Does anyone have a tried timeframe for cooking a Butt by pound @250 degrees? I have a Trailmaster Limited Edition.
Thank you
Cajunman
Thank you
Cajunman
Followed this IT advice last night. Took about 11 hours to get my pork to 199-195. Foiled, toweled and then into the cooler.A butt will usually reach a "stall" around 150-160*. A stall is a point where the IT will stop rising for several hours. To keep it simple, it's a time when the heat has been absorbed and will not increase until the collagens have broken down and will begin to absorb additional heat. (That sounds good anyway. It's more complicated than that, but I don't need to know anymore.)
When a butt reaches the stall temp, I usually wrap it and add about 1/2 cup of apple juice. The wrap will help to push through the stall. The apple juice will help to maintain moisture and the acidity will help with tenderness. Take the IT to 185* for slicing or to 200-205* for pulling. When you have reached the IT that you want, take the butt out of the cooker. Wrap it in a couple of towels or a blanket and let it rest in an insulated cooler for an hour. During this time the juices will re-distribute through the meat.
As stated above, all butts are different. You should not try to stick to a certain time. times are only for scheduling. Always cook a butt by IT.
Good luck, good smokin' and enjoy, Joe
(IT is internal temperature)
Slow, I also like a good crust, and each time I wrapped, I lost a little bit of that on the finished product. So the last time I wrapped, I decided that at 190 degrees, I would unwrap it and put it back in my MES. Within the last hour or two that it took to reach 205, it barked right back up and then some.
Joe, your formula looks great. I tried a butt in the oven several years ago and can attest to the stalling around 160. After I'm guessing another 2-3 hours it started coming up again. I stopped it at about 200. I know no one here cares about cooking anything in an oven, but it was my entry into slow cooking which I now do only in my smoker. I want to try your method and maybe do two, one wrapped and the other open to see which I prefer. I like a good crust and prefer pulling.
Kit, not sure on all of this but I'll answer from my experience. If you want a strong bark formation, I would not put any liquid in the pan. I do, however, spritz my butt once an hour during the initial phase before foiling. You can find various recipes, but mine consists of 3 parts apple cider, 1 part Captain Morgans. The spritzing will help promote bark formation.I have a question. I'm about to do my first butt (about 8 pounds) in a Masterbuilt. Would it be too overpowering to the meat if I put one part water/one part apple juice in the water pan and spritz with a mixture of apple juice, cider vinegar, and water? My sauce will be a golden Carolina bbq sauce. I plan on smoking with a mixture of hickory and apple wood. And, kind of a general question for future reference, but what are everyone's thoughts about JD whiskey barrel chips? Do they go good with Boston butt? Thanks
Kit, I never spritz. I have never really thought it did any good. Also. it lets heat out of the CC. Go back to post #9 and re-read about how I put 1/2 cup of apple juice in the foil when I wrap at the stall. I believe that works much better than spritzing.