pork butts advice


 
J

John Sampson

TVWBB Member
ok guys need some help, using mr brown recipe, this is my 2nd burn, did a roaster chicken yesterday just to break in the smoker it came out great, but now i want to do the stuff i bought this wsm for. i have 2 pork butts total lb about 14 after trimming all rubbed up and in the fridge, plan on getting up about 6:00 am to start, i will be using lump charcoal as oppossed to his briquettes, so how do i set this up, please give me a step by step if you can as i am a rookie to this, i plan on useing hickory and apple chunks thanks for the info
 
Sounds like you are off to a good start.

My main suggestion would be to go with the Minion Method for preparing/lighting your charcoal. Fill the charcoal bowl half-full then put 1/2 of the wood chunks you plan to use on the charcoal. Now fill the bowl to the top with more charcoal and put the other 1/2 of the smoke wood chunks on top of that. Using a chimney starter, pref. Weber brand, light your charcoal. When lit pour the chimney starter onto the charcoal bowl and assemble your WSM.

Things I do/don't do (or at least before I got the guru):
I don't turn my butts (still don't). I don't baste them or anything. I'm not into removing the lid unless I absolutely must.
I do/did drop a thermometer through the dome vent to measure lid temp. Shooting for a cooking grate temp of ~225 I was happy with a dome temp of ~250.
I do have a probe (polder-style) thermo for tracking the meat temp - allowing me to monitor it without lifting the lid. Monitoring 1 of the 2 butts is good enough - pick the smaller one. I shoot for about 198-200, figuring even once removed and foiled for rest the internal temp may continue to rise a bit.

When the strike-point temp is hit I pull the butts and wrap 'em in foil and then store in a cooler for at least 1/2 hour, more likely 2 hours, before pulling them. I use neoprene gloves and just pull with my hands, discarding any large chunks of fat or whatnot. I tend to stack bark chunks to the side and then chop them up a bit to redistribute back into the mix.

I'm a sauce purist. Good BBQ doesn't need sauce. The only kind I use is classic E. NC style vinegar & pepper - search on this site for a thread about replicating Scott's BBQ sauce as that is the type I make (though I add black pepper as well as the red).

Lots of folks do things lots of different ways and what I say here is only how I do it - not meant to in any way imply that how others do it isn't also right.

Good luck and be sure to update us as to how things go. Like a friend of mine says, with BBQ you get to eat your mistakes!
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I'd say Karl has set you in the right direction for sure! The only thing you might take into consideration is your cook time. It usually takes about 18 hrs. to cook that much butt, that puts your finish time at midnight. If that's the plan you're good to go!
 
<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">Originally posted by Jack Straw:
I'd say Karl has set you in the right direction for sure! The only thing you might take into consideration is your cook time. It usually takes about 18 hrs. to cook that much butt, that puts your finish time at midnight. If that's the plan you're good to go! </div></BLOCKQUOTE>
Yes Karl got you going good. I echo Jack's concern on the time for the Butts. Not sure if your prepared to do it but you might want to start tonight and do an all night cook. Time wise your looking at a min of 16 hrs if you got quick Butts but they can go for awhile so be prepared for up to a 20 hr cook. Sometimes they stay in the 160 plateau for hrs.
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Start your cook the night before. Fire up the WSM with the Minion Method and put the butts on about an hour before you go to bed. During that hour you should be able to stabilize your temps.

I've cooked butts that were done in 15 hours and others that went well over 20 hours. It varies with each piece of meat you buy. Better to be done a little early and hold the meat than too run late and miss dinner!
 
anybody awake, its 6 am est, all the advice was great, but 1 more question, where shuold i keep the vents after lighting and where to keep them during the smoke, and is it fill charcoal bowl halfway with unlit then half wood chunks then fill rest with lit coal and rest of woodchunks
 
Hey John
The general concensus for the mm start up seems to be fill the pan with charcoal. Then either make a well in the center or use a coffe can to make a hole in the middle.Start with about 15-20 lit briqs and cold water in the pan.It willtake a hour or two to stabilize the temps.
Don't worry about fuel consumption unless its really windy.If it is close the vents on the upwind side. Remember to always leave the top vent open and yes there will be temp spikes but don't sweat it butt is real forgiving.I hope you do have a thermometer??

Good luck
Jeff
 
hi jeff, i do have a 8 dollar thermometer from home depot that i can put in the top vent hole, i have a bbq-pro 2 coming in the mail that i will mount on the lid and im sure its more accuret. also i use lump charcoal does the same mm apply
 
Hi,
Several things, you've got it right about filling the ring. You're going to have to fill that sucker FULL. Whether the lump will last the night really depends on the density of the lump, the temps you maintain, and the outside air temps during the cook. I'm guessing that you'll be o.k.. Make sure the water pan is full but don't overfill. A note of caution...Lump will produce a huge temp spike if you let it, so don't lift the lid or open the access door for longer than neccesary.

Keep the top vent open 100% and keep the bottom vents at 75% till you get to around 190° then close one completely and the other two to 50%.
Remember lump will burn very hot and is very difficult to cool down. So, take your time getting the temps up to your target.

Good Luck.

Al
 
i think i should be ok, last nights low temp was 70 degrees and its going to be hot and humid right through monday, i will set up some sort of cover in case of a thunderstorm, im sure i will be a nervous nelly tonight and wake up a few times to check the temps, thanks to everyone for all the help you have answerd all my questions so far and i think i have enough info to give it a try, will let everybody know sunday am how things are going
 
Just getting up here. As others have said the cooktime is going to have you up pretty late tonight. Prolly too late now but in answer to your question the MM is:

1/2 bowl of unlit charcoal
1/2 your smoke wood chunks
top off bowl with unlit charcoal
rest of your smoke wood chunks
spread a chimney of LIT charcoal on top of all that

Like the homebrewer's motto - Relax, don't worry, have a homebrew. Butts are real forgiving so you've got some pretty wide safety margins that will help you out. Even if it's not perfect you are going to be amazed at the kind of BBQ you can make yourself.
 
I think that a chimney full of lit, spread ontop of the unlit, is not exactly what the Minion Method is all about. But 12 to 15 lit ontop of the unlit is.

Al
 
ihave decided to start my cook tonight at about 7 then ican stabilize my temps before going to bed, these wont be done till noon tommorow any way,thanks for the help i think im ready to go, most of you have calmed my fears, im going to relax and not worry, sit in the pool and drink some i.p.a. and look foward to tommorow
 
<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">Originally posted by john sampson:
by the way al silverman i dont know if these post show my location but i live in leicester, ma out next to worcester </div></BLOCKQUOTE>
In the upper left hand side on the page click on go>my space>profile then view/edit my complete profile to enter your info.
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<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">Originally posted by Al Silverman:
I think that a chimney full of lit, spread ontop of the unlit, is not exactly what the Minion Method is all about. But 12 to 15 lit ontop of the unlit is.

Al </div></BLOCKQUOTE>

I used to use the "classic" Minion method (1 chimney of unlit, then put 1/3-1/2 chimney lit on top of that) but I found that the smoker never really came up to full temp like that with a full water pan and full of meat. If I put a full chimney of lit on top, that solves that problem, though it does shave a couple of hours off the burn time before requiring more fuel.
 
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