First time pork butt--Renowned Mr. Brown?


 
R

russell swift

TVWBB Super Fan
This will be my first pork butt in the WSM. Plan on cooking one 7lb butt for an afternoon party. Ideally would like to eat by 3pm with the meat coming off around 1pm and wrapping it to cool for 2 hrs. Is the Renowned Mr. Brown the best recipe/process to cook a pork butt? I need to get a time frame of how long it will take so I'll know when to begin and when I can sleep during the night. I'm from South Carolina, which is mustard BBQ country! Is there a better mop than the Southern Style Mop (not really into vinegar BBQ)? If I were to rub the butt without mopping it, would it still have a good, moist taste? I'm anticipating that most guests will want pulled pork so they can pour sauce on it and make sandwiches.
 
russell--

Mr.Brown is a good recipe. Whether or not there's another that's 'better'--well, that is in the mouth of the beholder. I think you'll be pleased with it though.

Personally, I don't mop butts, nor do I turn them. I like minimal fussing once they're in the cooker. Still moist and delicious every time.

Butts hold wrapped in foil in a cooler very well. They'll still be hot with a 4-hour rest so if you want an earlier start to be on the safe side no problem. I'd probably look at a 9-10pm starting time, were it me. You could even go earlier, remove when done, rest a couple hours, pull the pork, and re-heat for serving.
 
Russel,
Welcome to the board.
I cook mostly butt and for a 7lbs.er I would start it at about 10pm the night before the party. With a dome temp. of about 150F it should be at 190F internal between 10 am and noon the day of the party. Double wrap it in foil and put it in a cooler. Even when I just do one butt it will still be almost to hot to pull after 4 hours in the cooler. Always better to get done a little early and hold it than to try and hold guests while the food gets done.

As far as a rub goes I grind up jalipino's in a blender and smear that all over the but wrap it in plastic adn put it in the referigerator a couple of hours before I start the cook. All the time in the smoker really mellows out the peppers but it does leave a "nice" bite. But there are a ton of great rub reciepes on here. I dont use any mop on mine and as of yet have not had a problem with them being too dry, but that is probably because I always wrap and rest them at least 2hours in the cooler.

Have a good time I am sure it will go great,

Arthur
 
<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">dome temp. of about 150F </div></BLOCKQUOTE>
Think you meant 250F, yes?
 
Russel,

Welcome. Mr. Brown was the first cook for me. First time out, I pretty much followed it to the T. Eventually, I've stopped the mop, althought the vinegar doesn't add the vinegar flavor of vinegar bbq sauce.

If you use the Mr. Brown rub, and cook it, you will be very happy with the results. Some folks sometimes complain that Mr. Brown is a bit peppery and I have cut the amount of pepper in half when feeding my family.

Good luck and let us know how it goes.
 
So is it safe to say that Mr B takes about 12 hours of smokin' time before taking it out?

My wife has this thing about smokin' at 2-3-4 am - she's afraid the deck is going to burn. I'll probably get up around 5am to start smokin'. Using the posts as a guideline I should assume that I can take it off around 5pm and serve at 6pm. Would this be a safe guestimate?

I am planning on using a mustard slather, homemade rub (light on pepper, family thing) and the Mr B cooking recipe. I haven't tried injecting so I need to find aplace that sells injectors and mix-up a batch of marinade. Paul Kirk's book has a bunch I can use.

Thanks again - I LOVE this place!
 
If it takes about 2 hrs. per lb. and you start a 7 lber. at 5 am you'll be able to take it off about 7-8 pm. One hour for resting, then pulling, you'll be eating by 9 or 10 pm.

My experience it'd take more like 16 hours or so. Some get 'em done sooner, but I haven't ever seen that.
 
I am still relatively new but have done a bunch of butts, briskets and ribs and if there is one thing i have learned always allow for extra time. Nothing i ever have cooked finished in the time i thought it would. There is nothing like actually finishing the cook without foiling or using a oven!
 
I'm in the same boat. I plan to do 2 butts this weekend for the family. The trick is, it will be up at the lake cabin and an all night cook is not possible -- bears are in the area and would wreak havoc on the WSM and its contents. If I want to serve the meat Sunday night around 6pm, do you suggest I start early Sunday AM, or just cook it on Saturday and re-heat it?
 
Mike,

Not sure what size butts you have, but I'd do them Saturday. Imo, you'd need to be putting the meat in at 4:30am or earlier (depending on size) to allow for cook time, rest time, and pull-and-get-on-the-table time. If you do them Saturday and run into any problems you'll have time to deal with them and not have to worry about finishing at a particular time.
 
Russell,

As you can tell, folks are going to answer you in the vein that they best understand ... their own taste buds.

I think I'd take a bit of some of the latest threads and say offer different sauces (vinegar, tomato, ... OK is there another?!?!?), but do not take any offense if folks just grab the meat and eat it as-is. I know I lose about a pound during pulling, chopping, and vacuum packing ... a consequence I live with gladly.
 
I appreciate everybody's 2 cents on this situation. I am hosting a wedding shower this Saturday at my lake house, and we are having the BBQ pork as well as a Lowcountry Boil. I'm expecting a few guests early (Friday night)so I want to make sure that I have everything intact and ready to go....b/c when my buddies come over, all they'll want to do is start drinking and mess with the smoker. Therefore, I will allocate extra cook time (start sooner, cool longer).

Looking for the best presentation for the meat...since this is a wedding shower and people will be dressed up. I really want to show off my prowess, so I'm looking for a competition-like presentation. My intentions were to pull the meat after it cooled....chop up about half of it and leave the other half in longer strands. Going to offer mustard sauce and red sauce. How finely chopped should meat be?

Think I will cook the pork butt without basting it....the dry rub for Mr. Brown sounds delicious! Will notify the board on Sunday how everything went.
 
I just re-read the article on the quick cook for pork butts using foil. Sounds like that might work for me to do a single daylight cook on Sunday and serve by 6pm. I read a posting that recommended punching holes in the bottom of the foil to prevent a soggy bark. Anybody tried that w/ good success? Also, if I'm not using Saran Wrap, will one layer of aluminum foil be enough? Thanks.
 
I used to do that-- punch holes-- but now I prefer to preserve the liquid, separate the fat, and return the juice to the pulled meat. I didn't do it to prevent soggy bark-- you are going to get softer bark with foil than without-- but rather to remove grease.

Use Heavy Duty wide foil, and you'll be OK.
 
Russell, the guys are leading you in the right direction. Mr B is a great choice, and as you will learn, very forgiving and easy to adapt to different tastes in heat. As for presentation, get a white corningware platter and put the pulled pork on it, place some edible greenery (lettus, parsley, etc) around the sides and slightly under, and then you can place dill pickle slices (verticle, not diameter) in various places around that. Put your sauce in white bowles on the side w/ small ladels.

Ben, when you smoke on the deck, go to an auto parts place and get you a metal drip pan and place the WSM on that. That will ensure that nothing hot touches your deck. Ensure that your smoker is far enough away from the house if your siding is vinyl. Works for me
 
Sounds like a pulled pork kinda weekend! I'm getting an early start on Smoke Day by starting some butts on Fri. night. What I was wondering is, if I load my smoker up with 15-18 lbs of butt on top and 10-12 lbs on bottom. Will it take longer than when I cook only 10 lbs on the top? If so, will it be a significant difference?
Common sense tells me yes, but I gotta consider the source.
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Rick
 
Two things:

1. I tried Mr. Brown, and I found it too peppery. Not too spicy mind you (I like some kick to my pork), but just too much black pepper taste. I've been using a modified BRITU rub on my butts (substituting kosher salt), and they come out great (though I find the BRITU sauce -- KC Masterpiece and honey -- to be too sweet for butt. I've been using Stubb's recently). If you are doing multiple butts, you might want to experiment with a different rub on each one. And different sauces is always a good idea!

2. Rick, the difference in time with multiple butts versus a single is pretty small. They act as a bigger heat sink, so your cooker takes longer to get to temperature, but beyond that, it'll be pretty close.
 
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