Labor Day Cook (I'm nervous) (Now with PICS)


 
J

Jeff M

TVWBB Member
OK, so I'm going to be doing a large (by my standards) cook for Labor Day. Its going to consist of the following:

6x Pork Butts
1x 12lb Packer

Going to use two cookers -

2x Pork Butts on top grate of WSM
1x 12lb Packer bottom grate of WSM

4x Pork Butts on my Traeger 075 (Don't kill me guys)


Plan -

Put all the meat on tonight around 10pm, I figure 15 hours for the Pork Butts (they are all pretty large) which means they should be ready around 1pm Monday (we are eating at 4pm) that will give them time to rest and for me to pull.


Problems/Concerns -

I've only done brisket flats, never a packer but I want to get my feet wet on the packer. I'd like to do burnt ends, is the best way to pretty much cook the brisket to tender in the flat then seperate the point, chop it, cook it a bit in an aluminum pan, then add some BBQ sauce and cook some more? (Anyone have general guidelines for timing with this)

I don't have enough coolers for all the butts, but I'm cooking three of the butts to freeze so will it be OK to rest them on the counter for an hour then pull?

BTW, I'm doing 2 of the butts for dinner (having a bunch of folks over) 1 of the butts is for my neighbor, and 3 of the butts are for pulling/vacuum sealing/eating later.

I'm a bit nervous, looking for any other tips/tricks I might have missed.

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Originally posted by Jeff M:
Problems/Concerns -

I've only done brisket flats, never a packer but I want to get my feet wet on the packer. I'd like to do burnt ends, is the best way to pretty much cook the brisket to tender in the flat then seperate the point, chop it, cook it a bit in an aluminum pan, then add some BBQ sauce and cook some more? (Anyone have general guidelines for timing with this)
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Jeff, Here's a link to more links but there's plenty of info and many pics for you. You'll want to seperate the flat from the point at 165º then foil the flat and cook till tender. about another 90 - 120 min after foiling. Leave the point whole after seperating and cook for about another 1.5 - 2 hrs. to render, then cube it up and palce in a foil pan for atleast another 2 hrs. Drain some of the grease off if you want, then sauce and cook for another 20-30 min max, or you'll burn the sauce. HTH Link to more links and pics.
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The butts, properly foiled will not drop their temps substantially in one hour post cook, in order to become dangerous. As a matter of fact, you could hold them without a cooler, with foil and perhaps some towels, for several hours.

You will be surprised to find how hot they stay.

Do a search on burnt ends and you will find all your answers. It has been well covered before.
 
I would start earlier if you are planning to low/slow. Timing will depend on cooktemps but if low/slow and the butts are >7 lbs I'd start at 6-7pm tonight for the butts. Put the packers on later.

Return the points to the cooker when you pull the packers. Let them render for an hour or two anyway before pulling/chopping and panning with sauce.

Yes, you can rest the other butts 1 hour, unwrapped, on the counter. Pull, cool, chill, pack for storage.
 
Thanks guys, not sure how I missed that seperating the point post.. ugh.. thanks for posting again
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I appriciate all the help, looking forward to the big cook. I just got done playing golf so not going to be able to start cooking until 10pm or so, but I'm thinking the butts should be fine at 15 hours and I've got room to spare if they need to be on longer since chattin it up with the family is fine too.

I trim the fat caps so the butts should be 7-8lbs.
 
Keep us posted on how it's going. I put my Butt on at 12 Midnight, so far all is good, just a little more windy then I like.
 
I've got a shoulder on for my first ever midnight smoke (and 4th smoke on the WSM). Put it on about 11:45. The temp hasn't budged from 235 for over an hour, so I'm to bed (2:00 am local). I hope to get up at about 7 to rotate and baste it.

I'm so dang tired, but it will be worth it if this thing actually turns out!
 
Tired here as well, we had some very high winds because of the hurricane, and it made it tough for me to maintain a constant temp. I had to play with the vents a lot.
 
Alright, everything is going well. All 6 Butts are cruzing along. I decided to hold on the brisket and fix it this coming weekend. My wife says we've got so many side dishes we won't have room on the table.. lol

On another note, I used RO lump for the first time in my WSM with a minion start and its been crusing between 225-250 for 12 straight hours. NICE!
 
I went to bed at 2:00 with the cooker at 235 (lid temp). Opened one vent a tad more on my way to the Sleep Number. Woke up at 5:00, and it was at 250. Just woke back up at 8:00 and rotated/basted/watered with the temp at 230 and internal at 164.

Looking and smelling mighty good! (pics at WSM pics
 
Wow Scott, lookin at those pics,that was a ton of lit you used for you minion. I only use ~15 lit durring the summer months. Was it tough to o keep temps in the 225-250 range with that much?

Glad the smoke is going smoothly for you though, I have a feeling you'll be enjoying some killer pp today.

Brandon
 
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