Mr. Brown -- brining, cook time.

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I am going to make the Mr. Brown recipe tomorrow morning. I had a couple of questions though. I decided to rub the meat last night at 11 p.m. It occurs to me that this will cause pull out a lot of liquid.

I don't really understand brining very much, but, will this hurt the flavor or make the meat too tough? I don't think so, but was just wondering.

After trimming, I'll probably be putting in two 5.5 to 6 pound butts. I've given myself 12 hours to cook. Do you think that's enough?
 
I love the Mr. Brown recipe. I always put the rub on the night before, or early in the morning if I'm starting the butt late at night. Yes, I does pull "some" liquid out, maybe a couple of tablespoons at the most. Not enough to make any difference. The moist meat comes from the fat and collegen as it is rendered during cooking.

My butts usually take between 2 and 2 1/2 hours per pound. Of course, I didn't trim hardly any fat off. I've since learned (been told, but not yet done it) that you should trim as much fat as you can because there is plenty of internal fat to keep the meat moist as it cooks. The more fat, the longer the cooking time.

Good luck, its a tasty recipe. The bark is to die for.
 
Art
Rubbing that far in advance will not hurt anything
you could inject the pork and adding moisture and flavor. What you have done isn't brinning, these large cuts are not the best meats to brine.
There is a fat cap on a butt thhat can be trimmed or not your call. The fat is not what causes the cook to go longer it is the connective tissue that determine the time needed.
I would give yourself 14 hours and you can hold it 2 to 4 hours if you need to. Better to be early than late.
Jim
 
Cool. I did trim the fat cap off and as much of the fat as I was comfortable cutting. I'll give myself a couple of extra hours though and I'm looking forward to seeing how it comes out.

One thing I've seen the first few cooks is that my smoke is very moist. I mean I get moisture on the lid thermometer, and my 19-hour brisket cook actually seemed to "leak" a moist smoke mix out the access door. I've worried I'm putting too much water in so I'll cut back a cup or so to make sure that's not the case, if it's even a problem.
 
<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><font size="-1">quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by Art M.:
[qb]I get moisture on the lid thermometer, and my 19-hour brisket cook actually seemed to "leak" a moist smoke mix out the access door.[/qb] <HR></BLOCKQUOTE>That's not an unusual behavior when cooking large cuts of meat with water in the pan.

Regards,
Chris
 
Cool. I was worried I was screwing something up /infopop/emoticons/icon_smile.gif .
 
Well, two butts are on. One, Mr. Brown, the other lathered in mustard. Little colder today than normal, at 21 (feels like 12) heading to 40. But, it'll be sunny. Life is good /infopop/emoticons/icon_smile.gif
 
Art-

You may want to consider cooking the butts by temp and not just time. I cook my butts to 195 or so, and they've turned out great. However, I find that they get up to 170 internal or so very quickly, but then can sit at this temp for several hours before finally moving up to 195 (I think others have reported this also).

I seem to recall my last butt (about 7 lbs.) took about 15-16 hours this way.

Clark
 
I did plan on getting it to 190-195. The two butts I have are probably a shade under 6 pounds once trimmed. They hit the smoker at 4:30 a.m. and I'm hoping to eat by 6 p.m. I had a similar temperature plateau on my brisket a few weeks ago. But, I think I'm going to have to pull the babies off at 6 at the latest even if it's a shade under the target.
 
Well, I gave up and had to yank the butts off at 7 p.m. So I had 14.5 hours and they weren't where I wanted them. The one on the lower grate was further along than the one on the upper, though I put them both on the top for the last three hours or so.

Hit the 170 mark on the one and it simply wouldn't budge, and I couldn't wait any longer. Still, it was excellent. I did put it in the oven in foil for 30 minutes while we ate the other butt which was further along, and both tasted great. I still want to stop having to rush things off the smoker though so from now on I'm starting earlier and aiming to hold if possible.
 
Starting earlier is fine. You can always wrap in foil and place in a cooler full of towels and hold for a few hours-- I've left my wireless probe in while doing this and a 7 lb butt drops to about 175 after 4 hours, so safe enough.

The "plateau" is really something to experience. But once it moves off 170, it'll get to 195 or so real quick.

Clark
 
What I've done on the last three butts (with great success) is to not use water in the pan and cook the butts at 250 instead of 225 - 240. This process uses a lot less fuel and the meat is just as tender and moist as if there was water. Plus, the meat actually gets up to 190.

With water, I never got the temp that high before the fuel ran out and I used the Minion method each time.
 
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