fred nevill
TVWBB Member
Howdy all, I feel like I am getting used to how my 18 WSM cooks because I have now done pork loin,brisket, chicken ,ribs, and pork shoulders on mine, but yesterday I had an experience I wasnt accustomed to.
Let me start with saying I have done several Boston butts in the past on other smokers I have, so I know they are done when they are done and for the most part how the should be.
I also have done a shoulder on the WSM and things turned out as expected but this time I changed several things for my pulled pork and had a few things happen that I was very happy with and something i was disappointed with.
I had planned one doing one butt 6.96# but because of a lack of communication there was another one brought to me to do 6.74#. so not only was this my first butt on the WSM, I was now doing two.
My target temp was 240* and except for one unknown reason it stayed between 229* and 262* for 11 hours. I did add some unlit at the 8 hour mark. The unknown temp spike was at the 9 1/2 hour mark. My Maverick showed pit temp at 341*. I am not sure why it went up like that but i was checking on it at the 9 hour mark and it was just fine and after I adjusted the vents the temp dropped pretty fast back to where i wanted it. I got it stabilized then temps stayed steady again. I have no idea exactly how long it was that high but between when i checked it when it was normal and after I got temps back down to the high end of where i wanted it was less than an hour.
I better go back a step though. I used lump charcoal as I was out of briquettes and i foiled the drip pan and filled with water. Normally i have not been using water in my pan, but there have been several postings about the drippings burning, so I wanted everything to turn out right.
Back to the butt, i had meat probes in both butts and each of them hit there normal stall point for a couple of hours. Surprisingly they both stalled again at 185 on one and 187 on the other. I dont recall on any of the others I have done them stalling at 185* before but i have never done more than one before and never on my WSM before so maybe this is normal??? The temps stayed in the 185 range for about an hour and a half then started climbing again.
Normally I have always foiled but again reading some of the other posts, alot of people are saying not to foil so I thought I would try it.
When the meat probes showed 197 on one and 195 on the other I pulled them off, but before I did I checked each one with my instant read thermometer in several spots. I then let them rest for about 45 min. before pulling. The first thing I noticed is that the bone did not "fall" out, it came out clean but there was a slight resistance. One issue i had though was the outside meat seemed a bit mushy but the inside meat was more solid but didnt pull apart easily. I think the inside meat would have been perfect for slicing and was ok for pulling but with half of the meat being mushy I am not sure what to think.
I will say this is the best bark I have ever had on my butts before and there was a beautiful smoke ring, so i was very happy about that.
I would have pics but as my luck would have it, my phone fell out of my coat pocket( it was 37* out when I started cooking) and broke.
Let me start with saying I have done several Boston butts in the past on other smokers I have, so I know they are done when they are done and for the most part how the should be.
I also have done a shoulder on the WSM and things turned out as expected but this time I changed several things for my pulled pork and had a few things happen that I was very happy with and something i was disappointed with.
I had planned one doing one butt 6.96# but because of a lack of communication there was another one brought to me to do 6.74#. so not only was this my first butt on the WSM, I was now doing two.
My target temp was 240* and except for one unknown reason it stayed between 229* and 262* for 11 hours. I did add some unlit at the 8 hour mark. The unknown temp spike was at the 9 1/2 hour mark. My Maverick showed pit temp at 341*. I am not sure why it went up like that but i was checking on it at the 9 hour mark and it was just fine and after I adjusted the vents the temp dropped pretty fast back to where i wanted it. I got it stabilized then temps stayed steady again. I have no idea exactly how long it was that high but between when i checked it when it was normal and after I got temps back down to the high end of where i wanted it was less than an hour.
I better go back a step though. I used lump charcoal as I was out of briquettes and i foiled the drip pan and filled with water. Normally i have not been using water in my pan, but there have been several postings about the drippings burning, so I wanted everything to turn out right.
Back to the butt, i had meat probes in both butts and each of them hit there normal stall point for a couple of hours. Surprisingly they both stalled again at 185 on one and 187 on the other. I dont recall on any of the others I have done them stalling at 185* before but i have never done more than one before and never on my WSM before so maybe this is normal??? The temps stayed in the 185 range for about an hour and a half then started climbing again.
Normally I have always foiled but again reading some of the other posts, alot of people are saying not to foil so I thought I would try it.
When the meat probes showed 197 on one and 195 on the other I pulled them off, but before I did I checked each one with my instant read thermometer in several spots. I then let them rest for about 45 min. before pulling. The first thing I noticed is that the bone did not "fall" out, it came out clean but there was a slight resistance. One issue i had though was the outside meat seemed a bit mushy but the inside meat was more solid but didnt pull apart easily. I think the inside meat would have been perfect for slicing and was ok for pulling but with half of the meat being mushy I am not sure what to think.
I will say this is the best bark I have ever had on my butts before and there was a beautiful smoke ring, so i was very happy about that.
I would have pics but as my luck would have it, my phone fell out of my coat pocket( it was 37* out when I started cooking) and broke.