Questions for my 1st Butt!

Hey Bubber!

I'm new to the forums and have only been smoking for 5 years, so consider the source regarding this advice.

For your first Butt smoke, I would go as simple as possible. Go with your rub, but I would go no injection, no foil, no mop.

I think that the less you mess with on your first smoke the better, and it leaves you much more room to grow and develop later.

Best of luck to you and let us know how it works out!

Regards,

Tim

I am as green as green can be when it comes to all of this! However, I did my first butt's this weekend. I injected apple juice with worshershire and rubbed down good and let sit overnight. I le it get to room temp the next morning and popped it on the smoker at about 225-250 spraying down with apple juice every 30 minutes or so. At 160 I pulled it and foiled with a little more apple juice. Put it back on the grill to about 190 and pulled it off the smoker. Let rest 30 minutes and pulled. WIthout a doubt one of the best pulled pork I have ever had.

My simple Pulled Pork.

Start with a minimum 8+ lb Butt; I prefer Bone-In. Slather the Butt with Yellow Mustard and sprinkle heavily with your Rub (This can be done the night before if wanted). Place on counter for about a ½ hour or so before putting into the smoker. Let your smoker stabilize at your cooking temp and the smoke is running light Blue before putting the meat on. Cook Indirect at 225º-250º Fat cap down, spraying quickly with Apple Juice every hour until the Butt is at 165º.

Wrap Butt in foil, spray well with Apple Juice and place back into Smoker, flip to Fat Cap up at this time. Continue cooking until Butt is at 195º-200º, until the Probe goes in like butter. Remove from Smoker and wrap in old towels and place into a dry cooler for 3-5 hours (less time is Okay but it will be better with a nice long rest), (Butt will still be too hot to handle without gloves). I like to Pull fast but still removing most the Fat before serving, enjoy!

I prefer the bark I get from unfoiled meat. I am a bark hound.....

It'll get done a lot quicker if you don't open up cooker and spritz. When you're lookin, you're not cookin. Also, if the spritz isn't the same temp or warmer than the temp of the butt, it will effectively cool down the outside of the roast, extending cook time even more. Just my personal experience, I tossed my spritz bottle 6 months ago, and prefer to smoke at 275-300, get lots more sleep that way.

El Ropo said:

It'll get done a lot quicker if you don't open up cooker and spritz. When you're lookin, you're not cookin. Also, if the spritz isn't the same temp or warmer than the temp of the butt, it will effectively cool down the outside of the roast, extending cook time even more. Just my personal experience, I tossed my spritz bottle 6 months ago, and prefer to smoke at 275-300, get lots more sleep that way.

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I cook around 230º and it does not effect my cooking time enough to notice... Minutes at the most.

I gotta agree with Midnight on this one..I've did around 150 butts and spritz every hour.. make a simple injection and just roll with it,doesnt take long and makes the butt even more tender and flavorful..stick with around 8 lb.bone in also..midnight is spot on bout restin the meat for a few hrs. the first time i let em rest i was hooked..will you be using charcoal or full size logs on this cookin? since i've never tried a real stick burner,i'm not sure bout smokin with logs but i'm sure someone will chime in shortly..good luck

i just did my first a few weeks ago as well. i did pretty much what everyone above has said. i injected with apple juice and worcheshire sauce. then rubbed it down and cooked it at 260. i spritzed but not too much. maybe every hour and a half. i foiled at 150-160 and pulled at 200. was insanely good.

I agree w/TD. I've smoked many butts and the first one I did was just rubbed with mustard and added my rub. Wrapped in saran and in the fridge to rest for 8-12 hrs.
Put on the smoker with apple or cherry wood at 225 and let it go until the internal temp reads 195-198. Pull and wrap in foil and then wrap in a beach towel and into a cooler for 1 hr.
The internal temps usually rise about 5* once it is pulled.
If you go simple on your first try, you will have a starting point and then you can start experimenting with injecting, etc.
I never foil butts during cooks and i also never spritz.
There are times when I do inject. some with apple juice and worcestershire sauce and others with either reg dr pepper or cherry dr pepper.
I have a mojo sauce that I will use, probably this weekend.
It's very hard to mess up a butt. Probably the easiest thing to smoke.

Bubber,have you considered pre-heatin those logs before throwin em over your coals.. again,i've never used a stick burner but i did stay at a holiday inn express last nite..jk.. seriously bro,i know gtr and militantsquatter both have klose pits and a lot of experince with them as well so they know a lot more than i..if memory serves me(uh-oh)i think pre-heatin the logs keeps a clean burn,which you want..keep us posted and please put up some pics of your new pit..i have a demented klose pit fetish..sad but true..PICS BRO PICS:loco:

Yes as grillemall said preheat Ur logs. Just keep a few on the top of the firebox so they get warm before throwing them in.

Also why start with charcoal and use wood to finish? I understand using charcoal to get the fire goin before putting on Ur food but u should use wood at the beginning to get the meat more smoke. If anything use charcoal to finish the cook. Or just stick with wood just don't oversmoke it

Maybe a stick burner is somehow different, but I'd rather cook an 8lb. butt in 7 hours, with no voodoo, and get more sleep. I'll still rest them wrapped in a cooler for 2-4 hours, but it's not a farking long cook.

Maybe I'm just a lazy SOB, tried all the spritzing and mopping before, and it extended cook times by hours, and the result was similar, but not better by any means. It's been said by me before, most of the best BBQ joints around here cook their meat at high heat, and don't spritz, inject, mop, or any of that. They just dry rub, and cook till "done". A lot of that may be due to the quality of meat they use. Just because folks have success doing low 'n slow, and spritzing, mopping etc. doesn't make it the ONLY way to do it. JMHO, YMMV.

I also have done Shoulders using a Rotisserie. They come out excellent too. Many ways to cook a Butt and they are hard to screw up.

Many ways to cook a Butt and they are hard to screw up.

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Bingo! Or should I say "That's the ticket"

I agree with Dirty. The meat is going to absorb the smoke at the beginning use charcoal after 8-10 hours and save your wood.

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I've cooked a butt or two over the years; often times as not it's attached to the picnic to be a whole pork shoulder. I dont know how many, but I'm sure it's in the thousands (I'm old, and I'll cook them 10 or more at a time).

Most of the advice above is spot on. El Ropo, a lot of what you're referencing has to do with the specific smoker. I have one that doesnt come back to temps quickly, and I have another that cooks more like a convection oven.

Seriously, inject with something simple, like apple juice and worchestershire, perhaps a little of your rub mixed in there. Rub it down and put 'em on the smoker. Keep sweet blue as best you can (warming the logs helps). You dont have to spritz, especially if your foil. Keep 'er closed up tight and let 'er cook... When to foil (or if you foil) has a lot to do with both personal preference and how your smoker smokes. So that you dont end up over-smoking it, I suggest foiling around that 4th to 5th hour, regardless of internal temperature. You put fat cap up or down. We use fat cap down, but that has more to do with having to present the meat whole. Fat cap up works fine too. If you're looking for really awesome pulled pork, take the meat off the smoker between 195 and 200. Let it rest still in the foil for at least 1 hour, 2 hours if you can. There's a reason folks swear by this technique. If you dont have a temperature probe to test the meat temps, cook it for 9.5 hours at 250 IF you're foiling at 4 hours and IF you've maintained 250 mostly the whole time and IF you haven't spritzed. When you pick the meat up, it should have a little "give" to it. You can feel it's done.

Largely, keep it simple. Watch your temps. Keep it 240-250, you'll be very happy with the results. Oh, yeah, as others have said, that 8 - 9lb bone-in butt is pretty much the best. When you open that foil you'll be able to pull the bone cleanly from the meat, and you'll have wonderful moist pulled pork to burn your fingers on.

Best of luck with it.