My first overnight Mr. Brown butt is in progress: questions


 
J

Jeff Davidson

TVWBB Super Fan
Hi Folks,

Well, my first problem was just finding the meat. We have a BJs but they just have picnic ham. I've had good results with picnic in the weber kettle but I've generally had fabulous results with boston butt. I tried a couple of grocery stores and finally found a 5 lb butt at the local shoprite. It seemed to me that they trimmed too much fat and just left a three inch flap of fat on top. They only had one, so I decided to buy a 6 lb picnic as well. I usually trim some of the picnic fat to allow more smoke to reach the meat. I decided to transplant(!) the fat to the butt with some skewers. First time for everything.

It's a crisp, cold (41F) autumn night here in NY. I used the minion method with 30 pieces of charcoal and I was at 200 degrees in 15 minutes. I've taken care of the bottom vents and my temp is pegged at 225. I bought a couple of the brinkmans replacement pans (nice deal found on this website for $4 or so) so I've got 2 gallons water in the unit. Here are my questions:

- I peeked inside the lid and noticed a very steamy atmosphere. The rub is pretty wet now. Is this expected? In my weber kettle, I rarely used water as I'd keep an eye on the temp. So my rub never got wet.

- What's a guess for an end time for the butts? They went on at 10:15pm, temp pegged at 225, 40 degrees outside, 1 7 lb picnic ham and one 6 lb butt. I'm thinking 10-11am?

I'm sure there will be more...
tia, jd
 
Must be a butt night. I am starting a 10lb'er at midnight. Its a crisp cold night here in Michigan also. I am planning on serving at 2pm Sunday. Going to go with a cook temp of 240 to 250 over night. Would include pics but seems my oldest Son has decided to take my camera for the night. Possibly show some finished product. Going to be useing hickory wood with Grill Mates Pork Rub. Saw it in the store and thought why not. Made some Sauce #5 and and also will make a mustard suace also.
serving with cold slaw, Smashed Garlic Red potatoes, and special brown and serve roll from a friends restaurant he made for me for a small portion of Pork.
 
An all nighter in Alaska with the outside temp a balmy 20 degrees. Started 11:15pm Friday with a 5.5 lb. boneless boston butt and a 3.5 lb. flat cut brisket. Rubbed both with Southern Succor Rub and a hickory salt type rub my wife found at the store. Hickory and pecan for smoke. Minion method for the fire. Woke up a couple of times during the night to check the temp and baste with a Southern Succor based mop and spritz with apple juice mixed with beer. WSM cooked at about 220-230 degrees all night. Brisket off at 7:15am today (Saturday) at 190 degrees and BB at about 1:30pm also at 190. Had to kick up the WSM temp to about 260 to finally get the BB over the top. Still had enough fire left in the WSM to put some hickory smoke to a split chicken that I finished off on the Weber gas grill. Everything tastes great with perfect smoke rings. We got meat!
 
Well its 5:30 am. The temps are doing good. The meat is at 170 so looking to pull in a couple hours to rest, everything right on schedule, going back to bed. lol
 
I woke up in the middle of the night to the sound of rain. I went out to check on the unit and it wasn't raining, it was a powerful wind. The temp in the smoker had droped to 175. I opened all the vents and headed back to sleep.

It's 9:00 am now and the meat is about 180, cooker temp is 250. We're going to eat around 2pm....I'm getting a little nervous. I'm thinking I'll have to add more charcoal soon.
 
<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content"> The rub is pretty wet now. Is this expected? </div></BLOCKQUOTE>Yes, especially at lower cook temps and cooler ambient temps outside. It will dry as it cooks. You can up the cooker's temp to speed the process, if needed, which will also speed up the cook a bit.

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content"> I'm thinking 10-11am? </div></BLOCKQUOTE> My guess would be more 11-noon. Again, you can raise your cook temp if you wish. If you want to eat at 2 then it would be good to be able to finish the cooking by noon so that you have a decent rest period.

Enjoy your lunch.
 
I added 40 pieces of lit charcoal. We didn't hit 195 until 3pm...basically, the end of the party. We had lots of other food, a scavenger hunt for the younger kids and a vampire murder mystery for the older kids, so no one missed the pork.

We invited everyone that was interested in having pork to stay and at 3:30 I pulled and served the pork. We managed to go through the butt and part of the picnic. In my opinion, the picnic was a little better but both were great. We served it with a vinegar sauce, a mustard sauce and ketchup sauce.

I'm starting to think I need to calibrate my thermometer as everything I've cooked on the smoker has taken much longer than expected.

best,
jd
 
<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">Originally posted by jeff davidson:
I woke up in the middle of the night to the sound of rain. I went out to check on the unit and it wasn't raining, it was a powerful wind. The temp in the smoker had droped to 175. I opened all the vents and headed back to sleep. </div></BLOCKQUOTE>
In retrospect, if I'm reading correctly, what probably happened was the wind sucked the heat out of the cooker, and opening all the vents may have just helped it do so all the more. Using a windbreak, or closing the upwind vents and regulating using only a single downwind vent might have helped to keep things closer to your expected schedule.
 
<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content"> n retrospect, if I'm reading correctly, what probably happened was the wind sucked the heat out of the cooker, and opening all the vents may have just helped it do so all the more. Using a windbreak, or closing the upwind vents and regulating using only a single downwind vent might have helped to keep things closer to your expected schedule. </div></BLOCKQUOTE>

I've looked at the windbreaks and I don't see that I have one in my future as most look pretty ugly. As it is, it took some convincing to have the bullet and the kettle on the deck.

great point on the downwind vents, I'll have to remember to try that next time.
 
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