My 1st pork butt smoke on my WSM


 
Jon K

Jon K

TVWBB Super Fan
Here we go, 2 Butts, 14 lbs. total and because it's the 1st time that I'm using the WSM, it's all an experiment. Started at 6:15 pm et, dry/foiled pan, one but slathered in mustard and "Wee Willy's rub and the other just "Wee Willy's". The WSM 22 has been holding steady at about 250 now for about 45 minutes. I've got to leave for about 3 hours so we'll see what happens and then there's the sleep tonight. We should be good for 7 hours before I check it again. Hopefully I can attach some of the prep pix. http://i1141.photobucket.com/albums/n591/jon407/DSC01165-1.jpg[/img]
 
JOn, good luck with your first one.
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Well, here they are. 11 p.m. Saturday night they were @ 165 F and the WSM was at 270 f. All was well. Woke up at 5:40 a.m. (not on purpose), came down to check and the smoker was down to 150f and the butts were at 173f. Hmmmmm. I lit another chimney of Kingsford blue and got ready to load it up when I decided to do a probe check on the butts and low and behold it slid into both of them like butter. OK, took them off and pulled them right away (chimney of K B still sitting next to the WSM), no problem, most of the butts pulled easily butt the pieces under the bone were tougher. As I said earlier I did this w/o water and fat side up. Any suggestions? By the way, they taste great. They've been vaccum sealed and are in the freezer for use on Tuesday night. Thank you all again!
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Good looking butt!
You said parts were tough? Next time,probe in several areas of the butt and don't pull right away. Let it rest under foil for at least 30 minutes. THEN pull.
You might also want to shoot for a higher target temp. Try checking for tender at 190* or so. Hope this helps and welcome to the wonderful world of WSM!
 
Cook fat side down, especially in a vertical cooker like the wsm since heat rises.

Also, I'd suggest using water in the pan, especially if cooking over night to help keep temps moderated (I like 235-250*), especially if not foiling during the cook, and especially if you're not even gonna fill up one rack's worth. More meat= more moisture...and pit moisture IS an issue, especially for the backyard cook that doesn't foil during the cooking process. (You DON'T want bark formation too quick.)

Regarding your fuel useage, pack the charcoal in tighter UNLESS using Kingsford...(although I'd recommend some Stubbs, Wicked Good, or Royal Oak Chef's Select briqs). You went through the fuel because you had a big spike, and in case you're wondering, even in the big 22", there's plenty of guys that have cooked more butts than that with no refueling, water in the pan.

Keep the cooker temp down and I think you'll find that ALL of the meat gets tender and you don't need to guess about it. Pulling pork is the easiest, quickest thing in the world if cooked this way. You don't need to shred the meat. It'll dry out. Just pull out any connective tissue/fat, and break up the larger pieces of bark and mix in to the pork. After doing this, the meat should be just fine. Ideal is a pan of thumb sized chunks of moist 'n tender bbq.

One other thing, if you haven't done so yet, remove the gauge and check in boiling water to see if you're close to 212*. The gauge is really the only part of my wsm that I don't trust, so I use a Maverick remote probe hanging in the vent and shoot for 235-250* low and slow, water in the pan for all cooks. Even if the gauge is accurate, if you ever fill that top grate up, you'll find that the gauge will be quite low for the first half of the cook, anyway.

I've cooked butts all different ways, and this just works best for me. Hope this helps, and kudos to you for "experimenting". Keep it up!
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Ditto on the other's advice. The only thing I will add is that with the 22" and Kingsford I can't go 7 hours without at least stirring the coals and usually adding a little. The Kingsford burns up fast and will smother itself in ashes if not stirred. I usually start with kingsford and then add some wicked good lump if I am going to try to get some sleep.

I like to keep it between 200 and 225.
 
The new Kingsford just doesn't measure up any more. It burns fast and produces a lot more ash. My last cook I did 2 butts in my offset with kingsford. I had to stay up all nite feeding it and at one point, the fire snuffed itself out due to ash and trying to clean ash out of a very hot offset isn't fun!! In years past I've had to feed it less K and correspondingly, had less ash. I've decided to only use either Stubbs or RO for briquettes and a good lump for long cooks.
 
<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">Originally posted by Ken McCrary:
Ditto on the other's advice. The only thing I will add is that with the 22" and Kingsford I can't go 7 hours without at least stirring the coals and usually adding a little. The Kingsford burns up fast and will smother itself in ashes if not stirred. I usually start with kingsford and then add some wicked good lump if I am going to try to get some sleep.

I like to keep it between 200 and 225. </div></BLOCKQUOTE>

Sounds like someone needs to find some STUBBS, and it seems like Lowes is about the ony place that has them. (No, I don't work for either.) Seriously, I bet any Kingsford fan would be pleasantly surprised with how long the Stubbs briqs will last and how they don't need stirring. Lots more wood char and lots less binders is a REALLY GOOD THING, so don't think for a second that Kingsford is the longest lasting, most reliable briquette available.

Regarding cooking sub 225*, I'm always curious about cooking times and how folks measure temp in the wsm before I assume they mean actual grate temperature. I've cooked -225* on other cookers and know that pork butts and such take a LONG time to get done when cooked that slow, as much as 2 hrs/lb., and I've yet to see the advantage, (no matter how much I read my Great American Barbecue & Grilling Manual by "Smoky" Hale.
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On a related issue though, this is my observations with the'09+ wsm gauges: I'm on my third one, and they all seem to eventually start reading a little (or a lot) lower than 212* in boiling water. Furthermore, I can get 250* measuring at the vent with my Maverick probe or another calibrated therm, but at the same time, the OE gauge (even if still testing to be fairly accurate) won't start off at no more than 220* or so, especially in the first half of the cook or so.

Regarding my own cooking times and temps, I have a heck of a time measuring temp on a full grate in my little wsm, so I don't even try that anymore. On my last overnighter, I cooked two butts and a brisket to tender in 12 HOURS, targeting 250* AT THE DOME VENT, roughly 1.5 hr/lb for the two butts and 1hr/lb for the brisket. In my experience with different cookers and also from what I've read, that's pretty typical cooking times for 250*, so measuring the temp in the exhaust vent (in the stream of circulation) seems to get me closest to the actual average cooking temp.
 
Just to clarify. I measure the temps at the top grate which is usually cooler than at the dome vent. My experience cooking at between 200 and 225 is pretty much what you describe. Around 2 hours per pound for butts and 1 1/2 hours per pound for brisket.

I haven't tried the stubbs yet but will give it a look. I still burn the kingsford because I can get it cheap at Sam's. The wicked good is wicked expensive. I use it on long cooks when I need to get the temps up in a hurry, usually after the kingsford burns itself out while I'm not paying attention.

Thanks for the input Dave I always enjoy hearing others experience as a means to justify or modify my own.

KMc
 
<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">Originally posted by Ken McCrary:
Just to clarify. I measure the temps at the top grate which is usually cooler than at the dome vent. My experience cooking at between 200 and 225 is pretty much what you describe. Around 2 hours per pound for butts and 1 1/2 hours per pound for brisket.

I haven't tried the stubbs yet but will give it a look. I still burn the kingsford because I can get it cheap at Sam's. The wicked good is wicked expensive. I use it on long cooks when I need to get the temps up in a hurry, usually after the kingsford burns itself out while I'm not paying attention.

Thanks for the input Dave I always enjoy hearing others experience as a means to justify or modify my own.

KMc </div></BLOCKQUOTE>

Thanks, Ken for the additional input. On most of my overnighters I've cooked at about 225-240 (dome vent) since I like to go to bed at a decent time and I usually cook for supper the next day, not lunch.

Anyway, on the last cook I mentioned where I cooked a little faster and got all of it done in 12 hours, we had to go somewhere in the morning so I wanted to get it done before I left the house. I kept the meat hot (safely over 140*) ALL DAY in a pre-heated (w/ hot water) "3 day" Coleman cooler (not they're most expensive, though). Besides the double foil wrapped meat, I also put a couple jugs of hot water in the cooler and wadded up newspaper to fill up any space left. All of the bbq was some of the best in moisture and texture that I've done thus far, so it's good to know that I can keep meat hot that long and get great results in twelve hours if needed, as opposed to the usual 14 or more.
 
Oh yeah, Jon. For some reason I forgot to mention your pre-cook pic this morning. Next time, (unless you weren't finished with your rub), try putting A LOT more rub on. That looked more like how much I'd put on ribs, not nearly enough for pork shoulder. I'm sure it tasted great, though. Old school pork shoulder doesn't have any rub at all, just S&P.

For pork butts, don't waste rub on the fat cap, but I put on as much rub as the meat will take. Sometimes I apply the rub right before smoking, after letting the meat sit out a while so the rub will stick quick. Just as often though, I'll put a first coat on earlier in the day, and then do a second layer on right before cooking. Either way works. Just put it on as heavily as you can and have the rub "sweating" by the time you smoke it, as Harry Soo of Slap Yo Daddy says. Check out his interview here on the site if you haven't already.
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Thanks all, I will be looking for the three different briqs that were mentioned. There were so many great recommendations that I wil be trying them all very soon. Thanks all.
 
Well everybody covered the cooking part so I would just like to suggest that when you pull it add more of your rub and mix it in. On a butt the rub really doesn't penetrate the meat very much. All the smoke/rub flavour is in the bark.
 
Good tip, Bob, but you'll get great rub flavor throughout if you use a lot to begin with and mix all the small bark pieces in with the meat.

As long as I rest the butts a good bit after cooking lownslow, the bark goes to small pieces with the rest of the meat after I put the Bear Claws to work. Chop and mix the bark in if it ends up tough and hard.
 
all good advise. not really much I can add to the cooking aspect but as far as the fuel goes, Jon I would try the RO lump and Stubbs. I haven't used the stubbs in my WSM yet just my kettle. It did produce a good amount of ash but not as much as K. I prefer the lump in my WSM so if you can find the RO lump (made in the USA! Other versions suck!) I'd give that a shot.

Other than that, fine job on those pork butts Jon! With shoulders, I cut a lot of that think fat cap off. If you look at them from the side, you see the thick cap (yellowish color) and the fat underneathe it (white color). I cut it because I want that bark on the meat. You really just cut off that fat cap and chuck it (yeah I just said
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<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">Originally posted by Ken McCrary:
Ditto on the other's advice. The only thing I will add is that with the 22" and Kingsford I can't go 7 hours without at least stirring the coals and usually adding a little. The Kingsford burns up fast and will smother itself in ashes if not stirred. I usually start with kingsford and then add some wicked good lump if I am going to try to get some sleep.

I like to keep it between 200 and 225. </div></BLOCKQUOTE>

If I load my 22" WSM with 20# of unlit kingsford, then pour a half chimney of lit on that I am consistently getting 12-14 hours without any problems. If I need to go longer I just throw in a few handfuls more as needed. It does make a lot of ash though. I just can't justify paying twice as much for stubbs.
 
wow, these are all great comments, i just posted on another chat about how to do a over night cook -- well i think alot answers were solved. however no one really talking bout lump charcoal -- Im goin to try lump charcoal as i found my first try on WSM wiht kingford to burn quickly also -- thanks
 
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