Pork shoulder - baste or not?

I don't baste and I don't mop either. I see no value to the practice for either smoking or roasting. I recently read an article that raised some questions about the practice at all.

Better to no open the smoker for as long as possible. everytime you open a smoker, you are adding time and creating an unstable fire potential.

No basting here. I did do a bit once, many years ago and I couldn't tell the difference. One thing for sure: opening up the pit to baste is a good way to fark with the temperature. I've been told that every time you open the pit, you add 10 minutes to your cooking time, so if you open the pit every ten minutes to baste, you can theoretically spend the rest of your life cooking that butt and it'll never be done. Sounds like a good experiment to try when I'm retired. :thumb:

Based on my experiences, it's a waste of time, ingredients and heat. Some others disagree with that, but that's what I say.

No Baste No Mop
shoulder has enough fat to stay moist and flavorful

The VWB puts out a lot of questionable advice.

People who like to foil usually won't wrap till internal temp hits the 160 area, then won't pull meat off cooker till it hits 195-205. Every pig is different and a picnic roast will be probe tender "done" at different temps. This means "never go by internal temp to decide when to pull a picnic or butt".

Keep it simple and don't open up the cooker till it's getting close to "done". The best way to know it's "done" is the poke, probe, or bone wiggle test.

It seems they like to make a very simple process very complicated.

Get the cooker stable at desired cooking temp. Look for thin blue to invisible smoke before tossing on meat. If the cooker is pumping out a bunch of white poofy smoke, it's not burning cleanly, and will deposit a bunch of nasty creosote on the meat. Google "minion method in a weber smokey mountain" That will give you good advice on how to properly start your awesome bullet smoker.

On the sop/spritz/mop. Don't even bother, all that does is extend cooking times and remove the naturally moist cooking environment created by a WSM. Leave the cooker closed, don't mop, spritz, foil or peek. You'll know when it's getting done by the sound the meat is making. Loud sizzling means it's in middle of the stall, as the sizzling subsides, it's almost done. That is the first time to peek, and check for "done".

Picnic roasts have so much internal fat and moisture, there is no need to add any to your cook. Keep 'er closed up and let the magic happen.

When a picnic or butt is "done", I like to wrap in foil and old clean bath towels and toss in an ice chest for a minimum of 2 hours. It allows the pressure to stabilize and the juices to redistribute throughout the meat. They can stay in the ice chest for up to 6 hours, and still be far too hot to pull by hand.

Good luck, and have fun.

Now, I have to say here, Donnie got me thinking about this idea. I cook on a UDS or a kettle, and the holes in the lids are such that a person could spray into the cook chamber without opening the pit.

I can't help but wonder if there would be a benefit to spraying a mop through the holes, it would add moisture, put moisture on the meat and could be used to mop/spritz without opening the pit. I still doubt the value of basting, but, I do belive strongly in a moist air condition inside a pit.

I spray mine with Apple Juice after about 5 hours then every hour until I foil, I also do not see the issue with loss of heat :behindsofa:to any extreme. You want to do it fast but heat recovery does not take that long IMHO. Yes, even on my CG'r...

Yeah, but if you just leave the cooker closed, it's plenty moist inside a UDS. Save the spritz for the veggies or something!:heh:

IMO, it's an unnecessary step in a closed cooking environment. Then there's the discussion on what the evaporation of said spritz does to the cook times. When we sweat, don't we get cooler as it evaporates? When that spritz evaporates, doesn't it cool the surface of the meat?

Now my brain hurts, gotta go to the store and pick up some short ribs!

El Ropo said:

Yeah, but if you just leave the cooker closed, it's plenty moist inside a UDS. Save the spritz for the veggies or something!:heh:

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Huh, where is the moisture coming from in a UDS?

laveen1 said:

I'm thinking maybe I have been overthinking this too much. It sounds like all I need to do is: rub it, cook it, wrap it, and pull it!

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Hey, that's my secret recipe! :tsk:

laveen1 said:

If I did spray thru the top vent, would an oil based mop work better than no oil?

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Why Oil? I do not see any purpose in using oil other than making things greasy. I am open to hearing pluses on this, never tried it.

Gore said:

I've been told that every time you open the pit, you add 10 minutes to your cooking time, so if you open the pit every ten minutes to baste, you can theoretically spend the rest of your life cooking that butt and it'll never be done. Sounds like a good experiment to try when I'm retired. :thumb:

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Once a scientist, always a scientist. Even in future retirement. :biggrin1:

{Midnight ☼ Smoke};2024608 said:

Why Oil? I do not see any purpose in using oil other than making things greasy. I am open to hearing pluses on this, never tried it.

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If your pork butt doesn't have enough fat, it's a good idea to add oil. I find I need to do this with my bacon also. :caked:

Gore said:

If your pork butt doesn't have enough fat, it's a good idea to add oil. I find I need to do this with my bacon also. :caked:

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:nono: You need Fatter Pigs I think!

If oil provided moisture, why is frying considered a form of dry cooking?:heh:

Oil was traditionally used in bastes for low temperature roasting to provide a browing effect on meat. It also does create a film of oil (duh) that will slow the evaporation of water from meat. In high temperature pan raosting, and the older methods of open hearth roasting, the drippings from the meats were used to baste the meats, it makes them shiny and some folks believe in the linear thought process that adding moisture to the meat, simply has to increase the moisture in the meat.

I would not spray oil into a cooker. It seems a bad idea to me to atomize a flammable material into an environment with and open flame in it. Do not overthink the cook. I am trying to become a cooker like Gore.

Also to Terry's question, the moisture in the pit comes from the meat and the moisture being cooked out of the meat as the heat creates steam internal to the meat, which pushes water out of the tissue. If you have enough meat, and a tight enough pit, there will be ambient moisture in a UDS which changes the effects of the heated air on the meat. But, my experience tells me that a single butt won't provide enough moisture for even a kettle, much less a UDS.