Cooking single butt.....top or middle?


 
J

jkruger

New member
I am going to cook a single bone in 8lb pork butt Sunday in my new 18.5" WSM. Should I cook the butt on the top rack or on the lower/middle rack? If I use the middle rack I assume I want to figure that it will be about 20 degrees cooler than the dome thermometer?

Thanks for any advice.
 
I do single butts on top if cooking nothing else. I use a my Maverick for temps, never really pay attention to the dome probe, not accurate.
 
If what I'm cooking fits on top I put it on top. Over flow goes on bottom on my cooker. However, if I am cooking poultry and anything else I put poultry on bottom.
 
Yep..One Butt on top.
And don't leave the middle grate in there, remove it, no sense in cleaning both grates after.
Oh and welcome to the board!:wsm:

Tim
 
timothy said:
Yep..One Butt on top.
And don't leave the middle grate in there, remove it, no sense in cleaning both grates after.
:wsm:

Tim
Click to expand...

Where were you when I needed you:p. I learned the error of my ways the first cook. Looking at that dirty rack underneath, I slapped my forehead. Duh-h-h!

Dale53
 
I usually put a disposable drip pan on the lower grate if there's no food on it so I don't have to clean it or the water pan.
 
Butt on top.... Try a tray of doctored up baked beans underneath the butt... They only take about two'ish hours and are super easy and GAD!!!
 
I put a rack across an aluminum pan and set the butt on the rack which sits on the top grate of WSM. Usually add water or juice to cover the bottom of the pan - the pork butt drippings are caught by the pan and mixed back in to the pulled pork...
 
Mike Willis said:
I put a rack across an aluminum pan and set the butt on the rack which sits on the top grate of WSM. Usually add water or juice to cover the bottom of the pan - the pork butt drippings are caught by the pan and mixed back in to the pulled pork...
Click to expand...

That sounds like a great and tasty idea. Mmmmmmmm, drippings! It has to be good.
 
Oh yeah, it is good. You get the bark, the moist meat and the drippings... ain't life grand!

Eastern WA - whereabouts? We looked in to relocating from Western WA to Eastern WA...

We really liked the Republic area, as well as Metaline Falls. I was hoping to work in Spokane until retirement in one of those two towns. But here we are in AZ....

(I should mention that we lived in Camas WA for 14 years, and Vancouver WA for 3 years....)
 
Mike Willis said:
Oh yeah, it is good. You get the bark, the moist meat and the drippings... ain't life grand!

Eastern WA - whereabouts? We looked in to relocating from Western WA to Eastern WA...

We really liked the Republic area, as well as Metaline Falls. I was hoping to work in Spokane until retirement in one of those two towns. But here we are in AZ....

(I should mention that we lived in Camas WA for 14 years, and Vancouver WA for 3 years....)
Click to expand...

We are in the tricities area, just outside of Kennewick. We lived in western WA and western OR for quite a few years.

I started the butt last night about 8pm. With all the vents open 100% it got up to 200deg in about 5 minutes and I closed the bottom vents to 25% when it did. In another 15 minutes or so it hit 225deg and over the next couple of hours I ended up closing the bottom vents a bit more, to about 15% or so, and it held at 225deg all night. Around 6am this morning the temp started to drop a bit so I stirred the coals gently and added a few briquets and it's been at 25% vents and holding 225 ever since. At 6am I also turned the butt and sopped it. I planned to do that a bit earlier (turning at the halves was my plan) but I slept in just a bit. Just a few minutes ago (at 9:00) I turned it and sopped it again and took the temp. It is right at 180deg. I was figuring on it being done around noon, but it might get done a little sooner. I am really happy with how the bark looks, and it smells amazing. For it being the first cook in the new WSM I am extremely happy at how easy it was to control the temp. After a bit of fiddling with the vents at the beginning it ended up holding 225 deg (according the the Weber lid thermometer) very nicely. The night time temps got into the low to mid 30's last night, so I assume that is why I needed to add a few briquets. I got up at 2am to check on it and it was right at 225deg, which is where it was at 6am when I got up.

Having been a hard core briquet guy for years I have to say that the WSM was a real nice addition and I look forward to using it for many years. This site is a tremendous resource. I used the Mr. Brown recipe, which I also have in at least one of my BBQ books.
 
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