First High Heat Butt


 
Teddy J.

Teddy J.

TVWBB Pro
After having such great success with high heat briskets, I wanted to see if I could duplicate success with a high heat bone-in boston butt.

Butt was just over 8 pounds, cooked fat cap down at 340-365 temp (target was 350) for 3.5 hours, checked temp and internal was ~160, foiled tightly and cooked for another 1.5 hrs at the same temp. Checked temp through the foil and internal was reading ~195, felt like butter in most places with the probe.

Went ahead and pulled butt off the WSM and tented with foil for about 35 minutes.

Overall impressions? Well it pulled like a 14 hour cook EXCEPT for one small area near the center that was a little tough. VERY juicy due to the 1.5 hrs in foil, but not quite as smokey tasting as I would have liked. I think I'll go a bit heavier on the wood next time, as I bet you'll be able to get good smoke flavor with the 3.5 hrs unfoiled.

I'll be doing another one of these, and will try and provide pictures next time. For those who haven't tried a high heat butt yet, I'd say give it a whirl and see what you think. I was impressed with the total cook time being ~5 hrs.
 
Mitch,

What was your impression of how the fat rendered compared to a low and slow cook? With fatty pork cuts, I prefer a low and slow cook because of the way pork fat breaks down; but that's just me.

Paul
 
Paul:

Personally, I could tell a very slight difference between the two, but I can guarantee that anyone who doesn't cook their own BBQ on a regular basis would not be able to tell the difference between them.

When I do one next time, I'm going to use more wood, and go heavier on the hickory (I used mostly oak with 1 chunk of hickory this time), and maybe run the cooker an extra 30 minutes to get the internal temp closer to ~205.

Even at 195 internal the thing about fell apart when removing from the grate.
 
When I do my high heat briskets, I use a lot of wood, since the smoke window is so much shorter. I haven't done a high heat butt, done a few at around 300 degrees, but never a real high one. The ones I do around 285-300 come out real nice though.
 
<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">Originally posted by Mike R.:
When I do my high heat briskets, I use a lot of wood, since the smoke window is so much shorter. </div></BLOCKQUOTE>
I do the same as Mike does for high heat briskets. I double the smoke wood of a normal low and slow brisket cook because of the short time the brisket is in the smoke.
Mitch, Glad to hear your high heat Butt came out good for you.
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I've found the high heat butt to be very advantageous when tailgating or cooking within a short time frame. Like you, I felt that I should have added more smoke wood, but the overall texture of the meat was on par with a 'low and slow' cook. Now I wouldn't do this in competition, but for a general public (my tailgating crew) that is going to slather the meat in sauce regardless, it works perfect. Plus its easier to set up and cook on-site the day of the game as opposed to the day/night beforehand.
 
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