First Long Cook: Boston Butt


 
A

AdamM

New member
Hi friends! I'm still a novice cook. Have only used my WSM for spares, chicken wings and full birds. On Monday, I'm smoking a 9 lb bone-in Boston butt. Any advice is appreciated... Thank you.
 
I like to cut the butt in half right at the edge of the blade bone so you have 1/2 with a bone and 1/2 without...I also inject with Mojo Criollo from Goya. It's AMAZING. It really gives you a great cuban/caribbean pork taste. Cook the pork at 200-225 and wait and wait...after 6-8 hours take a temp. If it gets around 165 put foil over it top down like a blanket and check the temp every 1/2 hour or so and eventually it just going to shoot up to 190-200F. That's when you can take it off. Leave the foil over it and let it sit for about an hour so the juice doesn't all run out of it. If you cut it or pull it too soon it will dry out. The smaller, boneless half will finish before the bone in half so you can pull the first half while the second half cools. Whatever you do pork shoulder is very forgiving....You really can't overcook it because it has so much fat it stays juicy. When done properly the bone will just want to slide right out of the meat as you pull it but some of the meat will still hold it in. You'll see it really bulging from the meat.
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/B00032CV8O/tvwb-20

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I just picked up a 10.5 lbs Boston Butt for Monday as well! I'm looking to try the "Mr. Brown" recipe from the main site. I'm just curious how long this sucker is going to take. From the way it sounds, somewhere around 1-1.5hrs / lbs (@ 250)....?
 
At temps of 200 to 250, be prepared for what is called "the stall". The internal temp of the meat will stop going up, and in fact, might even start dropping a few degrees. When this happens don't worry and think that your thermometer must have broken, or that you've entered the Twilight Zone as the laws of physics are being broken. What is happening is that the meat is undergoing evaporative cooling, kind of like we do when we sweat.

There are three things (or combination thereof) that you can do when you hit the stall.

1. Wrap with foil.
2. Crank up the heat.
3. Kick back, open another beer and just let it ride.



Myk, yes, 1.5 per lb is a good time guestimate at 250. But, note that this is for 250. If you drop down to 225, it goes up to about 2hrs.
 
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Its a low and slow process, I don't wrap and leave my temp alone and it roughly takes me about 12 hours and two hours wrapped in foil/towel in the cooler. Now that is my choice on how I do them. But the end result is worth it all.
 
For pork butt I like to inject with salted apple juice (take it easy on the salt) and use a rub I concocted after looking at all the rub recipes I could find online and in cook books. There are plenty of good rubs available but I am the only one in the family that likes any spicy heat so I had to make my own.
I smoke the meat @ around 220-250 for around 4-5 hours or until it is a beautiful mahogany color.
Once that beautiful color is achieved I transfer the butt into a foil tray, cover tightly with foil and cook at 220-250 until tender. At this point cooking in the oven works just as good or better than cooking in the WSM.
I monitor temperature with a Maverick but the meat is done when the blade bone will pull out of the butt.
My family likes the pork muscles separated into chunks better than indiscriminately shredded and mixed.
We are not BBQ sauce people but I put out some Carolina Gold and some store bought red BBQ sauce just in case a guest wants some.
 
Has anyone injected with OJ instead of apple juice? I plan on injecting late this afternoon, should I apply the rub then as well or wait until the morning before I start the fire?
 
Also.. To spritz or not to spritz? To glaze or not to glaze? I'm leaning no to both... I'm also not planning on wrapping either (unless time runs out because of the stall).
 
OJ should work fine.
If you have time for the rub to be on the meat for a while before cooking the salt will get better penetration.
I am not a spritzer, but it's more out of being lazy than anything else.
Once the lid goes on, I usually don't open it again until a wireless thermometer or elapsed time tells me it's time to do something.
 
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AdamM said:
Has anyone injected with OJ instead of apple juice? I plan on injecting late this afternoon, should I apply the rub then as well or wait until the morning before I start the fire?
Click to expand...
That's like the injection I was mentioning before, Mojo Criollo but it uses bitter orange juice instead of regular...also lemon, garlic, onion...
 
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