First long smoke this weekend


 
C

Chris McDowell

New member
I've had my 14.5 WSM for a few years now, but I have not tried any long(ish) smokes yet. Mainly ribs and whole chickens are the longest I have done. Well, this weekend I am finally trying a pork butt! Now, I did find a smaller one - it's only 6 pounds, so it won't be too incredibly long I hope. I am trying to plan to have it for supper tomorrow. I will put the rub on tonight and let it sit in the fridge. I will get it on the smoker around 5am, I think.

I will basically load the charcoal basket as much as I can with just a small crater in the middle for a few lit briquettes. Not sure how long that will last, but I expect I will be like a mother hen all day checking smoker temps and monitoring stuff, haha.

I have hickory, pecan, and cherry chunks currently at home. Which should I use do you think?
 
Good luck Chris, I'm sure it will turn out great. That little cooker is really impressive. Give the cherry wood by itself a try and let us know how it goes, with pics of course. 😀
 
I have the 18 WSM and did a 8 pound a couple weeks ago. Put it on at 6 and pulled it off around 4:30 and let sit for an hour. I do wrap and run mt pit temps between 250-275
 
Just set up for a ~12 pounder, I think I will touch it off about nine. This thing is kind of scary big! If I don’t start it early enough we won’t eat until later than I like! Rather have it wrapped and resting in a cooler for a couple of hours than not have at least an hour! The last one was rushed and while it was good, I know they are better with time to relax.
 
Chris McDowell said:
I've had my 14.5 WSM for a few years now, but I have not tried any long(ish) smokes yet. Mainly ribs and whole chickens are the longest I have done. Well, this weekend I am finally trying a pork butt! Now, I did find a smaller one - it's only 6 pounds, so it won't be too incredibly long I hope. I am trying to plan to have it for supper tomorrow. I will put the rub on tonight and let it sit in the fridge. I will get it on the smoker around 5am, I think.

I will basically load the charcoal basket as much as I can with just a small crater in the middle for a few lit briquettes. Not sure how long that will last, but I expect I will be like a mother hen all day checking smoker temps and monitoring stuff, haha.

I have hickory, pecan, and cherry chunks currently at home. Which should I use do you think?
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I love a mix of hickory and pecan on pork! Watch out thinking it will be much less time because of weighing only 6 lbs. It is about thickness and breaking down that fat into goodness. I know you will have the time you need to pull it off, I would just recommend going 250 to 265 not 225 and I would wrap around the stale when the bark feels set. It is a pork butt kind of weekend so great time to go for your first. Enjoy!
 
Chris McDowell said:
I will basically load the charcoal basket as much as I can with just a small crater in the middle for a few lit briquettes. Not sure how long that will last, but I expect I will be like a mother hen all day checking smoker temps and monitoring stuff, haha.
Click to expand...
Hi Chris - nothing wrong with safely lifting the middle section to set it aside, shaking out some ash, reloading and letting some of the white smoke settle out before reassembly. Finishing in the oven works too.
If you are looking to extend cook time, cooking with a dry pan can help. The trade off being water in the pan can make temperature super easy to regulate.
 
12 hours in on the 12 hour butt, stalled about 170 IT I’m very happy I started it last night. Did a charge of fresh coal about 05:00, pleased to see that the K-Pro ash quantity is this much less than KBB, I may be a convert... time will tell.
 
Hope your cook goes well! Let us know how it turns out. I cooked 4 butts yesterday. Started at 8:00 in the morning the first was done just before 8:00 in the evening and the last finished at 9:30. They all hit target temp close to the same time, but they each probed ready at different times.
 
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This is after only 5 hours. Having some issues. When I unwrapped the butt, it was in a net. I cut the net off and the pork is basically split down the middle and splays open. Is that where the bone would have been? If you look at the picture above and imagine spinning the right side of the butt towards you, you would see the huge split.

So my issue is that it seems to be cooking way faster than I wanted. The internal where I have the probe is at 174 currently, but I checked the parts on the ends where it splayed open and they are around 188 to 190.

I didn‘t want the ends to dry out too much, so I wrapped the butt in foil hoping to get the middle of the butt to cook a bit faster and catch up with the ends. I wrapped it when the middle was around 164. I‘m not sure if wrapping was the right thing to do.

Anyway, it‘s probably going to be done WAY early. So I‘ll let it sit for a couple of hours before shredding. Then what do I do? Put it in the fridge until supper??

Despite all of that, I‘m having a great time and it smells awesome outside right now!

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Michael Richards said:
I love a mix of hickory and pecan on pork! Watch out thinking it will be much less time because of weighing only 6 lbs. It is about thickness and breaking down that fat into goodness. I know you will have the time you need to pull it off, I would just recommend going 250 to 265 not 225 and I would wrap around the stale when the bark feels set. It is a pork butt kind of weekend so great time to go for your first. Enjoy!
Click to expand...
The grill temp the whole time has been 260 to 270 range. Haven‘t had to refuel yet. At first it was wanting to ride around 280, so I just kept closing the vents until it finally got down to below 275. The last few times I checked it had been 260‘s.

Oh and I ended up going with a mix of pecan and hickory since that was what happened to be laying out at the time this morning. Smells awesome!
 
Wrap in two layers of foil, then a couple of towels and drop it in a cooler and just leave it alone.
If you pull the meat it’s going to get dry faster than you want. It will stay hot and safe for several hours in the cooler. The longer the rest (most of the time) the nicer the end product.
The behemoth on my WSM is rolling through 185 right now. I’m thinking that I will wrap it in maybe another hour and a half and let it rest until around 18:00 to pull and pan. Dinner will be about 18:30.
As to the butt being butterflied, not a big deal but it is a surprise when it lays out so flat! I try to avoid netted products when possible, sometimes you get what you can and then you end up making it a learning process.
It will be delicious!
 
Timothy F. Lewis said:
Wrap in two layers of foil, then a couple of towels and drop it in a cooler and just leave it alone.
If you pull the meat it’s going to get dry faster than you want. It will stay hot and safe for several hours in the cooler. The longer the rest (most of the time) the nicer the end product.
The behemoth on my WSM is rolling through 185 right now. I’m thinking that I will wrap it in maybe another hour and a half and let it rest until around 18:00 to pull and pan. Dinner will be about 18:30.
As to the butt being butterflied, not a big deal but it is a surprise when it lays out so flat! I try to avoid netted products when possible, sometimes you get what you can and then you end up making it a learning process.
It will be delicious!
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I totally did not even notice the net until I went to open the package! Now, I know what to look for, thanks!! Good to hear that I can just leave it wrapped in a cooler for so long. Thanks for the info!
 
I’m always surprised just how long they stay untouchable in a cooler, mine sat resting a little over 5 hours and was plenty hot! The long rest really seems to make pulling easier too!
Happy to hear you were happy with the first long smoke! Keep going!
 
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