Cooked my last butt wo foil


 
D

DavidD

TVWBB Super Fan
I have never smoked such a small butt but local grocer had small butts. Bought a 4.32 lb butt and putt it on at 1115am. Figured 1.5 hrs per pound so appx 6 pm done, rest for one hour eat at 7pm. Temp ck at 530, 6.25 hrs and internal was only 168 on the therma pen. I couldnt believe it. I desperately foiled for one hour, until 630, then pulled it to get ready for dinner. Left it in the foil until 650pm before opening up, and pulling it apart at 7. Internal rose to 182 but way below target. Meat was edible but as expected, tough. I always foil for a couple of hours but decided the small butt didnt need it, wrong...

Temps ran at 250-275 at the lid, all day long. Very disappointing. Going back to the old method of direct heat snd smoke, then foil for 2-3 hrs then back in the smoke to firm up.
 
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Well, that stinks. I never foil, but I always allow 12 plus hours for a butt. Of course that's for a nine or ten pounder.
 
I've never foiled a butt, however have been cooking them in the 270* at the grate range of late.
I only use internal temp of the meat as a guide.
If it's not probe tender, it's not done.
 
Connective tissue is connective tissue, big butt, little butt.
It has to get broken down by time, and the time doesn't change that much between the two opposite sizes.
 
Robert-R said:
I only use internal temp of the meat as a guide.
If it's not probe tender, it's not done.
Click to expand...


I agree, and a rule of thumb is 1.5 hrs per pound and an internal temp of 190-205, but all subject to tenderness. The 1.5 hrs didnt equate to the appx internal temp and certainly not tenderness. This is the worst butt ive made though everyone else didnt know the difference.
 
Sounds like you needed more time. Unfortunately when cooking meat, rule number 1 is it's done when it's done. At least now you know. If we never experiment, we'll never find out. And at least it was a small butt so you didn't lose too much.
 
Same as Dustin, never foil or use water.

I did a 5lb rolled shoulder yesterday. It was a 9hr cook at 250/275 to get to 203IT. TBH it was a bit dry but tasted great. I think because there was not a lot of fat on the shoulder I should have pulled at 195IT. No big deal as I said it tasted great. Gonna mix up some of the leftovers with some 80/20 ground beef and make some burgers. :)
 
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My biggest mistake was not inserting a meat thermo during the cook. I thought i had way more time than needed for such a small piece of meat. The thermo would have alerted me much sooner to the low internal temp and i could have adjusted sooner. Im still surprised at how slowly this meat came up. I had great lid temps all day
 
yea its been documented that little butts take pretty close to the same time as big butts. The 1.5 per pound is a good predictor of your typical sizes but with smaller butts throw that time frame out the window. When comparing cooking time of a 9 lb to a 12lb use that guide but to compare a 12lb to a 4lb don't use that guide.
 
I have never had a butt done at 1.5 hours per pound. For some reason mine always take at least 2hr/pound. I usually cook around 275.
 
When you say "Lid temp", do you mean the the thermometer that comes with the smoker? Don't use that. Stick your thermo pen in the lid vent and compare. Mine reads 30-40° too low. If you knew that already then disreguard but could explain your problem some.
 
I just smoked about a 5lb butt over Labor Day W/E when we were camping. Target temp of 225* for the wsm (grate level), and about 190* for the butt. I do use water, but don't foil. It took over 12hrs to hit the 190*ish mark, before I checked it. Let it go a little longer, but came out very tender.

It sounds like I will be smoking about a 6lb butt the first w/e of Oct when we are Halloween Camping.
 
You may have been able to rescue the cook if you jacked up the temperature to 325 or more after foiling. Use the kitchen oven if necessary, since it's already in foil anyway.
 
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