Pork Butt and Brisket question


 
S

Steve D.

New member
I'm planning my third smoke this weekend... menu calls for a ~8 lb pork butt and a similar sized brisket. I need some suggestions about the best placement of the meat as well as what to do with my two Nu Temp probes. The plan right now is brisket on the bottom, pork butt on the top. As far as the probes go, I'd like one to measure temperature at grate level. Should the other probe go in the brisket or the pork butt (i.e. which one will likely finish first)?

Steve
 
Steve,

I would place the pork butt on the top grate and the brisket on the bottom grate, fat side down. If I was a betting man I would guess that the pork butt will take longer to cook.

I would monitor the top cooking grate and place the second probe in the brisket. If you have a meat thermometer you can use that to monitor the pork butt, until the brisket is done. I wouldn't worry about the butt for at least 8-10 hours though, and I'm betting that brisket will just about be done by then or close to it.
 
Steve,

I've cooked brisket with the fat side down, and fat side up. I had better/juicer results cooking the brisket with the fat side up.

No affirmation needed, but here's an excerpt from the Midnight Brisket Cook recipe in the Cooking Section of this site:

......After Midnight, We're Gonna Let It All Hang Out...
" It was 60°F outside with a slight drizzle. I was shooting for 250°F before putting the meat in the cooker, but by 12:30am it had only crept up to 235°F. I decided to go ahead and get started, putting one brisket on the lower grate and the other on the upper grate, <span class="ev_code_RED">both with the fat side up.</span>
Much of what looks like smoke coming out of the cooker in this picture is actually steam, due to the cold outdoor temperature."

However, your circumstances may yield better results fat-side down. Experimentation is good.
 
I have had inconsistent results with my briskets, but I have had the worse results with the fat side down. I was using sand and I think I had a temp spike during the night. The fat side got way overcooked and was a hardened crust. I then decided to use foil later in future cook and I've been more satisfied. However, I'm really a butt man at heart.
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Paul
 
I went through the sand phase but have pretty much reverted to water again for most all cooks. Yes, sand makes for easy cleanup, but when I fire 'em up I always use the full capacity, and the heat coming off the sand just wreaks too much havoc on the bottom meat for my tastes. I'm back to butts and briskets fat side down over water, anymore, and am more pleased with both. We do more packer briskets than anything else - my briskets are usually pretty consistent these days, unless you count the one I tried to do in the oven a while a back. Robert and I agreed not to mention that one in polite company anymore.
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What Bruce B said about placement and therms. Put 'em in in the early evening, and it's brisket for breakfast and butt for lunch. An 8-lb brisket is kinda small - is it a flat or a very small packer? A flat will get done quicker and be more inclined to dry out, though cooking under the butt will help a lot. I may be going against the current fashion, but if you're cooking a flat on the bottom, I'd shy away from using sand (strictly based on my own experiences...)

Keri C, smokin' on Tulsa Time
 
Thanks to everyone for the responses.

Keri
I'll be using my new Brinkmann water pan with good ol' fashioned H2O. As far as the brisket, that was just a bad guesstimate on my part I suppose. It's gonna be a packer, so maybe 10-12 lbs would be more like it?

Steve
 
Steve, my last packer was between 8 and 9 pounds. I asked my butcher about it, and it was all he has been getting recently. Maybe it's a northeast thing. And it was a genuine packer, with defined point and flat sections. It dried out a little with the fat side down, but cooking a butt over it might have helped.
 
<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">Originally posted by Steve D.:
I'm planning my third smoke this weekend... menu calls for a ~8 lb pork butt and a similar sized brisket. I need some suggestions about the best placement of the meat as well as what to do with my two Nu Temp probes. The plan right now is brisket on the bottom, pork butt on the top. As far as the probes go, I'd like one to measure temperature at grate level. Should the other probe go in the brisket or the pork butt (i.e. which one will likely finish first)?

Steve </div></BLOCKQUOTE>

Put the probe in the brisket...it will finish way ahead of the butt. Brisket should be done in 8-10 hrs tops. I am guessing 16hrs for the butt.
 
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