New Years Boston Butt

What was the total cook time on your Boston Butt?

I've done an improvised smoke in a gas grill while on vacation with my family and I wasn't able to run at 225 to 250 like I do in my smoker. The butt got up to temp (190+) but a lot faster than it should have (~6 hours). What happens if the heat is too high as it was for me is that the meat gets hot, but the denaturation of collagen and connective tissues that allow the meat to fall apart and be super tender doesn't have enough time to happen so you get a hot, but still tough butt that won't pull well.

A smoked bone in butt takes me 12-18 hours on my smoker and is amazingly tender and tasty. I find it's hard to get the same results with anything must faster than this.

Based on my experience with smoking butts in a smoker I'd say that a 4.5lb butt cooked at 225 or so that goes through its normal stall should take longer than 6.5 hours. Most of mine take 12 or so. I had an experience very similar to what you are describing when I tried to smoke a butt on a grill while on vacation for my family (at Big Bass Lake in PA not too far from you!). I got good smoker flavor, but just couldn't keep the heat low enough and indirect enough and it got to temp in about 5.5 hours.

What was the grill temp according to the Maverick?

My gut tells me that the meat was not the issue. It's not very intuitive, but just getting the temp up to 190 does not guarantee a tender butt that will pull apart into classic pulled pork. There are some internal processes that have to happen with the connective tissues in the meat and only time will allow them to happen.

One way to think about it, using an extreme case, is that if you put a pulled pork into a 500 degree oven, smoker, grill, etc and left it there till you got an internal temp of 190+ you would not get tender pulled pork. You'd get something similar to the sole of a shoe, but you'd get it in and hour or two.

I hope this is helpful... 

Best to you, Bill