Let it snow! Porkfest w/ Q-view!

well the ribs came off after a 2.5- 1.5- .75 method, and were fabulous, the fatties were done a lil earlier than usual(only 2 hrs) but here is a pic of them together. 1 rack mysteriously had vanished by the time the pics were taken!Butts are stuck at 165-163, 2 hr plateau.

First butt off after 10 hrs, then 2 hrs in the cooler. Looks like ...............



The second butt is 2 hrs behind, and will stay in cooler for 1 1/2 hrs. Then I can compair the difference if any of fat cap up or down. These two butts were at exactly the same temps all the way through the smoke until the plateau. The fat cap up took an extra hr in the plateau, and then took another hr longer after that to get to 200.

I do know that the one pictured above was excellent, moist, tasty, and pulled like a dream.

Yes Dude I realize that, especially since they stayed the same temps until 161-165. The difference I am looking for is tenderness, and taste, if any.

Rag, I am glad I got to it before anyone else, and thanks for trusting me /holding it until I got to see it.
It held temps just fine, we had a north wind about 5-10 mph most of the day after 10 am, I had to run to the hardware store once(25 minutes) and to meijers another time(30 mins), and she behaved nicely while I was gone. I did have an episode later in the cook, and had to start a chimney of lump to get the wood going again. I didn't open the cooker, and just worked on the fire. The lowest it dipped to was 192, but only stayed there for 10-12 minutes. The mass of metal held the temps nicely till I could recover. I think I got a stick or two of wetter wood or something.
I hope to incorporate a weed/grass burner/lighter to my arsenal by summer. This will take care of any of that again.

Still working on getting used to it, but the learning has been fun and tasty so far.

bbqchris, The later butt(13hrs) was the one that I scored the fat cap on, and cooked cap up. Like Dude said(and i agree) all meats are different. Now that being said, the later but was more tender and flavorful than the quicker one, but that could be just a different pig too. I will have to continue this experiment. I do think that with the Lang and it reverse flow/convection type of heat, that cap placement is probably not as critical as in the ECB,or less expensive horizontals on the market like my silver(charbroil). I am convinced that the scoring of the cap and packing the area with rub helped the flavor, and rendered more of the fat away. The reason I know that is by tasting it, and the foils contained different amounts of juice when I pulled each butt out for the cooler rest. The scored butt had half as much juice in the foil. The fact that the longer cooked butt(took both to 200 degrees) pulled better and had alot less connective gunk and fat inside. I came to the same conclusion last weekend with the chuck rolls.All of the meat was good and tasty, but the ones that seem to take the longest,generally seem to taste better and are more tender.IMO

Went through that whole front wood basket full of splits yesterday, had 2 sticks left.I was startin to worry, cuz the rest of my wood was way out back, under 12 inches of snow!

I hope there is some info to gain from this experiment, I think I have learned some( I always learn, but forget).Next time I do some butts, I think I will do 4-6 of them, and repeat the experiment and see what happens with that.


Happy Easter Friends!