Help! I've accidentally par-braised my butts.


 
C

Cory Caplan

New member
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Well, for some reason, my butts fell into my WSM waterbowl at some point during the night. The larger of the two was 2/3 submerged when I woke up, and the smaller was about 1/2. After a bit of a panic, I realized that effectively I was still cooking them at 212 for however long they were in there.. (have no idea what time between 2:30 AM and 8:30 am it happened, although couldn't have been too early, or the fire would have been doused)

Should I just keep cooking them like normal?? I've reset the grate, and have been cooking them the past 3 hours as normal, and the temp is about 190ish now.. Should I take them to 200ish (when the probe goes through easily throughout the butts?)

Anybody else recover from this situation before successfully?

(this pic is after reset
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Subsequently, I've tasted a few samples-- and well, it tastes ok so far.. Has a bit of that "braised pork" taste to it, but smoke is still there.. I'll be interested to see what it's like when I pull it all and mix it together in the end.

BTW, guys, thanks for all the help-- these are my 4th time doing butts, and my previous butts have received raves from all who've tried them. I brought one to a birthday party, and it was entirely consumed before I had a taste.

This was my first time doing boneless butts (as that's all they sell at Costco, and the value is amazing-- not only is it $1.79/lb instead of $2.10 from the local markets-- there was hardly any fat-- I cut off less than a softball size for both of these guys combined, and I cut the fat cap pretty darn thin to nonexistant.

Unfortunately, I won't be able to give them a fair comparison because of my accidental "braise" test.
 
Just finish the cook off and see. A bit of "braise" shouldn't be too bad. More curious as to how that happened on it's own?
 
<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">More curious as to how that happened on it's own? </div></BLOCKQUOTE>

Well, doing some research, I'm not nearly the only one who's had this happen. There are many complaints about the pieces that hold the rack being too small.. and with heavy loads and heat making metal expand slightly, this kind of thing can happen. There are plenty of mods out there.

My bonehead move was really not using the lower grate during the smoke. That would have caught my butts-- I have never done a two level smoke, and haven't used the lower grate since my first smoke. Now I will, just in case this happens again.. Also I'll more carefully check that the top rack is centered as much as possible.
 
Cory, Originally I thought that the butts morphed into slices that fell thru the grill and reassembled in the water. Wow! I am amazed that they recovered as well as they did.Did you put more rub on? And how long did you cook them after you found them in the bath?
You might just have come up with the NEW WAY to cook butts. I am not sure that KCBS would approve, something about "par boiling", but can't wait to see how they taste. Oh How clean was your water pan before all this happened?

Mark
 
Nice save Cory.
Butt your newer WSM shouldn't need a mod to expand your grill straps, or having you using a perfectly clean lower grate as a " safety net " to catch a copula fallen butts.
Me.. I would call Weber CS and send them a few pics.
IMO you might have a smaller than normal top grate, and or you might also have a decent out of round situation, which probably makes one or more of your grill straps less bearing.
You can check the diameter of the top-grate, and the stand off of the grill straps, as well as the diameter of the mid-section here.
Hope that helps.

Tim
 
Wrap up:
Firstly, I'm lucky I had just cleaned my bowl.
Second, I did not re rub, just set everything back up and let it keep going. I only had a small bit of Rub left, and used it in my slaw.

The mixture, though you can't see it in the picture, is like 30% fat 70% water, if that makes any difference.

The smaller butt came off a few hours earlier than big butt. Pulled and ate for lunch. Second butt, ran low on fuel @ 13 hours, also stopped adding wood in the morning, if that makes a difference. Last 1.5 hour foiled in oven to arbitrary 199 degrees. Here it is when I pulled it open.
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Here's the finished pull.
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Less of a 'smoke ring' but not as small as I was expecting.. It definitely had a "roasted" taste to it that my previous butts have not.

Here it is on a sandwich:
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and here it is with my now world famous lime buttermilk slaw:
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All in all, I would not kick it out of bed... However, I made a bunch of this butt, and now we're 'stuck with it' Oh well.

As you all have recommended, I'll call Weber tomorrow.. I was pretty shocked this happened, and don't quite understand what made this happen halfway.
 
<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">All in all, I would not kick it out of bed... </div></BLOCKQUOTE>
From the looks, I'd certainly agree. Nice recovery!
 
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