot of difference in the meat moisture but if you pull them, you will be pretty bummed about how much bark you throw out because of it being on useless fat. If you hand pull, you will also find so much more throw away fat that a guy never sees when just fork pulling

 

[Chuck_B]

I always trim fat. The outter fat only goes away so much and then you will throw most of your bark away because it will just be fat. I wouldn't say take it all off but def a nice amount of it. Plenty of fat inside that will render and really make the meat moist! It's not the fat on the outside that does it.

Do you use water in the pan or do you just foil? Water in the pan will keep the temp cooler and will take a little longer. Last time I did butts I did 4 of them. I halfed them, no water and the temp on the top surface grill was 250 and the bottom was 270. When I did it with water it was the opposite with regards to the higher temp (top was hotter than the bottom).

I have done both injecting and not injecting on butts. To me there was no difference. When I injected, all I used was all natural apple juice.

I prefer bone in. I really don't think there is much of a difference but to having the bone in, the butt is still whole.

Good luck with the cook!