PDA

View Full Version : Newb ?: What's the smallest butt I can do on a UDS?


Petee_c
12-12-2014, 02:14 PM
I've got 2 meals done on my UDS. Both ribs. The inaugural run was 2 racks of back ribs. I then did 4 racks of side ribs. Both meals were successful

I want to do something on it for our Supper evening meal. Family of 4. 3 of us can be really good eaters, my youngest tends to be really picky

I've been researching and suggested meatloaf, pork or beef roast. or chicken to my wife (although I've done lots of rotisserie and beer can chicken in the past on a propane grill.)

My wife replied with either pork or beef roast.

I'm thinking about a 1st pork shoulder/butt, maybe sliced, maybe pulled. My 2nd option might be a stuffed loin roast, although I haven't been a big fan of pork tenderloin thus far.

What's the smallest size of butt I can get? When is it too small to do low and slow?

I'm going to the local butcher store tonight to find prices. Nothing on sale so far in the flyers in the grocery stores.

Peter

I'll be using KBB, minion method and hickory chunks.

SmittyJonz
12-12-2014, 02:20 PM
You can cut a Butt in half n smoke half n freeze half. A 4 lb Chunk would be Good. Pork Butts are the Easiest Q cuz they have a wide window of Done. 185*-190* for Slicing or Chunking, 195* for Dicing (my favorite way) and around 200* +\- for Pulled.

Wampus
12-12-2014, 02:46 PM
Well, there's no limit to how SMALL a butt you can do.
....although I think it's kinda cruel to butcher those cute little piglets. :rolleyes:



Seriously though, no matter what size, large or small, cook it up the same.
Rub, smoke enjoy!



If you're wondering about it being too big, you could always cook a regular one, pull it and freeze the pork for leftovers. I always have vacuum seal bags of pulled pork, pulled chicken and sliced brisket in the freezer.

hogs122
12-12-2014, 02:49 PM
Pulled pork also freezes well after being cooked. If you have a vacuum sealer, use that. I've had pretty good luck freezing in a freezer bag and heating in a pot of simmering water.

It's nice to have the option of pulled pork for dinner even if you don't have time to fire up the UDS.

Mr.OiSat
12-12-2014, 03:08 PM
Pulled pork also freezes well after being cooked. If you have a vacuum sealer, use that. I've had pretty good luck freezing in a freezer bag and heating in a pot of simmering water.

It's nice to have the option of pulled pork for dinner even if you don't have time to fire up the UDS.

sooner or later there's no other option than buying a vacuum sealer for bbqed food.
:biggrin1:

Petee_c
12-12-2014, 04:42 PM
I checked out the local butcher. They have a 4lb boneless butt, but it's tied in one of those string bags. Looks different than the raw ones I see here.

The other reason for the smaller one is I'm pretty busy on Sunday. I was thinking about setting up the UDS around 5am and putting the meat on around 6am. I've got hockey at 830am,then church at 10am,thrn my daughter has a ringette game at 1pm.

I'll setup a Webcam to monitor the temps and pop home to tend to it if it needs to come off.

Peter

jham0077
12-12-2014, 07:00 PM
You're gonna lose 40 to 50% of the pork butt if you smoke it till the pulling stage. Four pounds becomes two, and so on. When it comes to pulled pork... bigger is better.:thumb:

mchar69
12-12-2014, 07:44 PM
I agree - Bigger = Better. Put a full 8- 10 pounder on there - maybe 250 or so -
You could set it and forget it - no peek.
6- 7 hrs.

mrp116
12-12-2014, 11:28 PM
if you're gonna do your first butt, do it right, don't rush it. Get a 7 - 7.5lb butt. Cook it at 235 - 250 until you hit a minimum of 195, 200-205 is ideal if going by temp. Plan on 1.5 hrs/lb (I usually plan on 2 hrs/lb and don't care if my WSM decides it wants to run at 225 for that cook). It may be done sooner, but many are stubborn. You can't rush good bbq. Double wrap in HD foil, place in a cooler with towels and rest for at least 1.5 hours. Pull the butt, serve it as you're pulling it, and your family will be addicted. Then, you can try some of the hotter methods. There is no way you will cook a 8-10lb butt in 6-7hrs at 250. Also, make sure you use liberal amounts of rub and don't wrap before it's done. Wrapping kills the bark. You want bark, real bark.

Petee_c
12-13-2014, 09:01 PM
It's going to be an early morning tomorrow. I picked up a 5.8lb butt this afternoon. It's rubbed and injected in the fridge.

Going to wake up at 5am and start the uds. Already have charcoal and hickory chunks in the basket. A half full chimney ready to light waiting.

I hope to have the uds stabilised by 6am and the butt on.

Got to figure out if I should have a pan underneath the butt and if I should use a diffuser. I'm thinking not for the diffuser as the lack of heat at the sides shouldn't be an issue as the butt will be at the the centre of the rack.

Do I need a pan to catch the drippings?

Peter

el_matt
12-13-2014, 11:05 PM
No drip pan needed. Get up, put the meat on the counter. Light your fire, get the UDS to temp, throw on the butt, put the lid on and let the barrel do the work. It'll turn out great, and your family will love it.

Matt

captndan
12-15-2014, 07:37 AM
The smallest butt you can cook is the one that doesn't fall thru the grate.

Petee_c
12-15-2014, 08:57 AM
Got up at 0506h yesterday morning and got the chimney for the UDS going. I had about 1/2 basket of charcoal / hickory loaded up waiting from the night before. I use a wax based firestarter and cut off 2 chunks each about the size of a peach pit to get the chimney going. The half full chimney was ready in 20 minutes. The ambient temperature for the cook was about 35F for the day.

Took the butt out of the fridge (it was injected with about 1/2 cup of solution, and had one layer of rub on it from the night before). Meat went on at 0550h. The temperature at grate level was reading between 225-250F. I found a 6" long dial deep fryer/candy thermometer that I installed the night before.

The temperature varied between 225-275 for most of the cook. There was a period where it dropped below 200F for abit. I wasn't home to tend the meat for the entire cook. I was away for old timer's Sunday morning hockey from 8am-9:30am, then home to check the UDS briefly then off to church from 10am to noon. I bought a new clean spritzer bottle to apply an apple juice/cider mop a couple times, and added more charcoals and coals at noon as I had found the temperature had dropped. Then off to the rink again for my daughter's game from 1300h-1420h.

The butt seemed to stall from 155F to 175F. My wife had invited friends over from church for the butt for 5pm and the pressure was on. I watched the temperature of the butt stall from 3pm to 4:30pm, and it was only climbing 1F every 5 minutes it seemed. I quit mopping, as I wanted it to go higher.

Since I was out of the house so much, I dug out a pan and tilt web cam and used it to monitor the temperature on the wireless probe for the meat, and the dial on the UDS. It worked decently, except there was a drip of grease that hit the glass on the dial of the thermometer, and it was directly in line with the temperature needle. I need to turn up the resolution on the camera to have a clearer view of the dial.

Bark was a deep red color when I finally pulled the pork out at 186F. I had about 20 -30 minutes to rest the meat in a cooler double wrapped in heavy duty tin foil, and insulated with clean rags. I sharpened one of our knives while waiting for the rest.

The meat was overall pretty good. Some parts were excellent, I sliced by hand and got the slices about 1/8" thick. The bark and rub were ok. The dry rub I used had too much kick to it. (had both cayenne and black ground pepper) I still have a lot of it left, and going to cut it with some more brown sugar and paprika to dial it down a bit.

The sliced pork was served on buns with a couple warmed bbq sauces on the side and raw onion as the garnish. My picky son had 1/2 a bun worth, as well as a hotdog that I threw on the UDS while the pork was resting. My daughter had 2 sandwiches worth. I'd like to find slider size buns for the next cook.

Next butt will be the same size, or maybe a bit bigger. I'm going to aim for 275F for the cook, leave at least 2hrs /lb to smoke plus a 90 minute rest. I'll make sure the basket is near full at the start. I would like to baste the meat with store bought bbq sauce partway through. I think the kids will like that.


Peter

ITBFQ
12-15-2014, 09:25 AM
Sounds like you did a nice job on your first one. I won't tell you how my first pork butt went... let's just say I was not a member here and I had no idea what the stall was. I usually wrap to get through it quickly - I can be impatient when I am hungry. Others don't and just let the pork ride it out. Either way it'll eventually get through it.

Advice for the next one. Don't sauce until the last 15-20 minutes. Any longer than that, your sauce will burn and the kids probably won't like the taste of it. I'm lucky, my 6 year old will eat anything I put in front of him, but he will also be the first to critique my Q. He'd call me out on burnt sauce before I even had my first bite.