KEhrl
TVWBB Member
Hi Everyone,
This week I finally had the opportunity to smoke my first pork butt on my WSM 14. At the grocery store they were on sale for 99c a pound! The one I picked up was a Smithfield All Natural Bone In "Butt" weighing at 7.85 lbs. For this cook I woke up early at 5AM to get the process going. Per the pork butt walkthrough on the website I trimmed off the fat cap and other large areas of fat. I'd say I ended up at around 7 lbs, although I didn't have my scale on hand to weigh.
My rub was a combination of brown sugar, paprika, garlic powder, cayenne, salt and pepper, probably close to half sugar in volume as I wanted a little sweetness. I used yellow mustard to adhere my rub. I started up the smoker and had the meat on the 6AM. I only used a half filled water pan to encourage higher temps from the start. I used two meat probes and an air probe for this cook. I inserted one meat probe on the under side of the bone closer to to the bottom of the grate, and the other on from the top side somewhat near the bone.
After putting it on and the temps stabilizing at 255 deg, I went back to bed. At 8 when I woke up and temps were holding well. For the first 6 hours of the cook temps ranged anywhere from 250 to 265, with me making slight vent adjustments here and there if it dropped under 250 or over 275. At Noon the internal temps were 178 in the lower probe, and 168 in the upper probe. Here I applied a mop of AC Vinegar with a splash of worcestershire mixed with some rub. The bark was already looking great.
At the same time the cooker had dropped to 225 cooking temps, so I decided to add some more hot coals since I knew I wouldn't be able to make another 6 or so hours. I reinvigorated what was left of the coals and lit a full chimney (I have the camper chimney). While the coals heated up the smoker shot up to 285 degrees! Really odd and here I wish I'd waited to re-light, but the chimney was already lit. I added the new coals and refilled the water pan since it was completely empty (maybe why it got up to 285?). For the rest of the cook I ranged in temps from 225 to 250, even adding another half chimney of coals at one point to keep temps up. At 530 the meat thermometers read 190 lower and 182 upper. I used my instant read and probed a few spots, seeing ~195 in a few areas. With dinner approaching and my coals on life support I decided to pull.
I wrapped it in foil and let it sit for about an hour and a half in a cooler. The bark was everything I'd hope it'd be and the bone came out pretty clean! The pork pulled generally well using two large forks, some spots tougher than others and some very tender, but that's probably due to the different muscle groups in the cut of meat. My fiance' had hers with a Carolina Gold Sauce we bought from Trader Joes and I whipped up a little Eastern NC Vinegar Sauce. We ate this with a side of Hawaiian Mac Salad, and I also made some beans.
All in all I was happy with my first pork butt experience. To date it's the longest I've ran my smoker (12 hours) and I think it performed well. Next time I'd like to alot for some more time to get closer to 200/205 internal temps. I'll probably have to do an over-nighter to achieve this, but right now am reluctant to do so as I keep my cooker/do my cooks at my future in-laws house! Regarding the relights I hope to show more patience in the future. I probably jumped the gun at Noon and could've waited longer after reinvigorating the coals. This probably would've prevented needing the second half re-light I mentioned. With the re-filled water pan I am wondering if that kept my temps too low in the second half of the cook, maybe I leave it empty next time? I think cooking at 250-275 could keep this type of cook in a reasonable 12-14 hours. Hope everyone enjoys the pics and would love to hear your thoughts!
Cheers,
Kyle
This week I finally had the opportunity to smoke my first pork butt on my WSM 14. At the grocery store they were on sale for 99c a pound! The one I picked up was a Smithfield All Natural Bone In "Butt" weighing at 7.85 lbs. For this cook I woke up early at 5AM to get the process going. Per the pork butt walkthrough on the website I trimmed off the fat cap and other large areas of fat. I'd say I ended up at around 7 lbs, although I didn't have my scale on hand to weigh.
My rub was a combination of brown sugar, paprika, garlic powder, cayenne, salt and pepper, probably close to half sugar in volume as I wanted a little sweetness. I used yellow mustard to adhere my rub. I started up the smoker and had the meat on the 6AM. I only used a half filled water pan to encourage higher temps from the start. I used two meat probes and an air probe for this cook. I inserted one meat probe on the under side of the bone closer to to the bottom of the grate, and the other on from the top side somewhat near the bone.
After putting it on and the temps stabilizing at 255 deg, I went back to bed. At 8 when I woke up and temps were holding well. For the first 6 hours of the cook temps ranged anywhere from 250 to 265, with me making slight vent adjustments here and there if it dropped under 250 or over 275. At Noon the internal temps were 178 in the lower probe, and 168 in the upper probe. Here I applied a mop of AC Vinegar with a splash of worcestershire mixed with some rub. The bark was already looking great.
At the same time the cooker had dropped to 225 cooking temps, so I decided to add some more hot coals since I knew I wouldn't be able to make another 6 or so hours. I reinvigorated what was left of the coals and lit a full chimney (I have the camper chimney). While the coals heated up the smoker shot up to 285 degrees! Really odd and here I wish I'd waited to re-light, but the chimney was already lit. I added the new coals and refilled the water pan since it was completely empty (maybe why it got up to 285?). For the rest of the cook I ranged in temps from 225 to 250, even adding another half chimney of coals at one point to keep temps up. At 530 the meat thermometers read 190 lower and 182 upper. I used my instant read and probed a few spots, seeing ~195 in a few areas. With dinner approaching and my coals on life support I decided to pull.
I wrapped it in foil and let it sit for about an hour and a half in a cooler. The bark was everything I'd hope it'd be and the bone came out pretty clean! The pork pulled generally well using two large forks, some spots tougher than others and some very tender, but that's probably due to the different muscle groups in the cut of meat. My fiance' had hers with a Carolina Gold Sauce we bought from Trader Joes and I whipped up a little Eastern NC Vinegar Sauce. We ate this with a side of Hawaiian Mac Salad, and I also made some beans.
All in all I was happy with my first pork butt experience. To date it's the longest I've ran my smoker (12 hours) and I think it performed well. Next time I'd like to alot for some more time to get closer to 200/205 internal temps. I'll probably have to do an over-nighter to achieve this, but right now am reluctant to do so as I keep my cooker/do my cooks at my future in-laws house! Regarding the relights I hope to show more patience in the future. I probably jumped the gun at Noon and could've waited longer after reinvigorating the coals. This probably would've prevented needing the second half re-light I mentioned. With the re-filled water pan I am wondering if that kept my temps too low in the second half of the cook, maybe I leave it empty next time? I think cooking at 250-275 could keep this type of cook in a reasonable 12-14 hours. Hope everyone enjoys the pics and would love to hear your thoughts!
Cheers,
Kyle
