First (2nd cook ever) Overnight and all I can say is WOW


 
J

Jason B

TVWBB Fan
I am thoroughly amazed with my WSM. I started at 9pm last night using the MM. I got up to around 240* and it stabalized at 238. Went to bed around 11pm checking it one last time and seeing 238 still maintaining. The two butts were around 100*

Woke up at 4am and went outside to see how things were progressing. The thing was at 232*!! How awesome is this cooker?

Woke up for the day at 7 and it was at 228. I added some more water and opened the vents a tad. Currently sitting at 240*.

I'm sure this is all old hat for you gurus out there, but I'm tickled pink.

Thanks for all the great posts that gave me the confidence to try an overnight on my first day of cooking. I'll post some results of the two boston butts later today.
 
Hey Jason, welcome aboard and a big "I am with you on the Bullet". Glad you are having as much fun as ME. My PBs are looking and smelling fantastic.
 
Well my BB's turned out awesome. I wound up foiling them at around 180* and took the internals up to 195ish on each before removing them from the smoker. Total cook time was TWENTY hours!

I was very happy with my first endeavor into this wonderful realm of the low and slow. I was sure glad that I started early though.

When I pulled the pork after letting it rest for an hour or so in a cooler wrapped in two lairs of foil it came apart efoortlessly. The bone slipped out of the meat with equally little effort.

I did expect a little more moisture content than what I got, but I think that may be partially accountable to me trimming it too much during preparation.

Do most folks add some liquid after they pull the pork? Some thin BBQ sauce or vinegar based concoction maybe?

I did manage to click one picture before I got too busy making sure it turned out allright. If I can find the webspace I'll upload it later too.

Thanks for all the great tips and I sure look forward to a lot more Q'ing.
 
Jason,

Great to hear you're having as much fun as everyone else. It is a satisfying "job well done" when it comes out.

I don't trim butts anymore. I used to brine them for flavor, but don't do that either. I don't turn or baste them either. Read a bunch of posts here and found that the less I mess with it, the better.

I was interested: what was the outside temp? Maybe 'cause I live in God's oven I have shorter cook times.

As for sauce, my preference is a vinegar adaptation from Smoke and Spice. You'll find a lot of good ones, though, in the sauce & marinade forum. This past time I made four and applied them separately ... prompted and motivated by reading from TVWBB forums.

I'll chime in with a thanks, too, to everyone who have provided the tips, tricks, and traps information for Q.
 
Jason, we add a thin eastern (NC) style BBQ sauce after chopping the butts. This is not so much for dryness as for flavor and heat.

We never trim our butts. When I "pull" the meat into chunks getting ready to chop, I will separate the remaining, easily separable fat. No matter how lazy I have gotten about separating fat, I have never had greasy BBQ since I learned how to run the butts low and slow.
 
Jason--

Congrats on your cook. (Too cool, no?)

Echoing Vernon and Jimbo, I don't prep butts ahead of time, except for applying a rub. And a vinegar sauce for sprinkling on and mixing in during pulling (with more on the side for serving) is great with butt, as they point out. I often make a modified SC-style vinegar-mustard sauce--very thin--but a butt yields so much meat you can easily play with different sauces at pulling time as Jimbo did. (I'm very fond of a mustard sauce using pineapple vinegar, one with a little fresh, ripe tomato pureed in, and one with vinegar, guava, and pureed hot chilies.)

Have fun cookin'.
 
Jason you can't over trim a butt by taking off the fat cap because of all the fat in the butt. There are seven different muscles and fat either in or between those muscles. If it seems dry I would check my therms.
Normally a butt doesn't start to loss moisture till you hit 200 internal and higher.
Jim
 
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