First Pork Butts - Q-View

[backcountry]

Had my sister in town, who I haven't seen in 6 years... Went up to the cottage for a long weekend and had the smoker busy for most of it...

Did a couple pork butts for sammies, about 40 ABT's, garlic sausage, Dutch's Baked Beans (absolutely amazing!), whole onions, whole garlics, chilli, pizza and mixed veggies. Needless to say, I'm taking it easy this week...

Here's my Q-View from the weekend.

Started by doing a dry rub made up of brown sugar, paprika, garlic powder, CBP, chillie seeds, garlic, chilli powder, and a few other things that aren't coming to mind. Pretty standard rub though.



On Pineywoods advice for another smoke, I decided to try the cherry/rum spritz for this one. Cuban rum, cherry juice and a touch of apple juice.



Wrapped


After sitting overnight and ready to put in the smoker




Couple hours in


Another hour or so and after putting in some "test" Seafood ABT's with crab and chopped scallop.


Just before the foil

Things are filling up now!


Pulled


Plated some of it - time to chow!


With leftovers, we made a BBQ Pulled Pork Pizza. Mmm


Then for dinner some smoked garlic sausage, chilli for the tenderloin burgers and pulled pork on a bun... We're starting to get carried away...





The highlight was the pulled pork, pizza and Dutch's Wicked Baked Beans!

Love the site. So much inspiration!

 

[bigsteve]

Looks great



Where's this cottage?

 

[backcountry]

It's on a lake along the Winnipeg River System. Trade you a trip there for a trip in SW Florida.

 

[oneshot]

Good looking smoke...

With all the prep and smoking did you have any time to talk to anyone? lol

 

[pops6927]

Great looking food! Congrats on a wonderful week!

Pops §§

 

[deltadude]

Good lookin Q.

I noticed you tied your Butts, I do the same thing, I think the meat cooks more even, and prevents the real tender stuff from falling apart when you move or pickup the whole roast.

You didn't say how you liked the spritz changes?

Must have been great seeing your Sis after so long... she sure got a treat lookin at that Q!

 

[cajunsmoke13]

Great looking feast B.C. Nice job

 

[rivet]

Excellent looking q and very nice tied butts. Looked real good. Congratulations on a pair of fine meals you made. That food looked tasty all the way down here

 

[irishteabear]

Nice job! Everything looks delicious. I'm sure your sister enjoyed the food and her visit very much.

 

[planeguy]

Good looking Qview!!

 

[rld]

Hey Backcountry,
Everything looks awesome!
I'm about to try my first Boston Butt.
How long did you leave in the foil?
It looks like most remove from the heat during this step but you left yours in the smoker?
What were your times/temps?
Thanks!

 

[Dutch]

RLD- Foiling the butts and placing them back into the smoker helps to speed the cooking process without having to raise the temp of the smoker. You will see your temp on the thermo stall or even drop during the plateau. You’ll be tempted to crank up the heat to get the temps to rise again but don’t do it!

The temp plateau is the bane of long smokes with pork butts and briskets. The plateau is that long temp stall where the connective tissues in the meat break down making the meat more tender.

Foiling meat after the smoke, then wrapping it in towels and then placing the whole works into a cooler will keep the meat hot (about 3-4 hours) until you're ready to serve it.

 

[billbo]

Looks great! I love pics of a full smoker!

 

[backcountry]

Thanks for the great comments folks!

deltadude: I really enjoyed the cherry/rum spritz. I sprayed it on every 45-60 minutes or so and it made a nice coating on the butts that gave some extra flavor overall. It also seemed to keep the outside nice and moist and not too crunchy.

Regarding having time to talk to the family; I was lucky in that my sister didn't fly in until Saturday afternoon, which gave me most of the day Saturday to do all the hard or time consuming stuff.

RLD: What Dutch said

. I foiled the butts at 165 and brought them to 195-200 in the smoker. I really can't even remember how long it took them to climb. The stall was killer! They sat at 159, then moved down a bit... That was a good hour and a half too. 11 hours total smoke time, then 30 minutes rest in the cooler before I pulled them.

I forgot to mention that I tried the finishing sauce that's posted in the pork sticky section and it was nice. I added more crushed chilli peppers to it and a bit of extra cajun seasoning though. I didn't use a drop of Q sauce on my bun that night.

 

[the dude abides]

First sign of a well smoked piece of meat in my opinion.

Man all that looks fantastic. I'd love to take a trip to Canada and hang out in the woods and do some fishing. I'll trade you a week at my house in Des Moines, Iowa for a week at your cabin. LOL Not a fair trade I know.

 

[pignit]

Shweeeeeet!

 

[rld]

Thanks guys...
I've got a small (4.5 lbs) butt for my first smoke.
So basically, smoke at 240-ish till internal temp is 165, then foil till it reaches 200? Would that be a fairly fail safe method?

Thanks.

 

[pignit]

Sounds like a plan. Don't forget to add some moisture when you foil. Apple juice... beer.... etc. Whatever sounds good to ya. I cook a lot of butts without foiling and they always turn out great too. I resort to foil with the butts when it's been in the smoker longer than I want to leave it.... 10 or 12 hours.

 

[fired up]

nice looking meals there, grats on your first butt!

 

[ellymae]

Good looking grub there - bet the family enjoyed.