1st Pork Butt for Mother's Day Dinner

DerHusker · May 14, 2012

Picked up a 13.5 lbs boneless pork shoulder from Costco for Mother's Day dinner. This was my 1st ever butt roast so I cut it in half so if I crashed and burned I'd still have another try at it. I did make a couple of rookie mistakes but all in all it came out great. So last night I slathered it up with mustard and then John's recipe pork rub. (Thanks John) Wrapped it up and into the frig.

Up at 6:00 AM to light the kamado (1st mistake, it should have been 4:00 AM)

Next mistake (If I can say this - Sorry Baby) is hugging and talking to my wife when she gets up. (Left the kamado to long and it got up to 250 when I was hoping for 225)

Butt goes on at 6:50.

Turn down the vents to try and get it to come down but it never does.

I'm thinking approx. 8 hours ought to be enough so I'm shooting for an approx. dinner time of 4:00. (Wrong again) And yet another mistake is putting a room temp floor tile in as a heat deflector. You guessed it, "TINK".

Everything is going along nicely until it hits 158 degrees. It didn't budge off of 158 for 90 minutes. (There goes my 8 hours!) Around 3:30 I'm realizing that I’m going to have to pull it out before 190 degrees.

Pulled at 3:50 (182 degrees) and into the foil.

Care to guess where the butt is?

An hour later I pull it out.

I proceed to pull it apart. (If I could’ve gone to 190 I’m sure this would’ve been easier) Here are the money shots.

Not the best I’ve ever had but not too far away from it. :clap:

1FUNVET · May 14, 2012

Not to shabby for your 1st time. We learn by our mistakes.

tnjimbob · May 14, 2012

Looks pretty good for a first time cook. I agree with what 1Funvet said, but I would add that we learn more from our mistakes than from cooks that turn out perfectly. Keep going and take notes of your cooks. this will help a great deal as you learn.

DerHusker · May 14, 2012

tnjimbob said:
Looks pretty good for a first time cook. I agree with what 1Funvet said, but I would add that we learn more from our mistakes than from cooks that turn out perfectly. Keep going and take notes of your cooks. this will help a great deal as you learn.

Agreed. Plus if I had got up at 4:00 AM the "Wife" problem wouldn't have happened either. :behindsofa: (JK)

speedrcer1 · May 14, 2012

Congrats and good job!
Yeah, the good ole stall gets us every time.
Keep up the great work!

ddweatherholtz · May 14, 2012

Looks good to me!, after a hour in the stall you could have foiled it and put it the smoker and probably gotten it to 190 pretty quick, loose some hard bark but it will speed up the cook a bit.

fingerlickin' · May 14, 2012

On the bright side, now you have an excuse to go get a pizza stone for it. :thumb: I agree foiling it would've help it blow through the stall quicker. Now you know and knowing is half the battle. Looks like you guys still ate pretty good! Also, as has been mentioned here repeatedly, 225* isn't a magic number. I usually cook my butts around 275* and they come out great, not to mention being done in time for dinner, usually. :-D

Ron_L · May 14, 2012

Jason is right. Don't freak out about maintaining 225. Butts are very forgiving and come out well even when cooked at 325 or even 350. I prefer 250 - 265 based on my cooker, plus, I get it done faster.

Also, don't go by internal temp. Odd are that butt wouldn't have pulled any easier if you had gone to 190. Each piece of meat is unique and is done when it is done. I go by look and feel. You can see the meat pulling away from the bone when it is getting close, and you can feel the change in how your temp probe goes in. When the meat is done the probe will go in like it is going into warm butter.

El Ropo · May 14, 2012

^^ What he said. Most butts/picnic roasts won't be "done" till 195-210. IMO, it wasn't cooked long enough to have fully rendered. Its no pork loin.

Most of us don't go by temp, but by bone wiggle, probe, or poke test. The temp is just an indicator of when we want to try the above tests. Personally, I don't even start checking for "done" till internal temp is 195.

I like to cook 'em at 275-325 as well. Get lots more free time for other things that way, and the end result is just as good, if not better. That one was probably good for slicing though, and there's nothing wrong with sliced pork!

mallorjc · May 14, 2012

I guess all these comments mean "husker du!" congrats on a lovely butt!

BBQ Bacon · May 14, 2012

Nicely done. Looks delicious.

Happy Hapgood · May 14, 2012

Great Cook! Sounds like you hit "The Stall" with your temps. You can do an internet search about it that may help with Butt # 2 as far as timing goes.

NoraBBQ · May 14, 2012

I love the Big Red "N".

Good luck on the next one.

firefighter4634 · May 14, 2012

Very nice. Also great job on the pics. If you are running out of time you could pull it around 165 deg. and foil it then back on the cooker to finish it to 190.
As others have said, take notes and keep track of your cooks.

1st Pork Butt for Mother's Day Dinner

DerHusker

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1FUNVET

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tnjimbob

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DerHusker

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speedrcer1

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Ron_L

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Happy Hapgood

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