pork butts - easy peasy


 
J

Joe McManus

TVWBB All-Star
Wanted to let some of the newbies out there that cooking w/ the wsm need not be complicated. Its very simple.

Task - prepare pork for poker party next friday.

Friday 6:00p - remove butts from freezer, drop in cooler filled w/ water.

Sat 6:30a - wake up

6:45 - outside to look at cooker...messy, 15 minutes to clean it.

7:00 - fill ring full of royal oak lump, 3 pretty large chunks of hickory. Place electric element ligher on top. 5mins have perfect minion light...top coals just starting. Standard pan, about quart of water in it. Put cooker together...its now 7:15.

7:15 - rub butts w/ Butt Rub and some raw sugar.

7:20 - wake family

7:25 - butts on cooker...temp at 210.

8:15 - checked temp, 260 dome temp...

off for Saturday morning activities. Will update later...
 
Not only are butts simple, the are hard to cook wrong.

They are my WSM favorite. I have tried chicken, ribs and brisket too. I haven't been happy with my ribs or brisket, and more work is needed with those.

I started mine about 6:30 last night. I actually got about 7 hours of sleep last night too. Much better than my first overnighter. The winds have been pretty high all night, the lowest I got was 11 mph, with gust up to almost 30!!

Plus I think my water heater blanket got caught on a let when I was removing it, so a little repair necessary.
 
Ok its now about 4:30pm.

I added some lump about 2:00p. Mostly to just start warming some new charcoal up. At 4:00, I pushed the added stuff together with the lit, mixed it up and added some more around the edges.

Dome temp at 2:00 was 250.

Water pan is dry...i'm not adding more water.

At 4:00 it was about 275.

at 4:30 it was still at 275. I'm happy w/ that. Just threw on two tenderloins for dinner tonight.

Butt look great. Cooking them fat cap up. Didn't trim an ounce of fat of these guys. I haven't temped them yet, but the blade bone is just now starting to loosen up. I'm going to guess it'll be about another two hours maybe three before they're done.

when moving the butts around to make room for the t'loins, a chunck broke off...chef's treat. Fantastic flavor.

I won't go into details of what's been done today, but I left the house at 8:30, and didn't come home until 1:30, and the cooker was at the same temp as when I left it. I didn't peek at the meat until it was time to put the t'loins on. I'm also letting the temperature start to creep up now, even if it means cracking the door a little to get some more heat going.
 
Joe I really like your attitude on your cook. This site has some great means and methods on a cook, but the important thing is what works for you. I have done a ton of work in Naperville in the last 25yrs, maybe we have crossed paths .
Tim
 
Timothy - shoot me an email, its in my profile.

To wrap things up.

7:00p - pulled the butts off the cooker, covered w/ foil, and placed on the stove. They were between 200 and 190. That's the only time I temped them today. Muscles on top of the blade bone were pulling off fine, the big one underneath was still a little "clingy".

8:00 - pulled the pork butts. Ok, honestly, they probably could have cooked another hour or so...they weren't quite as tender as I'd like them for pulled but most of it was fine. What wasn't just got chopped up and tossed in.

As for the t'loins, they came out great. pulled them at 6:15. Coated w/ olive oil, salt, pepper, rosemary, thyme and lemon juice...thats it. Roasted / smoked at 275 dome temp.

I guess the main point I'm trying to make is the Bullet is a great little cooker that operates just fine in the most simple form. I didn't use a guru, or a remote thermo, i just measured temperature thru the top vent, I used the standard water pan, started w/ water and never added a drop, I used lump, about 10lbs worth today (was very windy). I was cooking pork butts, the most forgiving piece of meat in the world. Remember that too...don't sweat the small stuff, it will be fine.

If I had had my FE, I probably would have used it, but its in Peoria. Was fun cracking out the bullet anyway.

Finally, the pulled pork was fantastic, but thats what I expect from this little cooker.
 
lol when I first clicked your post this is what I read

Task - prepare pork for porker party next friday.

made me laugh
anyway good post. Makes me want to put my ET-73 away for a while.
 
Hey Joey,

Glad to see the old memories did not fade totally away on how to use the WSM. I know you made a lot of great food with them before your "conversion" but it is nice to see you post a cook on the WSM. I finally get my cookers out of storage this weekend and have a practice cook already planned for next weekend. Regards.
 
<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">Originally posted by Joe. P:
... Makes me want to put my ET-73 away for a while. </div></BLOCKQUOTE>

Hey Joe ... cool!!! thats the point of starting this string in the first place!!!
 
It is EASY! I started my second cook in 3 years this morning at 7:30 and it's now in the third hour. I've got 4 small butts, about 4 lbs each. I removed the caps and false caps, rubbed three and left one necked for my wife (she doesn't like spicy).
 
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