castlepines
is Blowin Smoke!
Decided today to do only my second pork butt ever. I had a blast doing the first one and was looking forward to my next. I started thawing it in the fridge on Friday and it was ready to go on Sunday night. Injected it Sunday night, rubbed on Monday morning and got it on the WSM at 9:15am. I had a weird feeling I would be called into work tonight, and sure enough that was the case.
After getting the call I quickly jumped in the shower with the Mav showing q-temp at 264 and internal temp 187. I figured I would start checking tenderness at about 195. Well, 30 minutes later I get out of the shower and the internal temp is showing 205. CRAP! Run downstairs and check the tenderness...it feels mushy. Mushy everywhere except for a small section right in the middle, right where I have my Mav temp probe. That part still had a small bit of resistance.
Now, at this point in my new hobby, I know that the meat is ready when it's "probe tender"...but I don't know what that feels like. But now I do. Because I had to get in to work, I talked myself into the butt being ready. With ribs, they say a little resistance when tearing it off the bone is a good thing. I talked myself into it being a good thing when there is probe resistance with butts. I took the butt off the smoker and let it rest for about 45 minutes and then started pulling. Wouldn't you know it, all of it was perfect...except the part in the middle that I mentioned earlier that had some resistance. The rest of it separated nicely and looked great. But that part in the middle? When pulled it still showed some white, fibrous-like material between the shreds. It looked like it hadn't quite broken down enough during the cook, even after showing 205 on the temp. Two huge learning points right there. It wasn't nearly as tender as the rest of the butt.
So, while I know that butts are done when they probe tender, I now know what probe tender feels like: mushy. Really kind of mushy. Great learning day today.
After getting the call I quickly jumped in the shower with the Mav showing q-temp at 264 and internal temp 187. I figured I would start checking tenderness at about 195. Well, 30 minutes later I get out of the shower and the internal temp is showing 205. CRAP! Run downstairs and check the tenderness...it feels mushy. Mushy everywhere except for a small section right in the middle, right where I have my Mav temp probe. That part still had a small bit of resistance.
Now, at this point in my new hobby, I know that the meat is ready when it's "probe tender"...but I don't know what that feels like. But now I do. Because I had to get in to work, I talked myself into the butt being ready. With ribs, they say a little resistance when tearing it off the bone is a good thing. I talked myself into it being a good thing when there is probe resistance with butts. I took the butt off the smoker and let it rest for about 45 minutes and then started pulling. Wouldn't you know it, all of it was perfect...except the part in the middle that I mentioned earlier that had some resistance. The rest of it separated nicely and looked great. But that part in the middle? When pulled it still showed some white, fibrous-like material between the shreds. It looked like it hadn't quite broken down enough during the cook, even after showing 205 on the temp. Two huge learning points right there. It wasn't nearly as tender as the rest of the butt.
So, while I know that butts are done when they probe tender, I now know what probe tender feels like: mushy. Really kind of mushy. Great learning day today.
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