Pork butt going...... q view

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fmcowboy

Meat Mopper
Original poster
Jul 2, 2009
174
11
Trinity, Florida
Well I decided to do some pulled pork this morning, got a late start but that's ok, gonna use it tomorrow. It's only a 4.5 lb bone in, but it's been smoking since 10:30am (10 hrs, and has had 2 stalls and still in a late stall at 167 degrees, I still have 28 degrees to go. Uggggg. Anyway, like the many before me, I will wait it out LOL. I injected, rubbed, and am mopping. I decided to try fat cap down as I have read. I have previosuly doen fat cap up. I am also not foiling as I haven't done that before anyway. I like the good bark. I'll post whenever this bad boy gets done.
 
At least you know once this final stall is over with you will be in the home stretch.
I tried no foiling once and it worked out great for bark and flavor, only thing I missed was the juices you get from foiling.
Good luck with the fat cap down, I'll be looking forward to your review on how it all went.
 
Good luck with it. Long stalls seem to mean tender juicy meat, so it'll be worth it.

By the way, that doesn't look like a butt to me. It looks like a shoulder.
 
Good looking hunk of meat. The stalls are always a bummer, but eventually they get over it.
 
Ok so it's 12 hours later. It's at 177 degrees and I'm getting tired. I wanted to pull it out at 195 but that may still be a while. Let's say I get there but do not want to stay up longer to let it rest and then pull it. How long can I leave it if I double foil, wrap in towels and put in a cooler? Will it keep from liek midnight to 8 or 9am and then be ready to pull? Or what are my options?
 
I'm not a professional meat man but I would think it would be O.K. I've let them set for over 2 hrs before and still too hot to handle. Hopefully someone with more experience will give some advice also.
 
My Wife thinks it didn't STALL it quit LOL. This is nuts 12.5 hrs for a 4.5 lb pork butt and still at only 177 degrees. It's not supposed to take 3+ hrs per pound for such a small piece of meat. My temp has been around 225 the whole day. I kicked it up to 250 a bit ago to help.
 
I would think that maybe you might want to check the thermometer you are using or maybe just finish in the Oven...
 
Ditto. 210' and go to bed.
 
Ok. I was pulling pork at 1:30am but got it done. Here is the rest of the Q view and my feedback so far.

Mr Brown:



The bone came out clean!!


the first few pulls


so my observations & feedback.

This little 4.5 lb butt took 13hours and I still pulled it out 10 degrees early (at 185, wanted 195). Had a GREAT bark. Seemed to taste pretty good as I nibbled and pulled LOL.

I cooked it fat cap down for the first time as I have read a lot of competition BBQ does this. I did notice it seems a little dry. Could be due to the long drawn out smoke. I did have a water pan & mop/spray, so who knows. There seemed to be a lot of tissue in half of the roast that I had to pull off, the meat behind this was done but not as easy to pull. I did notice when I stuck it in the smoker it probably wasn't fully defrosted in the center as the probe read 33 degress, not sure if this had anything to do with it.

We'll eat it for lunch today and will let you knoe how it goes. Again, tasted pretty good though from what I could tell at 1 am. LOL

FM

PS: whats the best way to reheat and infuse some juiciness at the same time?
 
WOW, 13 hours for that small of a butt. Are you sure your temps were right? Never had a small shoulder or butt take that long.

I would have to guess the dryness was the length of time on the smoker.
 
I think that explains both problems; both the dryness and the long smoke time. Apparently you'd had it previously frozen and thawed it out, but it wasn't at or near room temperature when you started the smoke. Plus, freezing and thawing ruptures cell walls and allows moisture to leak out, causing the dryness. Plus, if it was lean there would have been less marbling and less breakup of tissue, also.
 
I had 2 probes and they were both right.l Maybe a lousyt cut of meat, who knows. Tasted good and only a section was dry, but not like bone dry, just not as juicy as some others. I will probably go back to fat cap up. Though some say to remove the all of the fat. so who knows. LOL
 
ok, the Mrs and I just heated a small sampling of the pulled pork and loet me tell you, it was moist and delicious. The mrs said it was my best, so go figure. It just needed a good rest. Oh, those were her opinions, and mine. Well I agree with her, it is really good. The flavor was great so I think I now have my recipe locked as I made up concoctions for the mop, rub, and injection. I may cook differently next time but flavoring I will keep for sure. Man I'm tired :)
 
Yea the resting time is very important. I know and found out myself with the chuckie I did yesterday and it came out juicy and then dried out later but with pulle pork you have the option to add a finishng sauce. But I looks great and that stalls could hev broken any of us but Good Job hanging in there for the finish.
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My last two smoke's, wreck'd me for a good week !
Awesome job stick'in it out, enjoy
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