questions about my first butt....


 
B

Becky M-M

TVWBB Pro
so i know that i didnt do it the correct way.

i was opening way too much. i should have loaded up with a lot more unlit and then put my lit on top and just let it go for a few hours without opening it at all.

i am going to try another one maybe tomorrow.

but i have some questions about the pork i cooked on friday.

the small ones were taken off at 200. i wrapped them in HD foil.... then in a towel and put them in a cold oven. they rested in there for over an hour. maybe 1.5 hours.

note - they were two small pieces... so each one was under 2 lbs.

the larger one was 5.5 lbs and i took it off at 190+ but not near 200.

i wrapped it in foil and let it rest.... not long. maybe 20-30 minutes.


i used mesquite and oak. i am new to smoking.... and wood flavors etc. but i know i like mesquite. i grew up on it. not too intense for me or my family. why the oak? simply because i hear everyone here use it a lot.

so......

the smaller ones definitely had a lot more smoke flavor. wayyy more. i am guessing that is because they were smaller and the smoke was able to penetrate them better. they were also more tender. i am talking super juicy and moist. i know that is how the bigger one should have been.

the larger one was tender and it was easy to pull. it fell apart on its own, and the bone just slid out perfectly clean. i know those are all signs of it being done.

but why was it not as moist/juicy as the small ones. i would have thought the small ones would have been overdone. but even their bark was easy to bite into. the larger ones bark was a bit tougher.... still good, but just noticeably different.

the only differences were:

size.

the smaller ones were cooked to 200 and the bigger one to 190 or so.

the smaller ones were wrapped in a towel and rested for about an hour longer than the large one.

everyone here has way more experience than i do on this....

thoughts?
 
Becky, I don't have near the knowledge as most here, but I will try to offer some suggestions. First, I think the heavier smoke flavor did have to do with the pieces being smaller. As the smoke would penetrate more thoroughly in a smaller piece of meat. Second, I think the larger BB may have been over cooked. It is hard to do, but don't use temps as a means of knowing when a butt is finished. I only use meat temps as a guide as to when to start checking for tenderness. A butt is finished when you can insert a probe into it with little to no resistance. (like a cake test) You will find probe tenderness is the truest way to find when a butt is ready to be wrapped in foil and put to rest.
I hope this helps,
Tim
 
excuse my ignorance......

how can the bigger one have been overcooked if it was at a lower temp than the smaller ones. just because it was that much larger than them? i see that most pull them off at 195.

the probe was going in easily when it was registering 180.
 
Just a guess but the smaller ones might of been the leftovers after the butcher cut off pork steaks or country style ribs. Could of been fattier on that side and may have tasted more juicier/moist compared to the big butt which was pulled.

Tim
 
thanks for the link. whats interesting is that it seems everyone pulls at different times. the one i am trying tomorrow i might try to cook till a bit higher temp and see how it goes.

i will be cooking another small one again. i liked that it was just enough for dinner and then leftovers the next day.... and thats because we are a large family.
 
<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">Originally posted by timothy:
Just a guess but the smaller ones might of been the leftovers after the butcher cut off pork steaks or country style ribs. Could of been fattier on that side and may have tasted more juicier/moist compared to the big butt which was pulled.

Tim </div></BLOCKQUOTE>

hmmm.... youre probably right. now that i think about it, they had more of the fatcap look on top of them than the larger one did. they were not all fat though, had a lot of meat on them, but did have the fatty top layer.
 
hmmmm, i dont know. but i will say, that i before cooking, i didnt think they were going to come out all that good. they didnt look as red and vibrant as the big one.
 
First off smoke DOES NOT penetrate meat, it adheres to the outside of it. The smaller ones would taste smokier because you had a larger ratio of outside(bark) mixed with inside meat.

As for moisture I think that's pretty well been answered, probably better cuts. It's also possible the larger one may have rendered more and been juicier if cooked a little longer.
 
Bob's right about the smoke. The smaller ones simply have a higher exterior/mass ratio.

That's one reason why it's much easier to oversmoke ribs than a big thick cut like Boston Butt.

It sounds to me like the bigger butt may have been overcooked as well. This may sound counter-intuitive, since it ended at a lower temp, but doneness is a function of time AND temp. You could overcook butt and never get it above 170. You could also take it off at 210 and still have it less than tender.

Think about it this way.......

If you took one butt, and cooked for 48 hours with the internal temp at 180, do you really think that butt would be undercooked? Heck no, it'd be drier than beef jerky, having wrung all of its moisture out from too much time spent at that temp.

On the other hand, if you stuck a but in a supermicrowave and got it up to 200 degrees in 10 minutes, do you think it would be tender? Heck no.

Doneness is a function of time AND temp.

I have had butts done low and slow finish up to tender around 180ish, and I've done butts high heat that could have used more time on the smoker, even though they were at 190ish.
 
thanks again.

matt.... that makes a lot of sense. i appreciate you spelling it out for me like that.

and i know... i was definitely cooking at a much higher temp. how high, i dont know...when i finally put a cheap probe therm in the lid vent it went around to the 220 mark, then past that to the 150 mark. so... way hot.

i was going to get one on today, but forecast said rain. so of course, it is a gorgeous day coasting at 77 degrees!! ugh. hopefully, tomorrow is just as nice.
 
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