Thinking about trying a butt...


 
K

KrisDecker

TVWBB Member
Hi all.

So, been playing it safe. Ribs, chicken, etc.

Thinking about trying to make pulled pork. Seems like a decent amount of planning needed. So, if I am starting with a farm fresh, frozen boston butt, is the following a safe assumption, in terms of timline and steps involved?:
  1. Put butt in fridge to defrost. Wait 4 days for full defrost
  2. Brine butt for 24 hours (I usually use the Blonder simple brine on Meatheads site)
  3. Morning of cook: take out of brine, apply rub, put back in fridge for a couple hours
  4. Just before lighting fire: take butt out, rinse off / reapply rub. Let sit on counter
  5. light WSM (18") using minion method around 9pm. use applewood?
  6. put butt on WSM. Cook at 225. Ill be using my auber stoker
  7. Wake up at 6-7am. Check on WSM
  8. Wrap butt at 170? Or use the turn method on TVWB recipe?
  9. Cook until 190-195?
  10. Pull and wrap in foil and towel in an empty cooler for a couple hours

So, if I were to start the actual cooking process at 9pm, using a whole Butt off a hog I bought from a farm, looks like it would be off the fire around 2pm the next day, and ready for pulling around 4/5?

Just trying to wrap my head around this. Seems like a whole lotta work! Got a toddler running around, so its tough to coordinate this much time into anything these days :) That said, this butt isnt cooking itself--nor is it headed for the crock pot! :)
 
KrisDecker said:
Just trying to wrap my head around this. Seems like a whole lotta work! Got a toddler running around, so its tough to coordinate this much time into anything these days :) That said, this butt isnt cooking itself--nor is it headed for the crock pot! :)
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You method works, the exact timing is hard to say. Mike Coffman came up with a braised method to doing pulled pork, it makes really good pulled pork and cuts the cook time in half if not more

http://tvwbb.com/showthread.php?51784-Smoked-and-Braised-Pulled-Pork


I've done Mike method twice and both times it was fantastic. If you want to save some time, give it a go

http://tvwbb.com/showthread.php?52135-A-Mike-Coffman-inspired-cook
http://tvwbb.com/showthread.php?52996-I-ve-been-called-out
 
I would not recommend brining, it will make the Butt taste hammy, plus there is plenty of fat in the Butt to keep it moist so it's just not needed. If it's a bone in when you can pull the bone without any resistance, it's done that could be at 190 it could be at 210 each piece of meat is different.

I do my Butt's hot and fast at 300 so they're done in 8-9 hours max here is a good article on hot and fast vs low and slow comparison done by Thermoworks.
 
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OK, so no brining it is! Just saved me a day :)

Also, those braise methods look great! Why arent they more obvious (ie, popping up when searching)? I see wrapping is common, but this makes sense to me. I dont see the negative. I mean, maybe one could argue that the bark is not as well formed under the liquid? I have to try. This is the way I'm going :) Thanks for the posts!
 
KrisDecker said:
maybe one could argue that the bark is not as well formed under the liquid?
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You do lose some "bark texture" when you braise. What I did was increase my smoke time and decrease my braise time. It is the braising that speeds up the clock when doing this cook. I've done Pulled Pork, low and slow, fast and hot and this method. Everyone liked the braise method, the taste is very very good. I haven't any complaints when I do low and slow, but when I did high heat, some people commented that the bark flavoring was a bit much. I personally like a strong bark flavoring and bark up most my cooks. But the smoked / braise method for pulled pork is my go to, especially when time is in short order
 
KrisDecker said:
  • Just before lighting fire: take butt out, rinse off / reapply rub. Let sit on counter
Click to expand...

Huh? I've never heard of this rinsing and re-applying bit. I've re-applied rub (put on a light dusting, refrigerate a few hours and then another dusting before putting in the smoker), but never rinsed.

Personally, I don't foil, but it's more because I'm lazy. I typically cook to about 190, then foil it up tight and stash in a cooler for a good 2-4 hours. Carryover cooking will bring the temp up to about 205-210 and a nice long rest lets all of the collagen break down.
 
I've never heard of rinsing off the rub and reapplying it. I'm no expert by any means as some of the other members here are but that just seems to me to be and unnecessary step. I apply my rub the night before and leave it. I've seen quite a few of Chucks cooks posted and I put a lot of stock in his advice and tips. Chuck, I haven't seen those cooks from Mike you before that you referenced but they look amazing and have definitely been added to my must do list.
 
ChadVKealey said:
Personally, I don't foil but it's more because I'm lazy.
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I don't like wrapping either but it's because I like a good bark and I don't like self braising the meat. Like you I'll wrap in foil when it's time to hold. The only thing I wrap is Brisket and that's in Butcher Paper.

To the OP, Butts are really easy to cook, they are very forgiving when it comes to temps and other than over or under cooking them they're really hard to screw up. Good luck with your cook.
 
I did my last PB the way Mike did on the post that Chuck put up. About the best PB I've ever made and doesn't take forever. PB is hard to screw up it's very forgiving, but there is many opinions on what's the best way to do it.
 
So, using Chuck's method, looks like I should budget 8 hours for the cook. That is very reasonable. I'd better get that butt thawing :)
 
In my opinion pulled pork is one of the easiest cooks. Sure it is longer then most cooks, but it is pretty hard to mess up a butt. Throw any sort of rub on it, cook it low/slow or hot/fast, just has to get to an internal temp of around 200.
 
I inject my pork butt with a solution of brown sugar , salt and apple juice then I salt it and put it in the fridge over night. In the morning I coat it with yellow mustard and my choice of rub. Cook it on my Weber Smokey Mountain keeping the temp between 225 and 250 and in 10-13 hours have perfect pulled pork every time.
 
I just did my first butt a few weeks ago, and it came out good. Here's basically what I did:

Butt wasn't frozen, so just trimmed & applied rub (Southern Succor) the night before.
Started coals (about 2/3 of a chimney) & took butt out of fridge about 7:00am, added a little more rub.
Put lit coals in center of full ring (minion method), and put butt on WSM (18.5") about 8:00 am.
Lid temps stayed very steady at 225-250 for entire cook, checked every 30 mins to an hour, very occasional slight vent adjustments.
Checked IT around 12:30 (about 4.5 hours in), it was about 155.
Did not foil, just left it alone.
Kept this up until about 6:00, IT was about 190.
Foiled butt, left it on WSM for maybe 15 minutes, then let it rest for about 15 minutes.*
Pulled pork and threw in a little more rub.

* This was not ideal. The family was complaining so I pulled it off the WSM a little earlier than I wanted to, and also didn't let it rest as long as I wanted to. Next time I will either foil at an IT of 160 or so to shorten the cook, or start at least an hour earlier (which I meant to do this time anyway). I would have like to have had the IT get to 195 or more, and to have let it rest for at least 30 minutes, but preferably longer.

While it may look like a lot of work, it really wasn't. Yes, I stayed home all day with the WSM. But all I really did was check the lid temperature about every 30 minutes to an hour. Over the course of the entire cook, I probably made 4-5 very minor vent adjustments. A couple of times it raised above 250, so I closed the bottom vents a little bit, and a couple of times it dipped down below 225, so I opened them a little bit. So over the course of the day, I barely did anything. I'm sure it's not always like that, but it was for me this time.

One thing about the bark. It had good flavor and had that "barky" texture I guess - kind of firm/chewy. But for leftovers, the bark softened a little, but kept the good flavor, and I actually liked it better than the day I made it. This makes me think that for me, foiling would be good. It would be a shorter cook, plus have a softer bark, which I think I may prefer.
 
ChadVKealey said:
Huh? I've never heard of this rinsing and re-applying bit. I've re-applied rub (put on a light dusting, refrigerate a few hours and then another dusting before putting in the smoker), but never rinsed.

Personally, I don't foil, but it's more because I'm lazy. I typically cook to about 190, then foil it up tight and stash in a cooler for a good 2-4 hours. Carryover cooking will bring the temp up to about 205-210 and a nice long rest lets all of the collagen break down.
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Chad, you consider a BIG carryover!! At what temp do you cook?
 
John LeMoine said:
I inject my pork butt with a solution of brown sugar , salt and apple juice then I salt it and put it in the fridge over night. In the morning I coat it with yellow mustard and my choice of rub. Cook it on my Weber Smokey Mountain keeping the temp between 225 and 250 and in 10-13 hours have perfect pulled pork every time.
Click to expand...


John, do you taste a difference injecting right before smokin it and injecting 10 hours before ?
 
Kris, If it's your first butt, Try keeping it simple so you get a decent baseline for future cooks. Trim it, rub it, make a fire and put it on. Your 225-250 target temp is right on. Don't wrap it, but flip it if you want. Depending on the weight of the butt, it may take up to 16 hours. Take it off when it's tender and wrap it in foil and towels and into the cooler for 3 hours. Then you'll know what a straight-ahead cook gives you. From there, do whatever you like before, during or after the cook, but try make only one change per cook -- it will make it easier to evaluate what each change does to the final product. If you make multiple changes on a single cook, you won't know which one made the difference.

Butts are fun to cook and require very little actual work -- the WSM does the lifting.
 
I've injected pork butts the night before and an hour before cooking and haven't noticed any real difference. What I do believe does matter is salting. Salt is the only spice that will actually penetrate a thick cut of meat so salting a least a few hours before I believe is neccessary.
 
OK, so last week was below 0 temps, so I decided to wait to try the butt until this weekend :)

Chucko: Question about your method: do you rest the meat after the braise?

Also, I took an 8.5lb Boston Shoulder Roast (what the store called it--trying with the store bought Butt before using 'the good one' from the farm :wsm:) out of the freezer this am (around 7am EST). Is that enough time for it to thaw if I wanted to cook the butt Saturday? Should I cold water thaw it tomorrow, then put the rub on it and back in the fridge Friday night?
 
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