Pork butt -- wrap or not wrap ?

[Lynn Dollar]

Well, I would not travel to Austin for his pork butt or his ribs .................but one of these days, I'm gonna make that trip for his brisket.

There's so much more he can add to brisket in the cook. While the rub is simple salt/pepper, he starts with quality meat, then its a long cook with pure wood on a smoker with great convection, then a long rest, then even longer in warmers that improve the brisket even further.

I think ribs are almost the reverse. Rub and sauce are more important than the cook, which is much shorter. I believe he goes 2 1/2 to 3 hours before wrapping in foil with his sauce diluted with water.

I've not made the trip to Austin, yet. I'm gonna get around to it , one of these days. But his brisket intrigues me, greatly. His ribs and pork butt..... are ............ ehhh, IDK.

 

[Jim C in Denver]

I did the trim Chef Tom does here, where he almost cuts the butt in half. It creates more surface area for bark.

I will have to try that.

I do the same trim on brisket (whether making burnt ends or not). Almost cut it in half so you get more surface area for seasoning and bark. Cooks faster too.

 

[Seth Boardman]

I too trimmed one of mine like Chef Tom from All Things Barbecue. However I did not like it with the fat cap cut off. It turned out a lot dryer than it normally does. I also have never wrapped mine but i did get some PBP from my brother in law to try. If I ever get a stall temp I just open the vents further on my WSM and it cranks it through so I can get my internal temp to 200

 

[Lynn Dollar]

I too trimmed one of mine like Chef Tom from All Things Barbecue. However I did not like it with the fat cap cut off. It turned out a lot dryer than it normally does. I also have never wrapped mine but i did get some PBP from my brother in law to try. If I ever get a stall temp I just open the vents further on my WSM and it cranks it through so I can get my internal temp to 200

The fat cap is not gonna melt down into the meat, its just gonna run off. The only reason I left the fat cap on mine, was to protect the meat from my bottom up smoker. And when I do it again, I will trim it off.

The fat cap is not gonna make a big hunk of meat like a pork butt, any more moist.

 

[MartinB]

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.

I think it's really hard to mess up a pork butt or to cook it bad unless you overcook it into mush, and it's still probably pretty good then too. that's usually what you get from restaurants that keep it in heated pans of liquid.

Just about anything works pretty good, imo.

I think pork butt benefits from more than just salt and pepper, just like ribs. And it's a lot of meat.

 

[Lynn Dollar]

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.

Follow up on this, All Things Barbecue in Wichita, Ks , got my sauce to me yesterday. That was extremely quick. Totally unexpected.

And I tried Malcolm Reed's Killer Hogs Vinegar sauce on pulled pork last night, it was excellent ! Perfect compliment to pulled pork.

And my wife told me this may be the best pulled pork I've ever smoked.