Mushy Butts


 
J

Joel Goodwin

New member
Ok, still pretty new here but have a question about holding butts in foil. This past weekend, I smoked 2 butts. Coincidentally, it was my first over night smoke. That went well! Woke up at around 7am and smoker was holding 220. Anyway, they smoked until they hit 195 internal. (About 14 hours) I took them off, foiled them both, and held them in a cooler. I later took one to a buddy who asked me to smoke him one. The flavor was great! The texture was...well...mushy! They held in the foil for about 4 hours. Is that too long to foil? How much carry over cooking usually happens after you pull them, should I pull them at a lower internal? Lots of questions!! Thank you all!

Joel
 
i've pulled from the smoker at over 200 and foiled for 8 hours and the product wasn't mushy

was it mushy throughout?
did you chop it at all, or just pull?

was your butt injected?

add any fluid when you foiled?
 
Not sure if this is what you did but I take my butts off the smoker when they probe tender, not to any set temperature. My guess is your butts probably should have come off the smoker sooner.
 
Originally posted by TroyRedington:
i've pulled from the smoker at over 200 and foiled for 8 hours and the product wasn't mushy

was it mushy throughout?
did you chop it at all, or just pull?

was your butt injected?


add any fluid when you foiled?
Click to expand...

The texture just wasnt quite right. I did pull the whole thing. Butt wasnt injected but I did add about a cup of "Carolina Red" for flavor. Not sure if it may be a combination of overpulling and adding sauce or what...
This is the first time I have done butts though. I have done picnic shoulders before and they turned out great! Dunno?

Thanks for the replies!
 
Originally posted by Joel Goodwin:
<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">Originally posted by TroyRedington:
i've pulled from the smoker at over 200 and foiled for 8 hours and the product wasn't mushy

was it mushy throughout?
did you chop it at all, or just pull?

was your butt injected?


add any fluid when you foiled?
Click to expand...

The texture just wasnt quite right. I did pull the whole thing. Butt wasnt injected but I did add about a cup of "Carolina Red" for flavor. Not sure if it may be a combination of overpulling and adding sauce or what...
This is the first time I have done butts though. I have done picnic shoulders before and they turned out great! Dunno?

Thanks for the replies! </div></BLOCKQUOTE>

NO. I'll respectfully have to disagree.

I believe you were dead on in your suspicion of residual cooking being the problem....unless possibly too much ketchup in the finishing sauce messed up the already marginally overcooked pork.
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Don't use any ketchup in anything to finish my pork so I'm no help there.

Us wsm users have a way of denying the reality of residual cooking since it's such a convenience to wrap and hold for hours on end after the long cooks we get with the bullet. In all honesty though, it's really a crutch, and not the way to pork nirvana. Just sayin'...

How in the world can you take something that's cooked to perfection and wrap it while it's still almost 200* for hours in an insulated environment and not have it overcook? How can it get any better if cooked to perfect tenderness to begin with?
icon_confused.gif


Read the link I posted earlier if you want to know how I learned MY lesson, but think about it. Meat drippings are from COOKING meat, so what's left in the foil is good evidence to tell if you've held too hot and/or too long in foil after a cook.

Alternatives to nailing the timing of a cook are to pull the butt a little earlier than at optimum tenderness or tent under foil to let it cool some before wrapping and putting in the cooler for a much shorter period of time. I prefer the latter.
 
Dave,

Thanks for all the helpful info. I really do think that my problem was that there was too much time spent foiled in the cooler. Like I said, the first 2 shoulders I did turned out great. They were foiled for only like 30 minutes before pulling. The butts in question were held for like 4 hours.

Ho hum, ho hum, what to do? Well I have a 9 pounder in the freezer, I may need to experiment more this weekend!

Thanks all!

Joel
 
Joel,

I cooked butts for a group recently, and was in a situation where I needed to transport the meat. I had a four hour waiting period before I served them.
I took off the butts at 185 internal and double foiled them. I transported them in Cambro which is an insulated food carrier similar to a cooler. Normally, a butt will continue to cook and rise in temp if foiled and held in a cooler. When I unwrapped the butts four hours later, they steamed and were still a tad hot to pull and handle.
Long story short, I took them off the grill at 185 in anticipation of the continued cooking process. I would normally have taken off the grill at 195, but as with any cook, I feel the meat with a probe to see when its truly done.
 
Originally posted by TroyRedington:
i've pulled from the smoker at over 200 and foiled for 8 hours and the product wasn't mushy

was it mushy throughout?
did you chop it at all, or just pull?

was your butt injected?

add any fluid when you foiled?
Click to expand...

Being a noob, how would chopping or pulling determine if the meat was mushy or not?

Andy
 
Andy, good question. Chopping will yield a softer feel, but not in a unappealing "mushy" way, at least if the pork isn't overcooked to begin with.
 
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