Need advice on pulling my meat
 

Howdy. Got a question about finishing a butt. Normally I start checking @ 190* IT. Then I use the bone and probe tests.

Last night I cooked a 9lb'er on the uds. Stayed in the 270-325 degree range. At 200 degrees IT, it still wasn't ready. I started getting worried about the butt drying out on me. I then pulled outta drum, foiled and into cooler. Rested for a few hours. It turned out somewhat dry in areas, bone never did let go.

Should I have....

A. Brought cooker temp down to 200*, so as to keep the meat @ approx 200*? Which would allow it to loosen up more, perhaps.

Or

B. Instead of panicking, just maintained cooker temp and kept going until butt passed the tests?

Thanks! Jason :)

I would have kept on cooking it until it got tender. I can't recall ever seeing a dried out butt.

Youre kidding with the thread title right? HAHAHAAHAHAHA!!!

Sorry I'm Ambidextrous! As for the Pork Butt I run old Big Jim at 300 when the bone gets loose It goes in to the foil and a cooler for an hr, I couldn't say what temp the meat is I never check it. Always comes out juicy & tender as a Mothers love. If it's dry and the bone aint loose cook it longer.

Wear gloves and don't get any onya.

Now if this was in "The Wood Pile". :grin:

Anyway, I would have let her rip.

Bob

Indeed.

My two cents smoke at 250 or what ever you desire until the internal temp is in the 170 range then put it in a foil pan and wrap. Put it back in until the internal temp hits 195 - 200 pull it out of the smoker and let it rest covered in a cooler or wrapped in a towel. Don't start playing with it :p until the temp has dropped to 150 or around there. Pull it and eat it!

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Yeah I've never experienced a butt getting dried out. They're so full of marbled goodness I'd figure that's almost impossible. One of the main reasons people recommend a person's first cook being a pork butt is for that reason.

When you pulled it, did it still have a lot of chunks of non rendered fat in the end product?

Gotta admit.... I was scared when I clicked.......

Out of the hundreds I've done I had two that never got to the pulling point. Both I brought past 213 and still no go. Ended up being slicers. Just the way it goes I guess. I too never bother with internal temps anymore but I did with these two. I usually just go with the bone pulling test.

I smoke my butts 4 hours...wrap and cook for 6 more hours and meat will fall apart when you open the foil juicy as can be....tried something different last cook....injected apple juice and vinegar base sauce mixed together.....WOW..the meat was even more tender...the guys at work said it was the best ever. Buts have so much fat i have never dried one out even when I was new at it.

Title of the week!

Naw. No unusual amounts of fat. About the same as always. Some of it was moist from the long resting period, I guess. But other parts I literally couldn't pull apart. Had to tear the meat off of the bone!

Keep smoking it until the bone is easy to remove....hard to over cook a butt.