First Cook This Past Weekend/Questions

[Pat Trammell]

After much hinting and lots of prodding, my wife gifted me with a WSM for my 40th birthday. What a Woman!!!! Anyway, this weekend, I broke it in with 2 slabs of baby backs (4 hrs/15 minutes) and a 4.5 lb. pork butt (9 hrs/15 min). Overall a tremendous success, and I am anxious to try more. I followed the Minion method and stuck fairly close to Bulletin Board suggestions the first time out. I do have one question for the professionals, however. The pork butt, after coming off the grill (at 185*) seemed a little on the greasy side after resting for approximately 15 minutes. Later though, and still after heating the leftovers, there is no greasy taste at all. Did I not let this rest long enough, or did I just get an extra fatty cut this time out? Any advice would be appreciated, and I am truly honored to be a part of this wonderful fraternity.

 

[Kevin Taylor]

Hi Pat and welcome!

Glad you had some success the first time out.

You could have taken the butt a bit higher.....I always shoot for 200?. At 185?, it will be tender, but will also have lots of fat that has not been rendered out.

Lately, I have been wrapping in foil once it hits 185-190?, place it back in the pit for another couple of hours and then let it rest. The additional amount of fat that renders out is amazing. Most times I end up with very little fat left in the meat, which makes pulling a very easy job.

Don't worry about ruining the bark...after 9 hours, the foil actually helps it to soften a bit without ruining it.

 

[Jim Minion]

Pat
At 185? there may still have been fat that need to come off, I normally cook to 195?. Whan you pull it there still may be a small amount of fat that you will scrape off.
On the reheat you where able to breakdown even
more.
Try 195? internal and see if that doesn't work better for you.
Jim

 

[Pat Trammell]

Thanks, guys. Wow, that is help from the real professionals! Now I have a rookie confession to make. I did not put a full charge in the charcoal chamber because I was afraid that I would have too much heat. I used 3/4 charge and it held steady at 225-250* pretty much all day, but ran out at around the 9 1/2 hour mark. For this reason I did not get the butt up to the 195-200* "Nirvana level." It is all about learning though, and we'll get it there next time. I did learn a lot about the plateau effect though. Stayed at 170-175 for about 2 hrs/15 minutes, then the climb began. I just ran out of time. I look forward to learning from this and getting to the next cook.