FIRST PORK BUTT advice/help/suggestions?

Well, just got to the thread and wondering how it is going? Is dinner ready yet? The pit will get more efficient with the mods, but, it is a bit of a charcoal hog, as you now know. Some folks drape a heavy fire blanket over the smoker, if you are facing south, you can leave it in the sun in WC and get some more free heat from the sun.

You should have done two butts, make this a practice, I can then come buy and pick mine up when they are done.

Good idea, Guinea Pig mod in effect.

Yes, it's possible it's done - and probable from what you say. Time is a guideline. The oven is not as good as a cooler, but better than leaving out where there is some air movement around it that helps cool it faster.

Enjoy!

NorCalTDS said:

The bark is pretty dang dark, but oh well, it smells great!

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Dark bark is normal. You done good.

Your right, it is pretty dark :-D. You'll still be in good shape though. Next time get a bone in at Sam's. Quite a bit more meat for the money.

That looks fine to me, Lunardi's butt, that is some nice pork ya bought there. I think you are right in there for cooking a boneless butt in terms of time. I think you will be happy with your product.

Yum, I'm hungry!! Looks like you did great. How's the flavor?

Nice job, looks like dinner was a good one tonight. Were you happy with it?

so, how'd the fatties go over?

Looks great!

Just noticed that you were cooking on a Chargriller, I have the same one and have cooked many, many butts on it but have since moved to an UDS and a home built smoker.

I had problems keeping the temp consistent at first also and used a ton of charcoal along the way.

Here are a couple of things I learned with mine:

Keep it out of the wind. Seems like the slightest change in wind direction can really make the temps go crazy, both up and down. Ive done everything to stacking hay bales around it, moving to the other side of the house, to using a big cardboard refrigerator box as a wind break. Just be careful not to catch everything on fire, lol.

Keep your charcoal piled up rather than spread out over the whole firebox grate. I used a couple of bricks in the firebox to keep the charcoal from spreading out. I also started building a small fire inside the cooking chamber opposite the firebox, just 15 - 20 briquettes to start and add 3 -4 every hour or so. I eventually made a charoal basket for the firebox but kept using the bricks inside the cooking chamber to deflect direct heat. You can still cook 4 butts at once this way, two on the upper shelf and two on the bottom.

I think these two things really helped me to start turning out some pretty darn good barbeque. Hope it helps. Just remember, practice, practice, practice.

I agree with one of the other post. Don't just cook 1 butt. They freeze well and make nice easy meals so fill your cooker up. Assuming you plan on having sides, you should have plenty of pork to feed your crowd. For a 7 pound butt, I usually cook about 9 hours at 225-250. I have injected pork butts and just use a water solution of the rub. Works great. Do not mop and foil after about 5 hours.