I Don't Want A Dry Butt

i've got a bsk which is simler to the bge and i do'nt mop spritz or use a water pan. diffuser is a must. your bge is so efficiant that your butt will not dry out. it a very easy cook in my humble opion

Ted,

A pork butt is a very forgiving piece of meat... handles high heat very well and is rarely dry due to the high connective tissue content. The length of overall time (patience) is my internal struggle.

You will have felt resistance during the stall... be patient... it will get there approaching 195-205. Have factored in 18 hours to cover my cooking/resting times running a similar set-up on my Bubba Keg smokers.

Folks have run high indirect heat on butts without adverse effects.

In the mean time... grab a few sweet sausage logs and tweak your spiced rub on them... a few hours later you'll be eating!

First, no reason to stay under 230 other than adding time. 230-265; all good, and reduces time. Too low can actually give you leathery exterior. Also, when we talk about cook temperatures, we're talking about the temperature on the cooking grate; NOT the external mounted thermometer (which are notorious for being WAY off).

Water pan on a BGE is probably not a terrible idea. You dont have to mop; you can but opening the top will only add time (reference earlier replies to your posts) to your cook.

Foil for color and moisture. I foil at 4.5 hours, but that has to do with my smoker and the type of wood that I use. For your first run, I'd keep the top closed for the first 3 hours. Then open it up, put the pork in foil, mop if you'd like at this time (you already have the top opened), seal it up TIGHT, close the top and let 'er finish. You will not have a dry butt...

Too low temperatures and no foil and yeah you can end up with a dry butt... I know I did 30 years ago...

If you have some apple juice and a turkey injector, trying injecting a little. Mix in a little of your rub and perhaps a little worchestershire sauce, or some of whatever you were going to mop it with. Have fun.

If you are real worried about drying it out you can foil it and add some apple juice but I doubt you will need to if you don't over cook it.

Start it cold and if you feel like baking it for the last many hours go for it. They don't take much smoke after the first few hours anyway.

I have abused a few butts in my day but they are very forgiving. If I'm not mistaken around 140 degrees they quit taking smoke so the colder your butt is when you start the more smoke it will take. I inject apple juice and brown sugar mix and mist with apple juice. I don't know if it needs it I guess it's habit but when your temp probe slides with little or no effort it's time to get the buns out!:thumb:

The term 'smoke ring' is misleading...

It is a chemical and physical reaction between the nitrites/nitrates used in charcoal, rubs, and the hemoglobin (blood) of the meat. Natural lump has lesser amounts and the smoke ring will be a smaller degree. The ring forms from the exterior contact... working its way inwards as the result.

To get a better smoke ring using lump... toss in a few charcoal briquettes during the first few hours in.

[edit: I cut off and removed the fat cap from my butts on the last cook (160 lbs) and none of them were dry... to allow for more bark development.]

I inject my butts the evening before with Kosmos apple juice mix. Wrap in plastic and leave in fridge over night. In the morning I unwrap and pat dry.
Coat with some rub. I then let my UDS settle at 225 deg. I place the butt in the UDS. When it hits 170 internal I wrap in foil and let it cook till 195. I do not add any liquid at that time. I then wrap in a towel and place in a cooler for a few hours to pull all the juice back in. When I'm ready I remove from the cooler and by the way it is still steaming hot a few hours later. Take my bear paws and pull the butt. Always comes out real tender and juicy. The family and friends just love it. I serve it with buns bbq sauce if wanted and coleslaw for a topping, yum!

Butts for me are the easiest thing to cook. Just start up the chimney, prepare fire basket, pull roast out of fridge and give a quick wash/dry, slather and rub, go dump coals in and close up the UDS, wait 15 min to come up to around 225-250 and put the roast in.

After an hour or two will open er up to around 300 for remainder of cook. No foil till rest time. Because I'm using a UDS, I'll flip it over in middle of cook.

I've never had a bad butt. :redface:

TedW said:

My only hesitation to foil is that after sealing in foil, I may as well cook it in the oven. I mean no more smoke is being added to meat after that.

QUESTION: Start the butt cold from fridge or warmed to room temp forst?

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You're going to do fine; I promise.

Good advice above.

Many times at home, when I dont want to stay up all night, I'll cook a few butts for 4 hours+- then bring them inside, foil, and in the oven they go for the remainder of the night while I get some sleep. Worse things have happened...

You can start the butt cold, straight from the fridge, or warmed to room temperature; it's all good. For us I'll usually take the butts/shoulders out about 4 hours before I cook (if I have the time, sometimes it's only 1 hour) and inject them and rub them at that time. They sit out at room temperature while I/we get the smoker up to temps... Others do it differently and frankly it all works.

By the way, 240 is a VERY good cooking temp for this. I cook a little hotter, but that's more to do with my smoker has a sweet spot more like 250 than 240.

Everyone seems to be slathering and rubbing just a couple hours before cook time. Makes things easy

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That was pretty much the point of my post, keeping it simple and still getting killer results. I don't bother with injections, brines, or anything. I don't slather and rub till 20-30 min till tossing on cooker. And I try not to open the lid during the entire cook. Like the PP in my avatar, it's always good.