pork-butt cooking method

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I have always found my pork-butts too greasy,especially the next day.I even stopped cooking them a few years ago for this reason.

I read on a thread here to cook pork-butt without water in the pan,and that it should be cooked to 190*+.I tried this on the second cook w/ my new WSM Monday & got THE BEST pulled-pork ever!
biggrin.gif
It just fell apart & was a beautiful white color.My final sandwich today was still not greasy at all!

My question is:
Does cooking 'dry' cause some of the fat to cook out of the butt,whereas cooking w/ water does not draw this fat out? or was it because I cooked it to a higher internal temp?
or both?

Thanks,

Theo B.

[This message has been edited by Theo Theophilus (edited 09-14-2000).]
 
Theo...

I think the only reason a water pan is in the WSM and other verticals is for HEAT control..NOT for moisture retention.....though you are bound to get a little of that.

To render the fat out of any cut of meat, it must be "held" at a temp of around 160-170 for an extended period of time. This is why you will find your internal temps will plateau at around that level. At that temp, the collagen starts to breakdown and actually cools the meat. Hence, the stable temp.

Also, fat can only be rendered out over a long period of time. That is the biggest problem with boiling ribs(AAARRRRRRRRGGGGGGHHHHH).......the fat is NOT rendered out and you will get fatty ribs(though they will be tender). One more point, you will NEVER render all the fat from a pork butt or brisket.

So, your second butt may indeed have cooked a little longer and therefore rendered out more of the fat. Now, another possibility is, your second butt was a better piece of meat!! That happens all the time in this BBQ stuff.

Anyway, sounds like you are on to some great Qin!!

Stogie
 
Thanks Stogie,

From now on I'll hold internal meat temp at 190*+ for a while.I tend to think it was my undercooking rather than a bad cut in my previous attempts,as it was consistently greasy.Do most of you guys(& gals)cook pork-butt without water?

Also,thanks for the info on how to put 'bark'
on a meat,as I love really thick rub,but usally just put it on once,never thought of layering it!

Theo B.
 
Theo
The idea is to have the butt stall at 160
and above. The stall will happen on it's
own, what happens is folks figures there's a problem and they either wrap or raise the pit temp.
The target temp is 188-205* internal and what
governs the final temps is when the butt is fork tender.
Dry waterpan can cause you more work as far as temp control goes and is not the governing factor on fat rendering. If you cook a butt that was ready at 190* to the internal temp of 200-205* it will be drier.
Keep in mind that no two butts are made the same and it's up to you to decide when each is ready. The fun parts is the eating all this Q during the learning curve.
Jim
 
As the guys above can attest, I have asked them many times the same question that you had concerning fatty butts. There advice has been invaluable. Here are some of my observations and my thoughts as to making a less greasy pulled pork.

1. The meat - I do not think that I have this down as good as I would like. Need to be able to pick the best butt.

2. Internal temp - It must get to 190+. The first butt that I made on an ECB was cooked to an internal of 170 and it was so greasy that my wife and I ate just a little and threw it away.

3. Cooking temp - It has to be somewhere between 200 - 275. I have cooked them at 325 - 350 cooker temp. Butt gets cooked fast and the end result is greasy. Again this was done on my first few attempts using a recipe from Southern Living.

4. Water Pan - The jury is still out on this one. Right now I am not filling it with water in the expectation that it will render out more grease. Again, this is #4 on the list and its impact is probably somewhat minimal. But every little bit helps.

I used to help a friend cook whole pigs over wood coals for our church picnics. We would start at 03:00 to build the fire and go get the pig from the cooler. Pig was usually put on the pit by 05:00 and the rest of the day was spent splitting wood and keeping the pit going with wood coals. Pig would usually finish at about 16:00 or 17:00. This usually resulted in the best pulled pork that I have eaten.

One of his "secrets" was that starting in the afternoon, he would put his ear near the cooker and start listening to the grease dripping on the coals. When he didn't hear much "sizzling" it was time for the pig to come off. The guy never used a thermometer to regulate cooking temps and produced great Q everytime.

I think Jim's advice of letting the meat tell you its done is right on!

SC QUE
 
SC Que,

The end of your post reminds me of some interesting stuff I read in the book "Smokestack Lightning" describing how the "old timers" (and I use that term with all due respect) featured in the book cooked whole hogs relying only on their senses of sight, smell, touch, and sound. Of course, the sense of taste was exercised during the pig pullin'!

Regards,
Chris
 
well fellas
what I usually do with pork butts [and this WE with a whole shoulder (@ 99 cents a lb) is to cut them up a bit, into fist sized or a tad bigger hunks -- this gives me the 'outside' edge, the part with the rub all over it, on lots of the meat the smaller pieces also cooks faster

now sometimes one wants ta present the entire piece of meat to his guests prior to carving, well my method doesn't work in that case, but for tasty eating, I believe cutting the pork prior to smoking works great
 
Thank you gentlemen,

With above info,I believe I have a good platform to launch my next experiment from,which most likely will include water in the pan,as I did work harder to control temp w/out the h2o.

I'll note temps/times more closely this cook,from my adirondac chair of course,& post my results.

Theo B.
 
I keep my water pan full and cook to approximately 190. Never had a greasy butt yet. I don?t do butt as often as I would like because of the 9-10hr cook time. I?ve heard about cutting the butt into smaller portions prior to rubbing and cooking. This is appealing to me for two reasons; a.) reduced cook time, b.) more of that good rub to enjoy on each sandwich. However, my concerns are; a.) the meat will have too much surface area causing a dry product, b.) I won?t cut it right and will get a tough product and/or the small pieces will fall apart (read fall through the grill so I can?t enjoy) because I?ve dissected it incorrectly.

Any feed back would be appreciated as I?m on my way to the store to prepare for tomorrow?s butt and home brew session.

Thanks in advance.
 
I have cut large boneless pork butts in half lengthwise and gotten good results. Haven't tried cutting it any smaller than that. Leaving the water pan empty will give you somewhat crispier outside meat than you will get using water.

Regards,
Chris
 
Wow! ~tasty pork~

I followed much of the info above & my second butt seems as good as my last!

I noticed the lengthy 'stall' between 160-170*.It was just under 5lbs.,it finished up in about 9 hrs.(Minion method)& required additional lump once,at around 6 hrs.I didn't see it hit 190*+,because I fell asleep the last 3 hours & when I woke up the WSM was cooling off a bit but the meat was still above 180* internally and it pulled nice & stringy.

I almost cut it in half,but decided not to this time,but I might try that next time,to get more 'rubbed' surface as Musky-Hunter suggested.

Im really glad I found this site,as I don't know any other Q'ers in my area & have had to learn by trial-&-error up until now.

Thanks Chris & to all the pit-masters here who's advice has already taken this back-yard Q'er up several levels.The average cooker like myself doesnt usally have access to such top-level info.

Thanks again everyone,

Theo B.
 
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