What is your favorite way to BBQ a Pork Butt in your 22.5" Weber Kettle?

bbqgeekess · Feb 25, 2014

I want to try and cook my first pork butt in my Weber 22.5" OTG Kettle. (I've had great success, many many times, in my Mini WSM and UDS in the past.)

I keep hearing from MANY on this forum that the kettle can produce as good BBQ as a WSM, UDS, Mini WSM etc..

I'd like to know what you think is the best way to BBQ a Pork Butt on this kettle--how do you burn your charcoal?

Right now I have 2 fire bricks and the coals on one side and the meat on the other side of the bricks, with foil under what I am cooking to catch drips and to redirect airflow to the coals. But maybe I should get rid of these bricks?

Banked Minion, Fire Bricked Minion, Metal Shielded Minon, Perforated Metal Shielded Minion, Fuse/Snake Burn , Ring of Fire, and so on.. There are too many choices!

I need to go with the very best proven method so I can have success with this pork butt. (I am going to buy a Maverick 732 on Amazon today and will have in a couple days for this first cook.)

(I need details on where to set the intake vent, the exhaust vent, how large of a pile of coals or how they are positioned, etc..)

bbqgeekess · Feb 25, 2014

With the Mini WSM it has been easy: minion and control temp with intake vents.. that's it.

I just can't get into the kettle because I don't know which is the best way. Made me doubt the capability of the kettle because there were so many ways to cook in it -- I figured people couldn't make their mind up which was the best way, so that's why I felt the kettle was not that great for bbq.

RastaQ · Feb 25, 2014

I started cooking pork butts on the kettle. I never got to fancy with it. I use a deep aluminum pan for water and to keep the charcoal on one side of the cooker. About 3/4 full chimney of charcoal with some kind of fruit wood chunks on top. Top vent wide open above food, and my bottom vent is almost closed. At some point I have to throw a few handfuls of unlit charcoal on lit coals. The hard part for me is to keep the temp down. The kettle gets hot a lot easier than WSM. I cook from 250 - 275 degrees.

Bludawg · Feb 25, 2014

Ring o fire. 2 coals wide 2 coals high 1. Chunk of wood every 3" light up. 15 dump on one end open all the vents wide open let it rip tater chip that gives me 300 or so takes about 50 min lb. All you need to do is rotate the exhaust port 90 deg every 3-4 hrs so it is opposite the fire.

bbqgeekess · Feb 25, 2014

Bludawg said:
Ring o fire. 2 coals wide 2 coals high 1. Chunk of wood every 3" light up. 15 dump on one end open all the vents wide open let it rip tater chip that gives me 300 or so takes about 50 min lb. All you need to do is rotate the exhaust port 90 deg every 3-4 hrs so it is opposite the fire.

Thank you. Guess I need to buy some kingsford. Been using lump for everything really.

Bludawg · Feb 25, 2014

bbqgeekess said:
Thank you. Guess I need to buy some kingsford. Been using lump for everything really.

get some Stubbs or RO I forgot I make a drip pan out of some foil I put it in the middle of the ring helps to control your air and makes cleanup a snap. I get about 10 hrs on this setup.

bbqgeekess · Feb 25, 2014

Bludawg said:
get some Stubbs or RO I forgot I make a drip pan out of some foil I put it in the middle of the ring helps to control your air and makes cleanup a snap. I get about 10 hrs on this setup.

Can I see a photo of this setup? Have you taken one?

I use Ozark Oak lump for everything right now--it's the best lump available.

Also do you shield the ring of coals with a metal ring or perforated metal ring? So that way the meat would have less direct cooking?

sam3 · Feb 25, 2014

Bludawg said:
Ring o fire. 2 coals wide 2 coals high 1. Chunk of wood every 3" light up. 15 dump on one end open all the vents wide open let it rip tater chip that gives me 300 or so takes about 50 min lb. All you need to do is rotate the exhaust port 90 deg every 3-4 hrs so it is opposite the fire.

I tried this with a chuckie the other weekend. It works well, except I didn't have enough charcoal in there to get through the stall.

Question: My kettle has the vent dead center on top. Shouldn't be an issue, or is it?

sliding_billy · Feb 25, 2014

Bludawg said:
Ring o fire. 2 coals wide 2 coals high 1. Chunk of wood every 3" light up. 15 dump on one end open all the vents wide open let it rip tater chip that gives me 300 or so takes about 50 min lb. All you need to do is rotate the exhaust port 90 deg every 3-4 hrs so it is opposite the fire.

^^^This (except I do use KBB)! :becky:

bbqgeekess · Feb 25, 2014

sliding_billy said:
^^^This (except I do use KBB)! :becky:

Hey, so if you put a full ring around , what diameter of cooking area do you have left? Can you cook 4 full racks of ribs (on edge) ?

Won't some areas of the ribs get direct heat from the fuse burn? seems like with the fuse burn it would be more of an uneven cook than banked minion.

(I know I asked about pork butt, but just wondering about ribs now.)

BB-Kuhn · Feb 25, 2014

With the kettle, the only real hurdle is cook time. You could easily get 6 or so hours out of a ring/fuse setup, then wrap and finish in the oven. The difference would be very little.

sliding_billy · Feb 25, 2014

bbqgeekess said:
Hey, so if you put a full ring around , what diameter of cooking area do you have left? Can you cook 4 full racks of ribs (on edge) ?

Won't some areas of the ribs get direct heat from the fuse burn? seems like with the fuse burn it would be more of an uneven cook than banked minion.

(I know I asked about pork butt, but just wondering about ribs now.)

You have a couple of options using a ring. You can do a partial ring leaving a gap at the end where you would position the end of the ribs or even two crescent moons (light each separately of course) so that there is a gap on each side. It is kind of like two small banks but with a more controlled burn. I sometimes like to cut off the end ribs and cook them separately (chef's snacks). The end ones tend to cook too quickly anyways, so it is easier to just get them out of the way at the beginning. Using a rib rack, you should have room to put those 8 small ribs flat on the sides of the rack.

aawa · Feb 25, 2014

This is how I like to do my pork butts and briskets on my kettle.

I do a layer of 2 coals, layer of 2 coals, layer of 1 coal. I light off 10 coals and this will rock about 300-325 for a good while.

Here was one of my last pork butt cooks on a kettle.
http://www.bbq-brethren.com/forum/showthread.php?t=175327

fantomlord · Feb 25, 2014

bbqgeekess said:
Hey, so if you put a full ring around , what diameter of cooking area do you have left? Can you cook 4 full racks of ribs (on edge) ?

Won't some areas of the ribs get direct heat from the fuse burn? seems like with the fuse burn it would be more of an uneven cook than banked minion.

(I know I asked about pork butt, but just wondering about ribs now.)

I easily did 3 racks of st louis trimmed spares on the kettle without my rib rack...and that was using some really big pieces of lump for the snake which encroached on the middle of the kettle more than briqs will.

http://www.bbq-brethren.com/forum/showthread.php?t=169991

sliding_billy · Feb 25, 2014

Thanks for the pic aawa. that was exactly what I was describing with the partial ring.

ajstrider · Feb 25, 2014

I have tried several methods and the best way I have found to keep temperature under control is the ring of fire/snake method like everyone else uses. It is hard to control the air so control the fuel instead. Just rotate that lid like Bludawg said. Briquettes definitely seem better for this than lump so I use Stubb's. I would also restrain from removing the lid to peek, it helps keep the air and temp under control and no need to be looking anyways.

bbqgeekess · Feb 25, 2014

aawa said:
This is how I like to do my pork butts and briskets on my kettle.

I do a layer of 2 coals, layer of 2 coals, layer of 1 coal. I light off 10 coals and this will rock about 300-325 for a good while.

Here was one of my last pork butt cooks on a kettle.
http://www.bbq-brethren.com/forum/showthread.php?t=175327

Thanks, so do you rotate your pork butt at least once during the cook? Because it seems like there would be a lot of direct heat around 3 sides of it and the back side (away from the coals) wouldn't be as well cooked.

bbqgeekess · Feb 25, 2014

Well I think I am gonna try my first pork butt cook, using kingsford blue and this ring of fire / fuse / snake burn method. Thanks so much for all the help.

I just need to know if I should rotate the roast 180 degrees at some point during the cook.

sliding_billy · Feb 25, 2014

I don't think it is going to make a huge difference, but if it looks like one side is getting darker (or if it is temping with a big difference) go for it. I would actually intentionally put the money muscle to the "cold" side and hope it comes out a few degrees lower for slicing. I do my butts that way on purpose in my offset.

bbqgeekess · Feb 25, 2014

Ok gonna do the pork butt this way, with money muscle on the most indirect side, thanks.

I can already produce very juicy tasty pork butts on my Mini WSM, but I figure it'd be fun to try everything on the kettle, just to say I can do it

Who knows I might need to make use of the kettle in an emergency as a backup cooker or to augment a large cook (say for a party).

What is your favorite way to BBQ a Pork Butt in your 22.5" Weber Kettle?

Babbling Farker

Babbling Farker

Is lookin for wood to cook with.

somebody shut me the fark up.

Babbling Farker

somebody shut me the fark up.

Babbling Farker

is Blowin Smoke!

somebody shut me the fark up.

Babbling Farker

Full Fledged Farker

somebody shut me the fark up.

Babbling Farker

is Blowin Smoke!

somebody shut me the fark up.

is Blowin Smoke!

Babbling Farker

Babbling Farker

somebody shut me the fark up.

Babbling Farker

Similar threads