Pork Butt Q view + questions

realtorterry said:

Id like to help but I'm unsure here? You said the average temp was 90's to 200? I assume your speaking of the butt? There shouldn't be an average? Your probe should give you an exact temp? Did you calibrate your probe?? You mention the butt temp dropping? Did you have it wrapped? Maybe a little more infor can help us out? Sure looks good!

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Oops, thanks for catching that, meant to say 190s-200.  The probe itself gave me exact temps, what I meant to say was it was an average from checking different spots (using thermapen).  From what I read (and it makes sense) since it's a large piece of meat with different compositions you won't get the exact same temp throughout, there will be some variance. So you measure at a few spots and kind of average it in your head.  The meat probe I had was just giving me one temp though- which was 194.

I did have it wrapped in foil, one towel folded at the bottom, one large beach towel folded over the top.  There was still a little empty space in the cooler, and it was only single wrapped (i've seen some other people say they wrap multiple times with foil), but with a rest time of only 30 minutes I'm not sure it would have mattered that much.

jarjarchef said:

I got nothing for you on the temp drop. You foiled and had towels around it in the cooler for only 30min, never seen that much of a temp drop.

If you cooked the entire time in dry heat with no mop it will take moisture out of the meat and the bark will be dry and chewy. Yes the bark will have a little more tug, but not too much. I cook at a bit higher temp 250-275 range, this in my humble opinion helps push through the stall and helps me keep the meat moist with less time in the smoker.

After you pulled the pork, did you add the juices from the foil back into it? You still need to add a finishing sauce to it. Most are a broth of the juices from foiling/resting, beer, rub seasoning, apple cider vinager, apple juice and just about anything else that suits your flavor profile preference. Some will add the BBQ sauce at this time, others will serve it on the side. Skim the fat from the juices before adding back into the meat.

I don't know about too much smoke at the end being an issue. I use charcole and oak branches the entire time and don't have an issue.

I have not played with injecting pork butts yet. I would think it should help. I would keep it simple.

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Thanks for the advice.  Not sure what you mean about dry heat, but if you just mean I didn't baste or foil it or anything, then yeah.  I did have a full water pan though.  I really am interested in having a drier more crispy bark, but maybe that's not possible without also having the inside meat a little drier than I like?  Might have to adjust my expectations there.  I was also purposely trying to keep the temps at that lower range of 225 because I thought the general opinion was that it would give more flavor, but the last time I did pork butts (my only other time) I was between 240-260 for most of it, and it did come out a little juicier; you might be onto something there.

Also didn't add anything to make it juicier.  I don't think there was much juice in the foil I wrapped it in, but I have definitely been interested in trying a finishing sauce.  I thought if I "did it right" that would be unnecessary, but it seems like a good way to add flavor and juiciness.  This was a practice run before a family picnic coming up next weekend, so maybe I'll try that!  Everyone is bringing food, so the focus won't really be on me...good place to try my skills :)

Went a little lighter on the salt in my rub this time because last time the bark was much too salty.  Could have been the amount of rub I put on though and not the salt content of the recipe.

Thanks bomftdrum.  I've heard people say this makes the bark too soft for their liking, and from my personal tastes I think I would be in the group that doesn't like that as much.  But the fun of outdoor cooking besides the great food is trying new things- so I shouldn't knock it till I try it :)  One of these days maybe I'll do a comparison of one foiled and one not and see what I think.