I'll start this off by saying that I've only been smoking for a few months now and the only thing I have smoked so far has been ribs and pork chops. I finally had a free Saturday to do a boston butt and this Saturday couldn't have been any better. The weather was perfect and the beer was cold.
During my preparations for the smoke I decided to buy Jeff's rub and sauce recipes. If I'd known that his sauce recipe was going to be that good then I would have bought it a long time ago. It is unbelievable!! The rub was good as well, but I didn't get a lot of the flavor in the butt. I'm not sure what happened, my guess is because the butt was so fatty that I had to remove a lot of the outside that contained the rub. I purchased the rub at a place we have called the Food Outlet. It's a discount place and the meats there are really cheap. This butt was 7.30 lbs and I paid $11 for it. I won't get another one from there because it was too fatty for me. Live and learn.
I was using hickory chunks with apple chips and I was able to keep a constant temp of 225-235. I smoked the butt until it reached 160 degrees which took about 6 hours. I made a few mistakes, at least I feel like they were mistakes. The first mistake was that I cooked the butt in an aluminum pan instead of directly on the grate. The 2nd mistake was that I let it get to 160 in the smoker before wrapping it up. After I wrapped it up I put it in the oven and let it cook at 250 degrees for another 4-5 hours. It was very tender meat and has a good flavor to it, but I think I can do better next time. Enjoy some pictures below and if anyone has any advice, please share.
I added a liberal amount of rub to the butt and got my smoker ready.
This was after it reached 160 degrees which was about 6 hours.
This is after it came out of the oven. The final temp was 196 degrees. I had a hungry wife so I took it out before the 205 degree mark which is what I was shooting for.
I pulled all the meat and it was very juicy and tender. Most of the fat was removed, but there were still some small pieces scattered throughout.
Overall, it was a success. I can't wait to do another one because I know there were some things that I would do differently.
During my preparations for the smoke I decided to buy Jeff's rub and sauce recipes. If I'd known that his sauce recipe was going to be that good then I would have bought it a long time ago. It is unbelievable!! The rub was good as well, but I didn't get a lot of the flavor in the butt. I'm not sure what happened, my guess is because the butt was so fatty that I had to remove a lot of the outside that contained the rub. I purchased the rub at a place we have called the Food Outlet. It's a discount place and the meats there are really cheap. This butt was 7.30 lbs and I paid $11 for it. I won't get another one from there because it was too fatty for me. Live and learn.
I was using hickory chunks with apple chips and I was able to keep a constant temp of 225-235. I smoked the butt until it reached 160 degrees which took about 6 hours. I made a few mistakes, at least I feel like they were mistakes. The first mistake was that I cooked the butt in an aluminum pan instead of directly on the grate. The 2nd mistake was that I let it get to 160 in the smoker before wrapping it up. After I wrapped it up I put it in the oven and let it cook at 250 degrees for another 4-5 hours. It was very tender meat and has a good flavor to it, but I think I can do better next time. Enjoy some pictures below and if anyone has any advice, please share.
Overall, it was a success. I can't wait to do another one because I know there were some things that I would do differently.
