Problem with first butt

[Charles Chance]

I did my first butt today with the WSM I got from Amazon on Thursday. Here's how it went. Butt weighed 4.89 lbs. Went on WSM at 4:10AM @ grate temp of 270 degrees. Temp dropped to 247 and remained from 230-270 throughout remainder of cook time. The WSM is great for temp control. I was surprised. Finally took butt off at 2:00PM, which was 10 hrs. later. Internal temp never got above 182. It pulled a little stiff and I feel if it had gotten to 190-195 it might have pulled easier. Did I do something wrong? Impatient? How do you get the internal temp up.

 

[Bruce Bissonnette]

Charles,

2 things, you had an almost 5lb pork butt and at 2hrs/lb you were right at 10 hours. A little more patience may have paid off or you could foil it and put it back on the WSM until your ideal temp is arrived at.

 

[Albert Sanchez]

Charles,

I'm a new WSM enthusiast. I cooked my first butt last weekend /infopop/emoticons/icon_smile.gif

At an average temp of 270 degrees, the 6 pound butt took 12 hours to cook! That's how long it took the internal temp to reach 185 degrees.

After 12 hours the butt looked like a giant charred mellon /infopop/emoticons/icon_eek.gif Good thing it was'nt charred, it was just very very brown. These very brown pieces taste great too!

However, after pulling the pork apart (easily) we had some for dinner. It was in a word - "Exceptional" Very tasty and tender /infopop/emoticons/icon_razz.gif

I followed the "Renowned Mr. Brown Recipe" closely - doing the mopping thing at the specified time etc.

From my novice point of view - seems like you may have needed to cook your butt longer. Raising the temp can be achieved by opening all vents and/or adding more fuel. Some of the WSM veterans on this forum will have some words of wisdom too.

-Albert

 

[Jim Minion]

The smaller the butt or brisket the less reliable the the rule of thumb times are. Connective tissue takes time break down and that takes 12 to 18 no matter the size. Foiling after it went over 170? internal would have sped up the cook if you can't wait. /infopop/emoticons/icon_wink.gif
195? is a great target temp for porkbutt.
Jim