trying first pork butt on a kettle, any advice?

[Jamie Mathews]

OK, I have a couple buddies coming over tomorrow night, I thought I'd try to do a pork butt on my Weber 26 inch kettle, on which I've had good success keeping temps at 250 for several hours for ribs. I'll put lump on one side of the grill, behind a wall of firebricks.

(1) anyone have a good, basic, simple recipe they can share? Otherwise, I'll look at one of the Weber books I have written by Jamie Purveince.

(2) I'd like to be able to make approximately 10 sandwiches. How big a roast do I need?

(3) What do I ask for at the meat market? Pork butt? Pork shoulder?

(4) If I want to eat sandwiches at 4:30 PM tomorrow, when should I plan on starting?

(5) Assuming I finish early, is there a good way to re-heat the pork, and not lose the smoky goodness?

I have a 6 week-old, and it's my turn to handle the night feedings tonight. If I'm going to be up every 2 hours anyway, why not have some fun?

THANKS for any advice. I hear pork butt is actually pretty hard to mess up. I'll kep the temps where they need to be, and I'll be patient.

 

[JSMcdowell]

1. Goto the recipe section on here, great rub recipes.

2. Depends on your portions. Average PP sandwich is 1/4 lb. That would be 40 ozs. I get around 50% yield on average, so that would be 80 ozs uncooked pork, which would be 5 LB. I would get a 6-8 lb and freeze leftovers.

3. Boston butt or Pork butt. A whole shoulder will also include the picnic, a leaner portion. It also wouldn't be NEAR 8 lbs (much heavier).

4. Varies greatly. I would plan to have ready early, wrap in foil once tender, and put in a cooler to hold for eating at 4:30. 1.5 hrs / lb is a good starting place for cooking at 250.

5. See #4. A great way to re-heat leftovers is by freezing in a foodsaver style bag, and dropping that in hot water for 10 minutes. Pork will be steaming like it just came off the smoker, and you won't dry it out.

Have fun, pork butt is really hard to mess up.

 

[Matt Y. Atl]

I do a quick high heat cook with a bone in boston butt all the time. It has always turned out great.

I fire up an entire chimney of kingsford and let it run for 3 hours with some pecan wood. For the last two hours of a 5 hour cook I foil it...spraying with apple juice before I wrap it in foil.

Total cook time for a 6lbs butt is 5 hrs and should hit a internal temp of 190-200 with no problem.