- Nov 15, 2012
- 1,025
- 107
Hi everyone,
Thank you to everyone that has been offering me advice on smoke quality in general, and smoking pork butts in particular. A big thank you to smokinjoe52, who is probably owed a retainer fee for all the PM questions he has answered. Yesterday I smoked a 4 lb boneless pork butt (that is what I had in my freezer). I'm serving the pulled pork tonight for dinner with a few guests.
My husband isn't a huge fan of smoke or rubs, so I kept this simple by just salt & peppering the pork butt, and sticking it into my ST set at 225 deg F using an AMNPS with apple pellets for smoke generation.
I placed the pork butt in an aluminum foil tray to hold in the juice, but I've since learned that most people would place the butt directly on a smoker rack to improve smoke contact. I'll try that next time. I didn't stick in the meat temperature probe at this point, because I was only going to apply smoke for a few hours before wrapping the butt (to keep the smoke taste light for my husband), so figured I'd stick in the probe after wrapping. ST chamber temperature staying between 210 - 270 deg F.
I started the butt at 9 a.m. After 3 hours of applying smoke.....
OK, so at 12 noon I wrapped the butt in aluminum foil and stuck in a temperature probe to cook until IT reached 200 deg F. IT was 110 deg F.
By 3 p.m. the IT was at 160 deg F. My husband and I went for a walk. We came back an hour later. IT was up to 169 deg F. I am intoning serenely it will take what it takes....this is why I started a day early.
At 5 p.m.....I am still being serene and patient but oh my dear god, IT is only 171 deg F. I am reminding myself, it will take what it takes.
At 6 p.m.....Struggling to hold on to serenity and patience but for f - - ks sake, IT is 173 deg F. Is this butt defective? Breathe, breathe. Bottle of wine opened and half the bottle kicked back.
6:30 p.m....Serenity and patience (and sobriety) gone. IT 174 deg F. Butt pulled from the smoker and put in the oven at 275 deg F.
7:30 p.m.....IT of 200 deg F. Yeah baby! Butt pulled from the oven and allowed to rest for 1 hour.
Here is what the butt looked like after shredding it with 2 forks. Smoke taste is clean with no discernible creosote flavor. Much more tender than my first pork butt which I only took to 190 deg F.
Shredded pork butt was mixed with the defatted juice, and put in the refrigerator for the night. I'll heat it up for dinner tonight on low heat on the stove. The rest of the dinner menu is:
chile & chorizo cornbread (with homemade chorizo!)
kale sauteed with onions, coconut milk, and bacon (with homemade bacon!)
roasted acorn squash
Paula Deen's Not Yo' Mama's banana pudding
So what did I learn?
- Until I get this process nailed down, smoke the butt a day ahead.
- Stick in the meat temp probe from the get-go.....I think the butt must have still been frozen in the center when I put it in the smoker. I'm not entirely sure I made it from 40 to 140 deg in 4 hours in the center of the butt, but hope this isn't a problem as the IT was subsequently brought up to 200 deg.
- I had forgotten to put in the drip pan underneath the ST. Maybe my chamber temps were colder at the front of the box? It was 32 degrees outside for most of the day.
- The AMNPS works beautifully for generating TBS at hot smoking temps. But 3 hours of smoke is plenty for my husband.
- Um, next time I'll probably finish the pork butt in the oven after I am done with applying smoke. But I'll set the oven to 250 deg F, not 275 deg F.
Although this wasn't the smooth and worry-free smoking experience I had hoped it would be, I did learn a lot and also produced pulled pork which is tasty and I'm not too ashamed to serve to guests. And anyway, the guests are just long-time neighbors who see me outside the house in my bathrobe, so it's not like I have a reputation to uphold.
Thanks for reading!
Clarissa
Thank you to everyone that has been offering me advice on smoke quality in general, and smoking pork butts in particular. A big thank you to smokinjoe52, who is probably owed a retainer fee for all the PM questions he has answered. Yesterday I smoked a 4 lb boneless pork butt (that is what I had in my freezer). I'm serving the pulled pork tonight for dinner with a few guests.
My husband isn't a huge fan of smoke or rubs, so I kept this simple by just salt & peppering the pork butt, and sticking it into my ST set at 225 deg F using an AMNPS with apple pellets for smoke generation.
I placed the pork butt in an aluminum foil tray to hold in the juice, but I've since learned that most people would place the butt directly on a smoker rack to improve smoke contact. I'll try that next time. I didn't stick in the meat temperature probe at this point, because I was only going to apply smoke for a few hours before wrapping the butt (to keep the smoke taste light for my husband), so figured I'd stick in the probe after wrapping. ST chamber temperature staying between 210 - 270 deg F.
I started the butt at 9 a.m. After 3 hours of applying smoke.....
OK, so at 12 noon I wrapped the butt in aluminum foil and stuck in a temperature probe to cook until IT reached 200 deg F. IT was 110 deg F.
By 3 p.m. the IT was at 160 deg F. My husband and I went for a walk. We came back an hour later. IT was up to 169 deg F. I am intoning serenely it will take what it takes....this is why I started a day early.
At 5 p.m.....I am still being serene and patient but oh my dear god, IT is only 171 deg F. I am reminding myself, it will take what it takes.
At 6 p.m.....Struggling to hold on to serenity and patience but for f - - ks sake, IT is 173 deg F. Is this butt defective? Breathe, breathe. Bottle of wine opened and half the bottle kicked back.
6:30 p.m....Serenity and patience (and sobriety) gone. IT 174 deg F. Butt pulled from the smoker and put in the oven at 275 deg F.
7:30 p.m.....IT of 200 deg F. Yeah baby! Butt pulled from the oven and allowed to rest for 1 hour.
Here is what the butt looked like after shredding it with 2 forks. Smoke taste is clean with no discernible creosote flavor. Much more tender than my first pork butt which I only took to 190 deg F.
Shredded pork butt was mixed with the defatted juice, and put in the refrigerator for the night. I'll heat it up for dinner tonight on low heat on the stove. The rest of the dinner menu is:
chile & chorizo cornbread (with homemade chorizo!)
kale sauteed with onions, coconut milk, and bacon (with homemade bacon!)
roasted acorn squash
Paula Deen's Not Yo' Mama's banana pudding
So what did I learn?
- Until I get this process nailed down, smoke the butt a day ahead.
- Stick in the meat temp probe from the get-go.....I think the butt must have still been frozen in the center when I put it in the smoker. I'm not entirely sure I made it from 40 to 140 deg in 4 hours in the center of the butt, but hope this isn't a problem as the IT was subsequently brought up to 200 deg.
- I had forgotten to put in the drip pan underneath the ST. Maybe my chamber temps were colder at the front of the box? It was 32 degrees outside for most of the day.
- The AMNPS works beautifully for generating TBS at hot smoking temps. But 3 hours of smoke is plenty for my husband.
- Um, next time I'll probably finish the pork butt in the oven after I am done with applying smoke. But I'll set the oven to 250 deg F, not 275 deg F.
Although this wasn't the smooth and worry-free smoking experience I had hoped it would be, I did learn a lot and also produced pulled pork which is tasty and I'm not too ashamed to serve to guests. And anyway, the guests are just long-time neighbors who see me outside the house in my bathrobe, so it's not like I have a reputation to uphold.
Thanks for reading!
Clarissa
