Starting Temp for Butt?


 
J

Jeff Wildrick

TVWBB Fan
Tonight I'll be smoking six pork butts for a church fundraiser. Does anyone have any advice on whether to:

a) let the meat sit for an hour or so before putting it in the smoker, to take the chill off from the refrigerator, or

b) keep it as cold as possible before putting it in the smoker?

Either way I'm looking at a low & slow overnight cook.

-Jeff
 
You'll get 50/50 responses on this one. Personally, I put them into the WSM directly from the refrigerator as I see no need to warm them up. The smoke ring stops forming at 140 degrees so I prefer to keep the meat cold to allow for a longer smoke ring formation time.
 
Jeff, what Ken said. If you are cooking for a large group and smoke ring is secondary, letting the meat come to room tmp will shorten the cook time a bit. That being said in a long overnight cook, does overall cook time really matter?

Go either way, it will be much appreciated by the folks.

Mark
 
Jeff, I always cook mine frozen. I see a deeper smokering from doing this. The color looks fantastic when you shred.
 
Originally posted by paul h:
Jeff, I always cook mine frozen. I see a deeper smokering from doing this. The color looks fantastic when you shred.
Click to expand...

Wow, I've never thought about cooking from frozen. I'll try that sometime on a smaller cook for the family. Right now I've got them all in a cooler with some ice packs, waiting to go on about 10:00.
 
First, good on you for doing 6 butts at once. I've never done more than a single with a few racks of pork backs for interim snacking.

Like most said, cold from the fridge or room temp is mostly about more or less smoke ring (not smoke flavour). Personally, I've done cold and room temp and not really noticed a significant difference.

The only thing I would expect (because that's a lot of meat to add at once) is that you may have some temp issues upfront until the smoker settles (this may take a few hours). 6 cold butts should take LOTS of fuel. Be ready to deal with that later in your cook.

Best of luck !
 
Originally posted by paul h:
Jeff, I always cook mine frozen. I see a deeper smokering from doing this. The color looks fantastic when you shred.
Click to expand...

How long does this take and what temperature do you smoke at?
 
1 butt right of the frige. 6 i would let em hang in room temp 2h. Thats alot of mass cooling the smoker so why not get a head start. And a smoke ring on PP who cares once its shredded right?

Do what you think is best and i bet you will have some AWESOME PP.
 
RUB THEM THE NIGHT B4. kEEP IN THE FRIDGE UNTIL READY TO COOK! ADD A LITTLE MORE RUB B4 THROWING THEM ON! COLD MEAT EQUALS BETTER SMOKE RING. EXTRA RUB MEANS MORE AND BETTER BARK!
 
Dale, It's been so long since I've done one that wasn't frozen I can't give you any comparison. My average has been 12 -15 hours usually based on the size. I cook butts anywhere from 9.5 lbs to over 10. I had one butt took almost 18 but that is way outside the norm.Slather with mustard just like you'd normally do and but the rub on. After a few hours on the smoker you can insert any temp probes. The meat is soft enough at that time to be penetrated. Great color when you pull the pork.
 
You're right about the fuel.
I woke up at 8 this morning to find I'd burned through all of my fuel (using Stoker and clay saucer).

Loaded it up again, and hopefully I'm back in business. Pit made it down to 125, and meet hanging in at about 140. Now both back on the rise.
 
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