Charcoal approach for 10-hour pork butt cook at 270 in WSM with Flame Boss

[ttcbj]

I just got my WSM, plus a Flame Boss, and I am doing a test-cook today with no meat. I am using a cook plan for a pork butt that I got from masterclass/franklin bbq, which is what started me on this whole adventure. It calls for 270 for 8 hours, then wrap the pork butt, then 270 for one hour and 295 for the final hour.

I started by putting just a single chimney full of coals in. It spiked to 350 for a while, then came down, then held 270 for about 2.5 hours before starting to tail off. So, i put another chimney in through the side panel, spread it out, and it spiked again to about 350, then after maybe 20 minutes it got back down to a steady state 270.

My questions are:
1. Should I try the minion method for a 10 hour cook at 270? This refueling with spikes seems both sub-optimal and time consuming.
2. But, will the minion method go to 270, then 295 at the end?
3. Or, is the whole idea of doing 270 for 10 hours in a WSM flawed? I liked it because it allowed me to cook in a single day. But the Masterclass used an offset smoker, maybe the WSM isn't well-suited for this temperature/duration combination?

Any feedback is appreciated.

 

[noboundaries]

My 22.5" WSM can cruise for hours and hours at a variety of my desired temps. 20 hours with no additional charcoal is easily doable whether using a fan or not.

Each WSM owner has their own process developed with experience. The charcoal used can impact chamber temp, fuel duration, and taste. How you load your wood can also impact flavor. Higher temps with water in the water pan are problematic due to the physics of water and heat. A LOT of the experienced WSM'ers dry smoke.

So, to answer your basic questions.
1. Minion works fine as long as you load enough cold charcoal to last for the duration desired. You can always reuse leftover charcoal.
2. Don't use water if shooting for a 270F then 295F temp profile. Water is a heat sink that changes state at 212F. It will keep the chamber temp low while consuming more fuel.

There's actually not much difference between a 270F and a 295F chamber as far as smoking is concerned. Smoking/cooking is a result of heat transfer to a colder piece of meat, that's why meat temps rise so fast initially until the stall occurs. The greater the difference in temp between the meat and the chamber, the faster the heat transfer. 25F won't increase the transfer that much. I set my vents for 225F overnight, then open them to crank the heat up (heat/air/fuel fire triangle) to 300+ in the morning to finish in 2-4 hours.
3. 270F in a single day is fine. So is 300F, 325F, etc. I used to do two or three 10 lb pork butts in 9 hours by running the WSM at 325F+.

A WSM, even with a Flame Boss, is not an oven; it's close, but not perfect. And if I can give you one piece of advice it would be to not chase temps when you first load cold meat. A 270F fire is still burning at 270F chamber, but the cold meat is absorbing available heat. As the meat warms, the chamber temp will rise.

Have fun smoking that butt!

 

[ttcbj]

My 22.5" WSM can cruise for hours and hours at a variety of my desired temps. 20 hours with no additional charcoal is easily doable whether using a fan or not.
...

Thanks a lot for this very helpful advice.

• That makes sense about the water.
• I think I will try a minion method/no-water approach for the real cook on Thursday, with a large amount of cold coals in the container and then maybe 20 hot coals on top to start.
• Its good to know that the pork butt is more flexible on heat than I imagined (e.g. your mention of going 9 hours at 325).
• Its helpful to know that I should be able to get 270 with the minion method if I start with enough coal and ditch the water.

Thanks again for your help. I will post on this thread to say how Thursday's real cook goes.

 

[noboundaries]

Looking forward to it!

 

[ttcbj]

The cook came out super well, thanks very much for your help! Here were my notes from the cook:

Pork Butt Cook Notes: October 1

This was an attempt to reproduce the Franklin BBQ pork butt cook from masterclass.

5 lb bone-in pork butt, outdoor temp 50 degrees at start, 65 degree high, clear with little wind
Slather was mustard, rub was about 30% salt, 60% pepper, 10% paprika.

5:45am: Woke
6:00am: Lit Chimney with 30 coals
6:05am: Meat Seasoned
6:10am: Poured coals on nearly full coal disk in WSM, no water in water pan
6:25am: Closed vents at 250 degrees
6:40am: Meat on at 275 degrees, pit dropped to 222 after, but recovered quickly
9:40am: First opened top and spritzed with cool apple cider vinegar, spritzed hourly after that
2:40pm: Took off smoker to wrap, meat was at 194 degrees
3:40pm: Pulled at internal temp of 205 degrees, found some internal temps at 203 degrees, but near edges at 209 degrees, brought in wrapped in a towel to rest
5:05pm: Unwrapped, and served

Total cook time was 9 hours. Plan had called for 10, with the last hour at 295, but that proved unnecessary.

Result: Meat was delicious and the family loved it. It was a huge success and a lot of fun, especially for a first ever cook.

That said, if I learned anything:

• The minion method was great, grill was still going strong at 3:40pm. Given that, I might put the meat on a little later. The smokey flavor was good, but I’d like to give the smoke more time to clear next time.
• The outside edges of the but were slightly dry. Not a disaster, but not as extremely juicy as the inside. I’d like to try pulling it earlier (I wish I had pulled it at like 201 maybe?). I’d also like to try using a lower temperature and longer cook overall if that does not work.
• I did not wrap the water pan in foil as suggested on TVWB site. I wish I had, because the fat coming out of the pork butt makes a real mess.
• Overall, cooking a pork butt has a feel similar to thanksgiving. Myself and the family were anticipating it all day, I was nervous about how its going to come out, and when it came out well it was super fun. Also, by the afternoon, and during the indoor resting period, it smelled spectacular.