Tomorrow's Cook: Pork Butt


 
T

Tim O

TVWBB Fan
Here are a few pictures of the 9lb pork butt I'm smoking tomorrow in the 18.5 WSM. First time doing a butt, so I'm pretty excited. The Pats (Patriots) don't play til Monday Night so I'll be able to tend to this bad boy all day and not worry about missing the game. Should be sunny and mild, 40 degrees here in New England, good day to cook. Results to follow tomorrow night!

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Looking good mate..Im not sure the trimming will benefit ya. Better to remove it later if you ask me. But that doesent matter. You are in for a treat! Be sure to report back!
 
Wow, you must have a pretty good knife! :D Make sure we get some more pics of it cooking.

What time you going to put her on the pit? Last 8-9 pounder I did, I started at 2AM. and that was perfect. I took her off around 4PM, and it was awesome tender.

Sorry you have to wait until Monday for football. I hate that. ROFLOL
 
Wolgast said:
Looking good mate..Im not sure the trimming will benefit ya. Better to remove it later if you ask me. But that doesent matter. You are in for a treat! Be sure to report back!
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Yea, I was unsure about the fat cap...I've read that some keep, others trim it. Bottom line is that the fat within the butt will be enough to add flavor and keep it just right. Can't wait to see this baby crisp up!
 
Making me salivate.... Make sure to put a tray of doctored up beans underneath the butts... Oh so good!!!!
 
I'm trimming my next butt to see if I like it. I feel like I throw away a lot of smoke and spice when I take off the fat cap after cooking.
 
Disaster. Now I know why EVERYTHING I read told me to use butchers rope to tie this cut of meat together. I reached the infamous stall and decided to flip the meat one last time during its stall...huge mistake. The entire pork butt collapsed and tore apart into a heap of meat, bark, and fat. Clearly, the meat isn't done at 180 and now I have a mound of uncooked pork butt on my smoker. All because I didn't tie it up to keep it together....a very frustrating but important lesson learned. Not too sure how I can save this one...guess ill keep it on til it's cooked....sigh

**Scraped up the pork and wrapped it in some foil - hopefully an hour or so more and I'll manage to salvage the butt.
 
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Well, turns out, things came out better than once thought. Overall, for my first butt, I was very impressed with how tender and delicious the meat came out, despite not tying it up with butchers rope.

Below are the pictures I took. The first image is the butt at the 5 hour mark at the first flip. The second image is the butt after I picked it up before it reached an internal temp of 190F and ended up foiling it off to finish it. The next is of the coals still burning - 14 hours later - Wicked Good Lump Charcoal!!! The last is of the finished product, pulled with a light glazing of Bone Suckin' Sauce...Overall, not bad...

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Well, it sure does not look like a disaster to me! That pig looks mighty fine. Hope you enjoyed it.

When I saw it after you finished trimming, I thought it probably needs to be tied up. Sorry I did not ay anything. :D
 
Tim O said:
Disaster. Now I know why EVERYTHING I read told me to use butchers rope to tie this cut of meat together. I reached the infamous stall and decided to flip the meat one last time during its stall...huge mistake. The entire pork butt collapsed and tore apart into a heap of meat, bark, and fat. Clearly, the meat isn't done at 180 and now I have a mound of uncooked pork butt on my smoker. All because I didn't tie it up to keep it together....a very frustrating but important lesson learned. Not too sure how I can save this one...guess ill keep it on til it's cooked....sigh

**Scraped up the pork and wrapped it in some foil - hopefully an hour or so more and I'll manage to salvage the butt.
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Tim,

You're not the first one to have a cooked butt fall apart when lifting from the grate. Get yourself a pair of these, push them into the butt as low as you can get and push together firmly. If the butt is stuck to the grate use a pancake turner to loosen up before removing from the grill. Make sure you have the pan you're putting the meat in nearby. BTW, your PB looks great.

Oops, forgot the link.

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B003IWI66W/?tag=TVWB-20
 
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Sounds like you got some experience there. Good thing is your pulled pork looks great (we get to eat our "mistakes" -- if you consider a nice looking cook like that a mistake).

Here's a couple ideas/suggestions: http://virtualweberbullet.com/cook.html#pork

Others do it differently. For example, Bob cuts his into strips (country style ribs) to make pulled pork. I prefer to cook a whole roast like this without all the triming:

Tim O said:
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That's a mighty fine looking butt!

I had 35 pounds rubbed and ready to go so I could make dinner and replenish my freezer stock for the winter when disaster struck in my neck of the woods. It's been raining for the last week, then it started dipping below zero Celsius the last few days...culminating with -5 today. Spent 20 minutes trying to get the cover off the WSM on the deck, then another 30 trying to pry the sections apart and finally gave up :(

I've got some going in the slow cooker now and I guess I'll freeze the rest for the possibility that the WSM will come unglued in my unheated garage over the next week.
 
Tim,
I prefer to smoke boneless butts. I used to tie them with butcher's twine to keep them together, but I found a much easier, cleaner and faster method....silicone "rubber" bands. :cool:

They are made specifically for cooking meat. I bought mine at the Cuba Cheese outlet store in Cuba NY.
 
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