Pork Butts


 
Status
Not open for further replies.
B

Brian Hieger

New member
Fired up 2 butts today, 7lbs apiece. Hickory and Oak. Took about 10 hours. Went the Mr. Brown's route. They were absolutely fantastic!! The neighbors, kids, everyone enjoyed them. Just wanted to thank everyone here for all the great info, especially Chris. I don't post much, but I read a lot, and learn even more!
 
Hello fellow Zonie

Sounds like you did good on your cook.

Where do you buy your butts? Sounds like you got a Costco dualie pack. I've never been disappointed with that pork. Very good quality.

Brisket flats are "choice" grade. Again, very good quality.

Keep up the good smoke.
 
I did my first all nighter with 3 butts. One about 9lbs and the other two around 7 each. For me that was a lot of meat. I started with a full chamber and an uncounted number of hot coals on top - MM method. Cook began about 6:00 p.m. Refilled the Brinkman water pan at 9:00 and everything was stable around 240-250. I then went to bed - I don't get up during the night to check on a smoker.

At about 7:00 a.m. the temp was down to 200 and all the coal had burned. That surprised me - any thoughts ? I may have used too much lit coals - next time I'll be more carefull and count out 20. The weather was not an issue since I live in Fla and it was a warm night with no wind. Also the water pan was down to about 1/2 at 7:00 a.m.

I put in a 20 or so coals and some lit ones on top and had no problem bring the temp back up to 250. The meat temp was about 175 at 7:00. I took it off the cooker at 195 which made about a 17 hr cook.

My only real surprise and curiosity is why all the fuel had burned up in 13 hrs. No big deal but I thought I could complete the cook without adding more coal.

PRG
 
Same on the Charcoal for me. Brian, if you got those done in 10 hours, did you foil those at the end, and what temp did you pull them off? Any more I figure 2+ hours per pound. I stopped even trying to get them done the same day. Finally I did my first overnighter, and 2 7 lb buts took 18 hours. I held out till internal temp was 195. I allowed 5 extra hours before guests, and needed almost all of it, by the time I let it rest and got it pulled.
 
I get most of my butts at Sam's Club and have never been disappointed. The final temp on them was 180, kinda sped it up the last couple hours. I just covered them with foil as I was letting them "rest" on the counter for about 45 min.

I just did 4 8lb butts last weekend, 17 hours, final temp 190. Kept the temp 235-248. They were exceptional.

I added about 20 coals after approx 13 hours, which in hindsight was too much, but did the trick. I began with a full chimney of lit, and then filled the ring 3/4 of the way with unlit.
 
I had the same type of question about charcoal usage on the beginner's forum based on the results of my first overnighter this past Friday. I put 4 - ~6# butts on at 10:00 pm and took them off about 4:00 pm the next day - internal temp never got over 185. But they were very tender and very tasty!

I used a whole bag of 20# kingsford - about 15# went in originally using the Minion method - however, I must not have read very closely - I don't remember the 20 lit coals part - I used a whole chimney... Then I added the rest of the bag during the smoke - about half at 2 different times. I thought that was a lot - but maybe not now that I have read all the replies.
 
2 nights ago I cooked a brisket, started with a full ring and 10 lit coals on top. I only got about 9 hours.

But the wind blew all night (10 to 20mph) and it was below freezing all night. Normally I get a good 15+ hours from a full ring of coals.
 
I get confused as to put the lit coals in the bottom of the ring followed by the unlit or is it vise versa? /infopop/emoticons/icon_frown.gif
 
Typical standard method: Chimney of lit coals followed by chimney of unlit on top; allow unlit to light and ash over before assembling cooker.

Minion Method: Full ring of unlit with 15-20 lit coals placed on top; more if cooking in colder weather.
 
Jim,

Just did your method again for two butts this weekend. I put them on at 8:45 pm and didn't look at them again until 8:00am the next day. I had planned to check them at about 04:00am but I slept through it! The WSM was still putting out heat. I think almost 12 hours was the longest cooking time I have had with the minion method. These were the very best butts I had done. Both were gone by 5:00pm.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.

 

Back
Top