2 butt questions if I may

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prudentsmoker

Fire Starter
Original poster
Jul 20, 2013
49
10
Wichita KS
Can we agree on what temp is best? I see everywhere from 190 to 205. Does anyone trim the fat prior to smoking? There is a YouTube video where a guy swears by this and it would seem to take the rub better and there already is a lot of fat in the cut.

Thanks in advance.
 
I've started trimming the fat off the last few times and haven't noticed any changes in the taste of the meat. As far as temp I've cooked to both 195 and 200. Again no big difference for me to notice.
 
I should have said 205.
Short answer is that there are many variables that determine when a butt is "done" and no, there's no one magic temp that anyone can identify.   Cooking (for our purposes) is the application of heat over time to attain a degree of "doneness".    I can make a butt fall apart and shred at an internal temp of 160, but it takes a whole lot of time at a very low temp to do it.  Sometimes a butt will be "done" at 190, other times one might need to go to 195, or 200, or 205, etc.

Best thing to do is to just cook the butt til it's done.  Do the bone wiggle, or the probe test to it.
 
I will just add...If you are going to eat the Butt 30 minutes off the Smoker, 205° is the temp to get to. If you need to Rest more than 60 minutes, go low, 195° and let the long rest and Carryover take the Butt the rest of the way. If you go 205 and rest 2-3 hours , you will have mushy meat, at least from a Competition quality point of view...JJ
 
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