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Pork Butt

jesseQ

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Had a day off last week and decided to try my hand at smoking a pork butt. I've done plenty of ribs but never a butt. First things first, locating a butt. My local grocer (fantastic) only had very large picnic cuts. This being my first pork shoulder I thought it best to stay with a butt. Hit up two more shops before finding a nice five pounder. Btw, spent $$$ at all three stores, doing my bit for the economy:grin:.

Got the butt home, slapped some rub on it and fired up little Smokey Joe (it's all I've got at the moment but seriously eyeballin' a BWS Chubby or G2). Put the butt on Smokey at 1pm and ... trouble. The butt's too big and the lid won't close all the way! Temps are soaring. Never fear when you've got a 25lb kettlebell on hand (I just knew it had more uses than a doorstop). Put it on top of the lid and problem solved.

Temps were still too high so I added a small pan of water opposite the coals and under the butt. This seemed to steady the temps in the 200-250 range with occasional spikes to 275.

The biggest issue with such a small grill was every couple of hours I had to add coals and completely re-stoke the fire. Once I got the rhythm down it wasn't so bad. I was even able to leave the house for an hour or so.

Ten hours later and the butt came off. The bone practically fell out and I pulled it hot - it was getting late - and me and the lady had a nice mid-night meal.

I couldn't have done it without the 'Bretherens' (and the search function). A big thank you to all.
 

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Looks great!

You can always get a visconia or imusa 32quart tamale pot and some extra grates and nuts/bolts and make a smoking chamber for your smokey joe. The mod is called the mini wsm. You can always remove the tamale pot and use the smokey joe as a grill.

The mod can be done for less than $40 and if you do a 2 grate mini you can hold a decent amount of food. I can cook 2 9lb pork butts in my mini without any issue.
 
Looks great!

You can always get a visconia or imusa 32quart tamale pot and some extra grates and nuts/bolts and make a smoking chamber for your smokey joe. The mod is called the mini wsm. You can always remove the tamale pot and use the smokey joe as a grill.

The mod can be done for less than $40 and if you do a 2 grate mini you can hold a decent amount of food. I can cook 2 9lb pork butts in my mini without any issue.

^^^This. Tons of people here have these and they are great for cooking Butts and chickens. Heck, I even folded a 15+ lb. packer over and did that in the mini. Ribs would be a bit of an issue in it unless you figured a way to hang them.
 
^^^This. Tons of people here have these and they are great for cooking Butts and chickens. Heck, I even folded a 15+ lb. packer over and did that in the mini. Ribs would be a bit of an issue in it unless you figured a way to hang them.

For ribs, i cut them in half or i'll roll them into a cylinder and pin it with skewers. You can fit a couple of racks of ribs on each grate, but it is a tight squeeze.
 
I have a 5 pound butt on my mini WSM right now and am so excited to see how it turns out too. I have never done a butt before either, but I'm only 25 so I guess I have time to get it right if this one doesn't turn out right!

I have to say though, go buy the pot and make yourself a mini Weber Smokey Mountain. It is cheap and may be the only smoker you ever need. I have a large Brinkmann electric smoker and I haven't used it since I built this thing. Only other equipment that ever gets fired up is my Weber Performer or my Weber gasser for grilling jobs. Great little smokers.
 
Thanks everyone and maybe I'll give the mini WSM a try.
Add my vote for that too. Hard to believe how useful the SJ becomes with the middle section. I used mine tonight to make some moinks. The upper grate is far enough from the coals so that the heat is reduced from a normal direct heat.

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