Size of the meat?


 
B

Brian Silvey

TVWBB Member
When you are doing competition brisket and porkbutt do you prefer to trim them down to just over 5 lbs (the min weight for those meats) or do you perfer to cook them mostly whole with only minor trimming? Seems whole packers come in at 12-15 and porkbutts around 9-11lbs. Seems they will cook in less time if you cut them down, but maybe there are taste and texture reasons to cook the whole thing.

Thanks,
Brian
 
Brian,

We usually cook two butts in the 7-9lb range. We trim very little, just some of the hard fat so there is a nice even fat cap and whatever we see on them that does not look to appealing. As far as briskets go, last year we cooked flats in the 8lb range. This year we are thinking of going to whole packers in the 12-14lb range. These we would do some trimming, mostly the hard fat between the point and the flat, some of the fat cap to even it out and some on the meat side just to take off whatever clumps of fat or silver skin there is.
 
I've decided to go with full size cuts of brisket (12-15lb) and boston butt (7-10lb). Looking to do minimal trimming of fat and just let'em cook.

Thanks,
B
 
We cook full packers in the 12-16lbs. range. Now that we recently added a 22.5 WSM, we use that for cooking 2 packers flat on each grate. When we only had 18.5 WSMs we used to prop up the center of the packer so that it was draped over the center of the grate. Now we just use the 18.5s for pork butt, ribs & chicken.
 
I prefer butts in the 9-10 lb range and trim only the rubbery inter-muscle fat. Mainly becuse it won't render anyway. I also usually try to expose the MM a little bit so I can get rub further around the backside. I don't do anything with the fat cap.

In brisket, I prefer full packers in the 12-14 lb range, with as much marbling in the flat as I can find. I will trim the hard fat along the top ridge, square up the sides, and get all of the silver skin off of the flat. I don't do anything to the backside.

Russ
 
I have purchased my meat for an upcoming competition. This will be my second. In the first it was just ribs and chicken. I'm working on a schedule for cook times. Do these seem like reasonable time frames for cooking these meats at 250?

Pork Butt:
Weight 6.5
Turn in time is 11am
Cook for 9 hours (this includes an hour or so of cooler time)
Start fire at 2:30am, begin cook at 3am

Brisket:
Weight 12.5
Turn in time is 12:00 Noon
Cook for 16 hours (this includes an hour or so of cooler time)
Start fire at 7:30pm, begin cooking at 8pm

Ribs:
Weight? Very meaty baby back loin ribs 2 inches thick
Turn in time is 1pm
Needs 6 hours (this includes time in cooler and time to do a finish glaze)
Start fire at 6:30am, begin cook at 7am

Chicken:
Turn in time is 2pm
cook for 2 ½ hours
Start fire at 11am begin cook at 11:30am
 
You won't need as much time to cook everything at that temp, except the chicken. Other than the ribs, the extra rest time won't hurt.

Russ is right on with the trimming. We also use the meat weight he suggested. You need a big butt, no pun intended, if you are going to try to turn in money muscle slices or the slices get very small. We cook at 275, start the butts at 3 am, wrap at 7 am, and finish them generally at 10 am. Don't go by just time, you need to feel the meat for tenderness. Takes time to learn this, and I'm still learning.
 
I've tried to pad the time a bit as I know I can wrap things in foil and hold in a cooler until I need to prep it for the turn in box. I really don't want to come up short and not have things cooked by turn in. Time will only be used to give me a genreal idea of when it's done. Probing will be the final check. I'm afraid I'll be cooking a smaller butt as that's what I've purchased. It started out as 8 pounds, but it had the skin and 1 1/2 inches of fat. I trimmed that down to a half an inch. I've never seen that much fat on a butt. I think this will be a good one.

Thanks,
Brian
 
For my WSMs, I start the fires at 10pm and put on the briskets & butts at 11pm. We cook them both at 250º. We wake up at ~4:30am and check the temp and bark. Depending on how much of the bark has formed, we spray the meats with apple juice/cider vinegar & beef broth respectively every 15 min.. After the bark has completely formed, we wrap and return them to a single smoker. At 7:30am we put on the ribs on a 3rd WSM at 275º. Chicken goes on at 9:30am at 275º on one of the smokers that was used for the long haul meats after those meats have been wrapped and consolidated on a different WSM.

Briskets & butts are usually done anywhere from 9am-11am. Once the briskets are probe tender and the bone in the butts are very loose we take them off the smoker and unwrap so that they cool down and stop cooking. Once the temp is down to ~175º, we re-wrap and put them in a Cambro that holds them at that temp for up to 4+ hours.

All of our comps are KCBS so the standard turn-in times are:

12:00pm* Chicken
12:30pm* Pork ribs
1:00pm* Pork butt
1:30pm* Brisket

*5 min. window before and after apply.
 
Steve Aguilar said:
For my WSMs, I start the fires at 10pm and put on the briskets & butts at 11pm. We cook them both at 250º. We wake up at ~4:30am and check the temp and bark. Depending on how much of the bark has formed, we spray the meats with apple juice/cider vinegar & beef broth respectively every 15 min.. After the bark has completely formed, we wrap and return them to a single smoker. At 7:30am we put on the ribs on a 3rd WSM at 275º. Chicken goes on at 9:30am at 275º on one of the smokers that was used for the long haul meats after those meats have been wrapped and consolidated on a different WSM.

Briskets & butts are usually done anywhere from 9am-11am. Once the briskets are probe tender and the bone in the butts are very loose we take them off the smoker and unwrap so that they cool down and stop cooking. Once the temp is down to ~175º, we re-wrap and put them in a Cambro that holds them at that temp for up to 4+ hours.

All of our comps are KCBS so the standard turn-in times are:

12:00pm* Chicken
12:30pm* Pork ribs
1:00pm* Pork butt
1:30pm* Brisket

*5 min. window before and after apply.
Click to expand...

We must have taken the same class! LOL
 
Steve Aguilar said:
For my WSMs, I start the fires at 10pm and put on the briskets & butts at 11pm. We cook them both at 250º. We wake up at ~4:30am and check the temp and bark. Depending on how much of the bark has formed, we spray the meats with apple juice/cider vinegar & beef broth respectively every 15 min.. After the bark has completely formed, we wrap and return them to a single smoker. At 7:30am we put on the ribs on a 3rd WSM at 275º. Chicken goes on at 9:30am at 275º on one of the smokers that was used for the long haul meats after those meats have been wrapped and consolidated on a different WSM.

Briskets & butts are usually done anywhere from 9am-11am. Once the briskets are probe tender and the bone in the butts are very loose we take them off the smoker and unwrap so that they cool down and stop cooking. Once the temp is down to ~175º, we re-wrap and put them in a Cambro that holds them at that temp for up to 4+ hours.

All of our comps are KCBS so the standard turn-in times are:

12:00pm* Chicken
12:30pm* Pork ribs
1:00pm* Pork butt
1:30pm* Brisket

*5 min. window before and after apply.
Click to expand...

Do you use these start times regardless of the weight of the brisket or pork butt?

Brian
 
What will change is the time the butts and briskets finish. This schedule will give plenty of rest time. We haven't been starting butts and brisket till 3 am and have no problems finishing on time. I do like this schedule for more sleep.:D
 
Brian Silvey said:
Do you use these start times regardless of the weight of the brisket or pork butt?

Brian
Click to expand...

Yes, we do. They usually finish anywhere within that 2 hour window. Heavier cuts finish later in the window so that just means they are on hold in the Cambro for less time before turn-in.

This was just a guide we were provided that works. As you you can read it's very common timeline and it works well for us in the comps we've done as a new team and ones we've assisted before we formed our team.
 
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