Pork butt -- wrap or not wrap ?


 
Lynn Dollar

Lynn Dollar

TVWBB Emerald Member
I got a couple of butts on the Old Country Brazos. I had planned on wrapping. But I'm thinkin about calling an audible and not wrapping.

Opinions ?
 
I prefer to leave un-wrapped, but I plan out a 'fail safe' time where if they stall, I wrap so I can have food on the table at the designated time for dinner.

It's worked for me that way as opposed to starting earlier and holding when done - just cuz I don't like getting up earlier. I've had vg success in wrapping to quickly push thru a stall. But, that's just me.
 
Just my 2 cents, but I wrap. Well actually I place the butt in a disposable aluminum pan once the butt reaches 160-170 with a little ACV or plain cider and cover tightly with foil. Wife and I like the bark a bit softer.
 
For me, solely a question of how much time, fuel and patience I have.

I like chewy bark. But when I get tired/bored of tending the cooker, I wrap with PBP. Also, no shame in finishing it up in the kitchen oven. Once you wrap, BTUs are just BTUs.
 
I don't wrap anymore but that's me, i stopped when i did a charity event and filled both racks of my UDS and there was no way i was going to wrap that much! LOL after that why bother.
 
Gold line , CH 1 = probe at stack end of cooking grate

Red line , CH 2 = probe at firebox end

It sorta got away from me toward the end of the cook and I can't explain that, but I was shooting for 250 to 275* .

I put the butts on the smoker at 8 am.

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Did "tuffystone" get his lazy a** out of bed early enough to finish his butts in the smoker instead of the oven?;)
 
I had some vinegar based sauce ordered from All Things Barbecue, some Malcolm Reed vinegar sauce, a bottle of Tarheel Tang made by Plowboys, and a mustard sauce by American Stockyard .................... but Fedex broke something. They tell me the package was damaged so it was not delivered. Most likely they could tell by the sauce leaking out of the box .

But anyway, it may be a while before I get some tangy vinegar sauce for my pulled pork.
 
I usually wrap. But i also do high heat. The times I forget to wrap are when I am cooking a lot if different things and I totally forget about cooking. It usually turns out better. I have taken to cutting the shoulder in two. Twice the bark, half the time. (Okay closer to twenty percent more bark, and a bit quicker. But more control over thicker pieces and thinner ones.)

I have even done them in a counter top electric oven. The ones you, I mean other people use for Thanksgiving turkey. It actually cooks well and fast. Who would have guessed.
 
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Tony-Chicago said:
I usually wrap. But i also do high heat. The times I forget to wrap are when I am cooking a lot if different things and I totally forget about cooking. It usually turns out better. I have taken to cutting the shoulder in two. Twice the bark, half the time. (Okay closer to twenty percent more bark, and a bit quicker. But more control over thicker pieces and thinner ones.)

I have even done them in a counter top electric oven. The ones you, I mean other people use for Thanksgiving turkey. It actually cooks well and fast. Who would have guessed.
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I did the trim Chef Tom does here, where he almost cuts the butt in half. It creates more surface area for bark. Except I did not trim the fat cap. My smoker is a " bottom up " cooker and I thought I needed the fat cap for protection, but that turned out to not be necessary.

 
Someone emailed me recently and mentioned they took the Aaron Franklin MasterClass. In the class, he recommended smoking pork butts at 270*F for 8 hours, then wrap in foil and cook for 1 hour at 270*F, then bump up temp to 290*F and cook for another 1 hour.

Edit: changed butcher paper to foil
 
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Chris Allingham said:
Someone emailed me recently and mentioned they took the Aaron Franklin MasterClass. In the class, he recommended smoking pork butts at 270*F for 8 hours, then wrap (I assume in pink butcher paper) and cook for 1 hour at 270*F, then bump up temp to 290*F and cook for another 1 hour.
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I bought the Master Class and that's how he cooks pork butt. He cooks fat cap up and when the cap cracks, that's when he wraps in foil. Me, cooking fat cap down, that was not gonna work.

He's the brisket King, and I listen to every word he says about brisket .......... but when it comes to ribs or pork butt, I'm not so sure. He seasons with heavy heavy coat of salt/pepper, I think 3 to 1 pepper to salt. He says the rub has to be heavy on pork butt, because its going to get mixed when the butt is pulled.

Me, I think pork butt is like blank canvas. Pork by itself can be somewhat bland, it can use help. So I inject and use more complex rubs.
 
I had his pork ribs and I'll put them against anything I've ever had, but in all honesty I haven't been to any of the great joints outside of Texas.
 
I watched his pork butt video and he cooked that one at 275*F for five hours (fat cracked at some point before five hours), then foiled it and cooked at 275*F for three hours, then checked the bone, it was loose, he let it rest for about 35 minutes then pulled it. I guess he can't make up his mind how to cook pork butt. :D

 
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