First Boston Butt


 
MattP

MattP

TVWBB Super Fan
So my wife thinks I'm nuts-- I willingly woke up at 4:00 a.m. on a Saturday so I could get things going on my first pork butt. I stopped by the local specialty meat market yesterday and picked up a bone-in butt weighing 8.4 pounds. Trimmed some of the fat, covered it in some Sweet Rub O' Mine, and let it sit in the 'fridge overnight.

Pictures may be a little difficult for this one, and they'll only be from my phone due to one of two frustrating technical issues that popped up.

Technical issue #1, the one preventing me from using my good camera for pictures: The probes for the Maverick ET-732 I just purchased don't fit all the way through the probe eyelet mod I purchased from The BBQ Guru (which, I now see is clearly pointed out on their site-- d'oh!). I am running the probes down through the lid vent, but that's keeping me from being able to take the lid completely off for photos. Phone's the only thing I can shoot one-handed with, so that's what I'm stuck with today.

Technical issue #2, and this one's the most frustrating: The meat probe seems to be working just fine-- the pit temp probe? Nope. My receiver has been showing HHH for the pit temp the entire time, which is about an hour. The booklet that came with the ET-732 says this reading means that either the probe is coming up to temp still (doubt it after an hour), or there's a short in the wiring. Should I contact The BBQ Guru about this (bought it from their site), or should I go straight to Maverick? Hopefully a replacement probe is all that's needed here.

Anydangway, here's the butt when it first went on the WSM, around 0430.

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You can tell that I couldn't really lift the lid that much for the shot, since I had to run the probe wires down through the lid vent.
 
Lookin' good Matt, got twin 9 pounders on the WSM right now. Put 'em on at 7 AM. We're eating good tonight brother!
 
Great start Matt! I get that HHH code once in awhile with my Maverick. I
usually just look for any big kinks in the cable, clean the connector and plug
back in. It usually works. Sometimes I have to shut it off and restart. Then
again you could have a defective cable.
 
Looks good Matt... About the smokin obsession... I won't even fish in the rain anymore but I never hesitate to fire up da ole smoker in da rain....
 
Looks good so far...
Try this next time..
Instead of waking up at 4 am on Saturday. Stay up as late as you can on Friday set everything up then go to sleep. When you wake up at 8 or 9 saturday the wsm temps should be the same.
 
Mike Coffman said:
Great start Matt! I get that HHH code once in awhile with my Maverick. I
usually just look for any big kinks in the cable, clean the connector and plug
back in. It usually works. Sometimes I have to shut it off and restart. Then
again you could have a defective cable.
Click to expand...

Well, now I kind of feel like a dummy. Went out to give another check on it. I had already tried shutting the units off and had no luck with that. However, as I picked the transmitter up I pinched both of the connector plugs, and what do you know it appears my pit connector wasn't firmly plugged in. I now am getting pit readings. DUR, I AM MEAT COOKING MAN, I NO GET TECHNOLOGY. *smh*

Now, here's a question, though. I have the pit probe dangling from the top, through the lid vent. It's fully inside the dome, not touching any metal or the meat. Not quite over the center of the cooking surface, but it's not right at the edge either. The Maverick is reading maybe 30 degrees higher than the WSM's built in thermometer. Think the WSM's reader is that far off?




Tony R said:
Looks good so far...
Try this next time..
Instead of waking up at 4 am on Saturday. Stay up as late as you can on Friday set everything up then go to sleep. When you wake up at 8 or 9 saturday the wsm temps should be the same.
Click to expand...

That's certainly an idea. With this being my first butt I wanted to be awake for the entire process, just to be able to see everything, jot down notes, etc. It wasn't really that bad getting up at 4:00, actually-- I'm usually a morning person anyway.
 
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I've definitely hit the stall-- the butt has gone up all of four degrees in the last two hours! To anybody keeping score at home, I'm at the six hour mark with a reading of 172F from the meat probe.

As I was doing some other stuff around the house I had a slight worry that we may not have enough food for everybody we have coming over tonight. Ran out and picked up a slab of spareribs, which I've trimmed St. Louis style and will plop on the cooker later. Knowing how I tend to over-estimate things like meals, these won't be necessary, but nothing wrong with sending friends home with leftovers.
 
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MattP said:
Well, now I kind of feel like a dummy. Went out to give another check on it. I had already tried shutting the units off and had no luck with that. However, as I picked the transmitter up I pinched both of the connector plugs, and what do you know it appears my pit connector wasn't firmly plugged in. I now am getting pit readings. DUR, I AM MEAT COOKING MAN, I NO GET TECHNOLOGY. *smh*

Now, here's a question, though. I have the pit probe dangling from the top, through the lid vent. It's fully inside the dome, not touching any metal or the meat. Not quite over the center of the cooking surface, but it's not right at the edge either. The Maverick is reading maybe 30 degrees higher than the WSM's built in Thermometer. Think the WSM's reader is that far off?...With this being my first butt I wanted to be awake for the entire process, just to be able to see everything, jot down notes, etc. It wasn't really that bad getting up at 4:00, actually-- I'm usually a morning person anyway.
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Matt, not poking fun at you, here. I took this pic in Wally World the other day 'cause it's me with a beard, and ya gotta love good ol' Phil Robertson of Duck Dynasty.


I get it honestly, and I'd get that hat for my dad if he'd wear it! Anyhow, you're not the first one that has found out the hard way that the guru grommets don't work with that Maverick. I've got the older and cheaper Maverick, but I still prefer the slit in the top of the middle section that I cut in my 22" WSM over the grommet mod in my 18.5 wsm. One of these days I'm gonna pull the grommets out and cut a slit in it, as well. It's just a lot easier to load and with a simple check and a swipe of the wires to make sure they're in the slot, you don't have to worry about crimping the wires with the lid. I don't remember much about my grommet installation other than that maybe there was some kind of a tool that you tightened with a hex key, but in any case, I'd see if you can remove them and go with the slit, or something else if you prefer.

As to the difference between the gauge and your probe, that's not uncommon for the start of the cook. The gauge is in a dead spot of the circulation, while a probe in the vent measures highest temps coming out of the cooker, as long as the tip isn't too low and close to the meat. With water on the pan and cold butts on the cooker, I get 200* by the gauge before shutting the vents back if going to bed and cooking really slow. In the case of an avg. butt for supper if getting up in the AM, my gauge will read somewhere around 225 before shutting vents back any, but I'll let the temp come on up to 250* or so eventually in order for the butts to be done in time for supper. Note that over the course of the cook, temps will even out greatly between grate, vent, and the Weber gauge, for the simple fact that the meat is getting hot. You should also notice though that shade and weather in general can put a damper on the gauge temp in comparison to grate temp or a probe hung low through the vent. I notice that every afternoon because my cooker is on the east side of our house. Just as the sun quits hitting the cooker, all measurements should dip a bit, but never as much as the gauge does...Again, because it's in a dead spot in the circulation.

By the way though, you'll find that you can get about one more layer of charcoal in the ring if you find a Brinkman charcoal pan to use for long cooks instead of the Weber water pan. It's cheap and thinner, but it's probably the oldest and most common wsm mod there is. Folks used to use it with the pre-09 wsm because it held more than enough water to cook overnight, and now we use it because Weber replaced the Smokey Joe lid with the SJ bowl as the water pan, and it's really a bit too close to the fire.

Good luck with your cook!
Dave
 
my wife thinks I'm nuts--
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...you are. butt that's ok, we all are.
lookin' good, lookin' forward to some tasty plated pics later.
once she tries your pulled pork, she won't think you're nuts anymore. ;)
 
Dave, you're doing perfect, and so is the meat. If you're at 172 after 6 hours that is a good thing.
 
Matt, as Dave said, it is not uncommon for them on mine to be that far off
during the first few hours of the cook. I always thought there was something
wrong with my gauge on the WSM, but it passed the boiling water and ice test.
I don't even worry about what the WSM gauge says anymore, I always temp at
the grate, which is my style and not for everyone.
 
Quick shot from about half an hour ago, as the butt reached the 7.5 hour mark:

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I see how in the center it appears as if the meat is a bit thinner than the rest of the butt. Yesterday while trimming and applying rub I noted that there was a chunk of fat right there, guess that's the cause of what I see in the photo.

Should I plan to flip this bad boy over at all, to allow the 'upper' portion some time on the cooking surface?
 
So here we are at ten hours:

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The thing is amazingly tender. I was poking another thermometer around while taking these and getting temps between 180 and 190, I think it's more-or-less time to pull it off. But people aren't supposed to show up for another two and a half hours. Ugh.

I have a cooler sitting with hot water in it right now, guess I'll wrap this puppy up in foil, drain that water, and put the meat in the cooler along with towels.
 
Done already? I go by if it's jiggly, whether the bone feels loose enough to pull out clean, and FYI, if cooked by day in under 12 hrs, I don't know if I've ever had one done before it temped 190*, but it's all good. Chop the dipsticks or any other parts that might not be quite tender when pulling.

If you're sure it's thoroughly cooked though, be careful about residual heat overcooking the butt while holding hot for supper. I like to slow the cook down when I know I'm getting close so I won't have to hold long, let the butts lose their steam a bit, and then wrap and just do what I need to do to keep 'em hot enough to pull right before serving. For only a couple butts, a large soft-sided cooler bag works perfect with the foiled over butts in a disposable foil roasting pan to keep from making a mess in the bag. They should stay plenty hot like that for a couple of hours, even after letting rest on the counter a bit to lose their steam. Reason I stress that butts can keep on cooking in a hot cooler is that I learned the hard way what was going on from cooking butts overnight and holding hot for a few or several hours til supper the next day. Before I finally figured out why my butts were kind of dry, it had almost made me want to sell my wsm and go back to my old smoker!

Regards,
Dave
 
Here's a shot of the final product. Sorry the pic's a little on the blurry side-- the dining room in our house was a hoppin' place with the guests so I was in a bit of a rush to snap this before people dove in.

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Some thoughts after it's all said and done:

I wound up having to keep the butt wrapped and warm in a cooler for about three hours before people showed up for the meal. Thankfully was still quite hot when I took it out. Although I'm quite surprised it got done in ten hours, I really do think it was ready to come off-- I checked the temp in four different spots and was getting readings all between 185 and 195. Wonder if it was done in ten due to the cooking temps. The built-in dome thermometer was reading 230-250 the entire time, but my Maverick that I had dangling through the top vent was usually in the 250-265 range. It was sunny and in the 70's much of the day, and the WSM was in the sun all of that time-- not sure that would have had something to do with it as well.

Keeping it in the cooler as long as I did didn't seem to have too much of a negative effect on things-- it was extremely tender, the bark seemed good to me (not mushy but not leathery). It was also quite moist still. Yes, I do think the moistness would have been a little bit more-so had I not kept it wrapped in the cooler, but I would not say it was dry.

I didn't need to get those ribs this morning. The butt was enough and then some. I tend to frequently over-estimate on how much food to prepare-- maybe one of these days I'll realize that and tell myself to ignore the voice telling me I might not have enough food for folks.

Both the pulled pork and the ribs were a smash hit-- our guests loved them. I got to send both couples home with a good sized portion of leftovers, so I guess that was a benefit of preparing too much food.

Rolf Jacobsen said:
Smile Matt. It's just BBQ. I bet it tastes great!
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Yeah. Now that I'm done with the cook and folks have gone home for the night, I see I was really over-thinking things today.
 
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