Charlie L
TVWBB Super Fan
DISCLAIMER: this cook involved foiling and finishing on gas, if you are a purist who doesn't approve of such practices, you may not want to read forward.
After doing ribs and chicken my recently acquired CL OTS I was ready to tackle a butt for pulled pork. The opportunity arose when my neighbor was planning a surprise party for her husband 40rth and she wanted pulled pork. My volunteered me since our patios are separated by just fence my neighbors and I are always checking out each other's bbq's.
Good news: excuse to cook a butt for the first time kettle.
Bad news: it's 35 people, it's a Thursday, and it's a surprise party.
I told I could smoke it and we would need 10-12 lbs uncooked so get two small 5-7 lb butts or one large if she could find a 10 or 11 lb'er.
Two days before the party she dropped off 2 butts...9lbs each! I didn't think I could do 18 lbs on 1 kettle and there wasn't time to do shifts so I went back to craigslist to see if I could find another kettle on craigslist. A real clean OTS was listed right my way home from work for $30 with a chimney and bag of coal.
The chimney wasn't a weber and the coal was a no name match light, so no gems there but kettle was super clean. No rust, even the cleaning blades looked new. Took home for $25.
Now I had two kettles and two butts. I have been working on mastering indirect with firebricks dividing the kettle 1/3 coal area, 2/3 foiled under cooking area since that gave me solid results on my last chicken cook. So i would use that on one kettle but I didn't have enough bricks for kettle #2 I would use the snake method. Since these are two methods that get debated a bit online I thought this was a good comparison to see which method would work better under the same conditions.
The party was on Thursday at 5 pm. I was off work for the day but I had other commitments and party prep through the day so I had to cut down cook time as the food needed to be cooked, rested, and pulled by 4pm. A 12-14 smoke just wasn't possible so my plan was to smoke the first half and then foil and finish indirect on my gas grill. Some people use the oven but I prefer the gas grill as it keeps the smokey "flavor" out of the kitchen.
The night before the butts were trimmed rubbed and cut into two. My hope was by cutting into two I would get more surface area for rub and smoke to permeate. The hope was this would also helped mitigate the losses that foiling would have on bark formation. Due to bone location the cuts weren't 50/50, they were closer to 60/40 splits.
The two kettle were prepped the night before as well. I had to move kettles across the yard so the birthday wouldn't see or smell anything earlier in the day. Foil bricks a drip pan wood chunks and coals on kettle one and coal wood snake and drip pan for kettle two. My last snake attempt ran way too hot so I left this snake a bit looser to allow slower lighting of new coal. Both were covered for night.
The next morning I woke up at five, lit 8 briquettes for each kettle and got them going. Both kettles were over 200 and climbing by 530am so the meat went on, one split butt on each kettle and the vents were closed a bit to slow the climb. I was shooting for 250 on both for 5-6 hours before foil and gas. I used a maverick to monitor both kettles, with the food probe being a probe for the second kettle as I didn't need food temps yet.
My loose snake was a bit too loose as with meat on and vent full open, the temp was still only at about 215 after 90 minutes, a few fill in coal were lit and the temp came up on kettle.
The brick kettle started running hotter, even with bottom vents near closed. I packed in a lot of coal on the Bricked in area to compensate for a long cook and 9lbs of meat think there was too much coal packed too tightly and 8 lit was too much. 5-6 lit coals in a looser packed area would have been ideal, but this was a manageable spike: I placed a second water pan over the coal to manage higher temp and we were back in range.
After about four hours the temps were fluctuating a bit still only now the filled in snake was higher and the extra water pan had pulled the brick kettle down. At this point decided that the two larger parts of each butt would go on the hotter kettle and the two smaller parts would go on the lower temp kettle. This thermal mass change gave me a solid 250 on both kettles for the next 90-120 minutes.
The meat was was turned and flipped every 60-90 minutes to prevent any hot spots and uneven cooking and a mop was sprayed on with each flip after 3 hours.
Around 11am (5- 5.5hours in, I fired up the gas grill using the the left and right burners, leaving the center burner off to create my indirect zone. I had them on medium but that had my indirect zone at over 375 so I turned them to low to get my indirect zone to around 300.
The two large portions were double foiled with mop and moved over to the gas. They were 150-155 when they came off. The smaller portions were about 160-165 when they came off.
At this point I had two food probes, one in a large piece one in a small piece to track the discrepancies.
All four portions were placed on center off the grill in a diamond formation with large portion in front and back and two smaller parts in the center. By 1pm the small parts had hit 195. I shut down the right side burner and moved the small portions to right leaving the large portion in the center with left burner on low. with 45 minutes all four pieces were over 195. So they were placed in a foil pan wrapped in a towel and placed in soft sided cooler (faux cambro) for 90 minutes.
Totals smoking time 5.5-6 hours
Total foiled time 1.5-2 hours
Total cooking time was approx 7.5 hours
After 90 minutes resting it was 3:15, the moment of truth: PULL TIME.
I knew if the bones pulled clean I would be ok. They did, disaster averted. Since this was my first time pulling pork I started with one of smaller portions first. I was able to pull using two forks and my hands(wearing gloves).
The larger portions were a tiny bit tougher to pull but still tender. They were the same temp as the smalls but a little more work to pull. I don't know if it was because the large portions had the bones or just different muscles. I'm sure a veteran pit master would know more that I do.
I put a simple finishing sauce on the meat as I pulled it and mixed it. Despite the foil, it had some bark, and clean smoke ring. The guests at party (many who I didn't know, and didn't know I made it) were raving about it.
My first kettle butts were a huge success. The day after the party I was back on craigslist only this time I was selling. Since is don't have space for two kettles and gasser, I sold one of the kettles to cover my cost to a couple who had family coming over and they were tired of gas. The circle of Q continues
After doing ribs and chicken my recently acquired CL OTS I was ready to tackle a butt for pulled pork. The opportunity arose when my neighbor was planning a surprise party for her husband 40rth and she wanted pulled pork. My volunteered me since our patios are separated by just fence my neighbors and I are always checking out each other's bbq's.
Good news: excuse to cook a butt for the first time kettle.
Bad news: it's 35 people, it's a Thursday, and it's a surprise party.
I told I could smoke it and we would need 10-12 lbs uncooked so get two small 5-7 lb butts or one large if she could find a 10 or 11 lb'er.
Two days before the party she dropped off 2 butts...9lbs each! I didn't think I could do 18 lbs on 1 kettle and there wasn't time to do shifts so I went back to craigslist to see if I could find another kettle on craigslist. A real clean OTS was listed right my way home from work for $30 with a chimney and bag of coal.
The chimney wasn't a weber and the coal was a no name match light, so no gems there but kettle was super clean. No rust, even the cleaning blades looked new. Took home for $25.
Now I had two kettles and two butts. I have been working on mastering indirect with firebricks dividing the kettle 1/3 coal area, 2/3 foiled under cooking area since that gave me solid results on my last chicken cook. So i would use that on one kettle but I didn't have enough bricks for kettle #2 I would use the snake method. Since these are two methods that get debated a bit online I thought this was a good comparison to see which method would work better under the same conditions.
The party was on Thursday at 5 pm. I was off work for the day but I had other commitments and party prep through the day so I had to cut down cook time as the food needed to be cooked, rested, and pulled by 4pm. A 12-14 smoke just wasn't possible so my plan was to smoke the first half and then foil and finish indirect on my gas grill. Some people use the oven but I prefer the gas grill as it keeps the smokey "flavor" out of the kitchen.
The night before the butts were trimmed rubbed and cut into two. My hope was by cutting into two I would get more surface area for rub and smoke to permeate. The hope was this would also helped mitigate the losses that foiling would have on bark formation. Due to bone location the cuts weren't 50/50, they were closer to 60/40 splits.
The two kettle were prepped the night before as well. I had to move kettles across the yard so the birthday wouldn't see or smell anything earlier in the day. Foil bricks a drip pan wood chunks and coals on kettle one and coal wood snake and drip pan for kettle two. My last snake attempt ran way too hot so I left this snake a bit looser to allow slower lighting of new coal. Both were covered for night.
The next morning I woke up at five, lit 8 briquettes for each kettle and got them going. Both kettles were over 200 and climbing by 530am so the meat went on, one split butt on each kettle and the vents were closed a bit to slow the climb. I was shooting for 250 on both for 5-6 hours before foil and gas. I used a maverick to monitor both kettles, with the food probe being a probe for the second kettle as I didn't need food temps yet.
My loose snake was a bit too loose as with meat on and vent full open, the temp was still only at about 215 after 90 minutes, a few fill in coal were lit and the temp came up on kettle.
The brick kettle started running hotter, even with bottom vents near closed. I packed in a lot of coal on the Bricked in area to compensate for a long cook and 9lbs of meat think there was too much coal packed too tightly and 8 lit was too much. 5-6 lit coals in a looser packed area would have been ideal, but this was a manageable spike: I placed a second water pan over the coal to manage higher temp and we were back in range.
After about four hours the temps were fluctuating a bit still only now the filled in snake was higher and the extra water pan had pulled the brick kettle down. At this point decided that the two larger parts of each butt would go on the hotter kettle and the two smaller parts would go on the lower temp kettle. This thermal mass change gave me a solid 250 on both kettles for the next 90-120 minutes.
The meat was was turned and flipped every 60-90 minutes to prevent any hot spots and uneven cooking and a mop was sprayed on with each flip after 3 hours.
Around 11am (5- 5.5hours in, I fired up the gas grill using the the left and right burners, leaving the center burner off to create my indirect zone. I had them on medium but that had my indirect zone at over 375 so I turned them to low to get my indirect zone to around 300.
The two large portions were double foiled with mop and moved over to the gas. They were 150-155 when they came off. The smaller portions were about 160-165 when they came off.
At this point I had two food probes, one in a large piece one in a small piece to track the discrepancies.
All four portions were placed on center off the grill in a diamond formation with large portion in front and back and two smaller parts in the center. By 1pm the small parts had hit 195. I shut down the right side burner and moved the small portions to right leaving the large portion in the center with left burner on low. with 45 minutes all four pieces were over 195. So they were placed in a foil pan wrapped in a towel and placed in soft sided cooler (faux cambro) for 90 minutes.
Totals smoking time 5.5-6 hours
Total foiled time 1.5-2 hours
Total cooking time was approx 7.5 hours
After 90 minutes resting it was 3:15, the moment of truth: PULL TIME.
I knew if the bones pulled clean I would be ok. They did, disaster averted. Since this was my first time pulling pork I started with one of smaller portions first. I was able to pull using two forks and my hands(wearing gloves).
The larger portions were a tiny bit tougher to pull but still tender. They were the same temp as the smalls but a little more work to pull. I don't know if it was because the large portions had the bones or just different muscles. I'm sure a veteran pit master would know more that I do.
I put a simple finishing sauce on the meat as I pulled it and mixed it. Despite the foil, it had some bark, and clean smoke ring. The guests at party (many who I didn't know, and didn't know I made it) were raving about it.
My first kettle butts were a huge success. The day after the party I was back on craigslist only this time I was selling. Since is don't have space for two kettles and gasser, I sold one of the kettles to cover my cost to a couple who had family coming over and they were tired of gas. The circle of Q continues