First Butt - Need More Smoke


 
G

Gil Rohde

New member
For Labor Day I cooked my first pork butt for pulled pork. It was just a small 3.5lb boneless since it was just for my wife and me (and kids, but they don't eat anything). It took 9 hours and was very good, but I don't feel it was smokey enough. There was only about a 1/8" smoke ring.

Here was my method:
1) I trimmed excess fat, put oil on the butt, covered it with rub, and put in the fridge the night before.
2) After starting the charcoal using the Minion Method I took the butt out of the fridge and added some more rub.
3) I buried 3 chunks of wood in the unlit coal and added 3 more to the top of the lit coal.
4) Put the butt on and started smoking.
5) I left the top vent 100% open the whole time as people recommend.
6) I kept the temp at 230-250 the whole time, adjusting the bottom vents accordingly. I didn't have any problem regulating the temp and didn't have to add any more charcoal.

As for the smoke:
1) For the first hour there was a lot of smoke. It was usually even leaking out around the access door and between the levels.
2) Then the smoke started to die down. I have found this in my limited experience. To get it going again I usually open the access door and turn the wood chunks a bit which starts the smoke coming again. The worry I have is that this also kicks up some ash which can get on the meat.
3) I find I have to periodically do this every 20-30 minutes to keep the smoke coming.
4) After the wood chunks were mostly gone I added 3 more chunks and later a few more smaller pieces.

I'm looking for some suggestions for getting more smoke to penetrate the meat. I have read that cold meat works better but mine was not out of the fridge very long before going into the smoker. Should I use more wood to start? Should I just add more wood when the smoke dies down rather than stirring the current chunks? It seems like lots of people run the smoker all night without playing with the wood.

My wife commented that the meat had a nice very subtle smoke flavor, but I wasn't going for subtle, I wanted serious smoke flavor!
 
Welcome Gil!
A few random thoughts. The smoke-ring is a chemical reaction that occurs when some of this mixes with some of that (I'm a Carpenter not a chemist) It's all for looks and has nothing to do with smoke flavour.
Just because you don't see white smoke doesn't mean you're not smoking. Most of us strive to get that thin blue smoke which is almost invisible to the naked eye but thats when the magic occurs.
You say the smokewood has a subtle taste.(six chunks) What are you using?Certain woods pair better with certain cuts of meat
Buying wood with the right moisture content has also made a huge difference to me as far as smoke flavour

Tim
 
What Timothy said. Try some hickory and/or some fruit wood that's seasoned several months, but with a little more moisture content if you can get your hands on some. A local orchard is where I get mine for free, but nut woods like hickory and oak will smoke a lot longer than fruit woods, no matter the moisture content. It's not a big deal, but while meat will adsorb smoke no matter the temp, you'll certainly get more smoke flavor if you put the meat on cold, and a deeper smoke ring as well.
 
Sounds like you added plenty of wood. My guess is you used something mild. I generally use a mixture of apple and cherry for my pork. Apple alone, is just too light for me.
 
Howdy Gil, I use apple wood for all my smoking even including briskets. When it comes to butts, I use something heavier like hickory or mesquite to penetrate that thick chunk of meat.
 
I use Hicory and I use more than 6 chunks for butts, of course that does depend on the size of the chunks. I buy the bagged wood they sell at Lowes so maybe it's dried out more than what you would cut yourself but I found that the only way to get more smoke flavor was to increase the amount of wood.
 
Gil, I only use pecan (a milder flavor for hickory) and apple, and not much at that, and get all the smoke taste you can imagine. I wonder if the issue has anything to do with the oil you used. I've never, ever used oil on any meat in my wsm, so I cannot speak from that angle of experience, but when I use a mustard then rub on my pork butts the smoke flavor is great. It sure sounds like you used more than enough wood for a 3.5 lb butt, much more than I would have used (2 fist sized chunks), so I'd look to the meat prep. I, too, did my Labor Day butt straight from the fridge into the wsm, so the cold shouldn't be any issue as many people do that, so the prep may hold the key. Experiment, and good luck!
 
Gil,

Bleow is a link to an Good Eats episode where Alton is discussing how to make ribs on a gas grill. While I know people can disagree with him on many topics, he does have some good information regarding how wood burns. At the 29 minute mark he discusses the differences between the white visable smoke and the thin almost invisable blue somke that was discribed by Tim. The best analogy is that you do not see "flames" from hot charcoal, but there is still a lot of heat coming from them. Same thing with the smoke and flavor.

Here is the Video
 
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Right before A. Brown talked about smoke, did ya'll see the pull-back from the ribs that were supposedly pulled at 135*? Talk about blowin' some smoke!
 
Gil:

It has been my experience that hickory gives me that stronger smoke flavor but I caution you that the thick white smoke can lead to a bitter almost lighter fluid taste especially on chicken. I know this first hand and since then I make sure I don't put the meat on until most of the white smoke has cleared. In my testing cherry and pecan give you a hint of smoke flavor.
 
Thanks for all the useful advice. I did use apple and hickory, probably 2/3 apple. Interesting about the smoke color. I was thinking that the easily visible white smoke was what I wanted. So how to get the blue smoke? I am a big fan of Alton Brown so I'll check out the video.
 
Only reason smoke should be heavy and white is if you're seeing steam from the pan. I admit that if I've already put the meat on and the smoke smells too strong, out comes the offending wood chunk.
 
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