Maiden voyage - Mustard Butt

  • Thread starter Thread starter Guest
  • Start date Start date

 
Status
Not open for further replies.
G

Guest

Guest
Okay, here's the deal. I took my maiden voyage with the WSM on Sunday night. Followed the recipe for the Mustard & Rub Butt (used a 3.08 lb. piece). Took Chris' advice regarding less charcoal, but probably should have used somewhere between the 1 full chimney and 2 chimneys. Started out great, temperature went right to 300, put meat and smoke wood on and the temp. went right down to around 230. Cooked along at that for awhile and the internal temp steadily rose to about 120. Then things slowed way down. after 3 1/2 hours the internal temp was at 132 and the WSM temp was getting a little harder to keep up.
Bottom line: checked the butt again after 5 hours and the WSM temp. had dived and the internal meat temp. stalled at 139. In order to get some sleep last night, I had to commit the cardinal sin of finishing the butt off in the oven. Brought the internal temp up to about 190 and called it a night. I'm pretty sure what I did wrong was not using enough charcoal, I could have reduced the temp, but trying to keep an inadequate amount of charcoal burning proved futile, and I didn't want to spend the extra time to fire up more briquettes. Funny thing is, the butt spent enough time in the cooker that it tastes pretty darned good.
Next time I will use more charcoal and start early enough so that I have the time to do things right. Just thought I'd post my mini-debacle for the education of other "newbies".
I can see how the WSM is a champion at coming to and maintaining temp. though. The weak link was me this time. Gotta' get practice though.....doing a Prime Rib for Christmas.
 
Dean
Fill the firering to the top with unlit charcoal and spread anywhere from a half to whole chimney of lit charcoal over the top.
You ran out of charcoal using the technique
you used.
Jim
 
Thanks Jim,
Yeah, that's kind of what I thought. I made the mistake of starting too late and erring on the side of too little charcoal. The ol' WSM sure tried to make up for my mistake, but the poor girl just ran out of juice. I'll tell ya' though, as good as it tasted doing it wrong, I can't wait to try it when it's done right.
 
I too had a maiden voyage with my WSM. The Q was good but not spectacular. I used a mustard/ Mr. Brown rub and the Minion method with water in the pan. Here are some mistakes that i'm learning from.
1) During the first hour, cooker temp wouldn't go above 212F with all vents open. It was 50F outside with no wind. I realised that the ceramic sleeve on all three Nu-Temp probes was disloding the lid causing a major air leak. I quickly shoved them in and let the lid rest sorely on the probe cables. The temperature quickly rose to 233F and onwards with no problems.
2) I ran out of water using the Brinkmann charcoal pan (2gals) ! Maybe the air leak was the culprit?
3) Chicken that was also inside, was dry like cardboard. I lost track of taking a temperature reading on the chicken. Next time I'll hook up my extra Maverick probe.
4) I had two butts cooking, 5 and 2.5lb at 250F. The smaller one had a nice dark crust while the big had very little. Could it be that no water gives that crust in the early stages?
5) The big butt was a little bit dry. The 5lb butt had reached a temp plateau of 167F for an hour, 6 hrs in the cook cycle. Suddenly, I found the temperature at 205F. Lesson learned: Set the pre-set temp alarm for 190F. All in all, it works out to roughly 1.5 hrs/lb.
6) Even though I love spaeribs more, I'll practice on the butt till I get it right.
Most important, I had a lot of fun.
 
Roy,

Some people report success using no water pan and making butts. I made two butts a while back using the Minion method and it worked like a charm. Of course, this will vary for you, but on a 16 hour cook I found I changed the water pan about 3 times. I find that I usually change it somewhere around every 4-5 hours. So it drying out a Brinkman pan makes sense.

I filled the charcoal pan and it gave me a surprising amount of burn. Later in the burn, just like it describes on the site... I needed to revive it just a little bit by stroking the coals.

My problem with the pulled pork was less of a cooking issue and more flavor. I think I will apply a lot more rub next time. Still, they were tender, juicy and pulled apart with ease. Also I got the bark you described, but I also let it cook at the very end without filling the water pan. (last hour to 1 1/2 hours)

The only time from what I can tell you want to be careful with the amount of charcoal is when you have no water in the pan. Otherwise I just use the Minion. fill ring with unlit. fire up half a starter of Kingsford, pour it on, assemble cooker fill pan and you're on your way to hassle free cookin for a loooooooong time.

Before I bought a WSM, the patio door was like a restaurant door to the kitchen, opening and closing constantly. Now with my remote Nu Temp and WSM, I literally sit on the couch or in the case of pork butts go to sleep WORRY FREE.
 
Jim, Carl
So, would it be correct to say that absence of water makes the butt crusty and chewy? As opposed to water which makes it taste "steamed".
Also, despite the overnight rub, the spices didn't seem to carry all the way through.
 
The lack of water effects the bark but it's not because of the steam, it's because the pit temps run higher. If you are doing pulled pork, add your rub to the pork after it's pulled to taste and mix in.
Jim
 
I have been using the WSM for a year now, and the hardest thing for me to get a handle on was how much charcoal to put in the ring to start the cook.. Without a doubt, the easiest way to start a fire is with the minion method... Just had to learn what a full ring, three quarters ring, ect. was - and how to adjust for wind, etc... Still don't have it all yet - but I am getting there... In the beginning my thinking was just fill the ring all the way up for everything... Works, but you can sure waste a lot of fuel that way !
When doing butts over 5 pounds now, I will always do an overnighter... With the alarms to monitor high and low temps, the overnighter has become a no brainer... Once you do that first one, they will be for you too... Sure cuts out the stress of having to have the meat done by a certain time... Wrap in plastic, foil and put in cooler... The first time I did this I had to leave the thermometer in it to prove to my wife that the meat would not cool off enough to become dangerous... It really works...
Have a good week everyone.
 
Jim,

Great idea about the rub inside the pork. I didn't even think of that.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.

 

Back
Top