Lookin' for Ideas on Cookin' Two Butts!


 
R

RJ Lasek

New member
Hi All,

I'm cooking two butts next weekend. I'd love to hear your suggestions. I was thinking of the following:
- Lighting the WSM using Minion
- Smoking heavily with mix of apple and hickory at 225-250 for around 6-7 hours
- Mopping once or twice during smoking after 4 hours
- After 6-7 hours of smoking, moving to a roast pan, wraping tightly in foil, including some mop liquid. Bake at 225 in the oven for several hours until internal temp reaches 195
- Letting rest one hour before pulling

I've heard people say that after 6-8 hours of heavy smoke, it is ok to transfer to oven because you get diminishing returns on the use of smoke.

Dumb question...how do you easily get to the meat on the bottom rack to mop if the top grate is full of meat?
 
You don't. Which is one of the reasons why many of us don't mop at all. Unless you mop fairly frequently it doesn't add a whole lot (except time) to the cook.

Any reason why you'd rather finish in the oven over the cooker?

Finishing in the oven will work.
 
RJ,
How about cooking the butts on the top rack, mopping as often as you wish until the butts hit about 170 or so, then move them to the bottom rack. Put the ribs on, and when the butts are done, pull them off the smoker, wrap in foil and let them sit until the ribs finish. The butts can hold warm for hours. Let us know how it goes.

Steve
 
I'd start the butt on the top rack and add the ribs to the bottom rack. Couple reasons why. Theres no concern with cross contamination. If you were to add the ribs over the butts, there is a small small chance of cross contamination because you're adding raw food over top of food that is close to being finished. In the chance the butts were to finish while the ribs above were not sufficiently cooked, then you have raw juices on the butts. Granted, during the resting period, they would cook sufficiently, it would still concern me.

You can finish in the oven, but you can also finish everything safely on the WSM, with less effort!
 
Me personally I don't like to Mop my Butts at all. I usually don't like to open my cooker while the cooking process is taking place. Thus I like to add most of my flavor during the Rubbing and injection session before the meat goes on. If anything I'll spray the butts with apple juice/vinegar while I'm flipping the Butts (usually after the 7-1/2 to 8 hour mark...

Ron
 
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