Pork Butt
Low & Slow vs Hot & Fast
Let’s talk pork. Pork, and especially pork butt, is one of the most commonly seen meat coming out of a smoker. Pork butt is, in my opinion, the most forgiving cut of meat out there. It’s really hard to mess up when smoking a butt. All a butt asks is that you cook it long enough to reach that magic number on the thermometer that will ensure that all the connective tissue and collagen has been broken down. Once that temperature has been reached and the meat probes tender, it’s practically written in stone that the resulting pulled pork will be moist and tender. Sounds simple doesn’t it?
Well there seems to be quite a difference of opinion when it comes to smoking a pork butt. A lot of members like to cook them hot and fast, while others swear by low and slow. Personally, I’ve always been a fan of low and slow. I’ve never even cooked one hot and fast. This time, since I had 2 butts approximately 10 pounds apiece to smoke, I figured I would do a comparison of the two methods—I’d cook one each way.
Miss Linda and I had company coming for supper last week and I had promised the kids pulled pork. Never having eaten a butt smoked hot and fast and not willing to chance it, the first butt would be smoked low and slow. Also on the menu would be burnt ends from the point of the packer I had previously smoked, cubed, vac packed, and frozen.
I seasoned up the butt with a healthy coating of Teddy’s Happy Hog Butt Rub, covered it with plastic wrap, and put it in the fridge for 24 hours.
The next morning at 6 o’clock, I fired up the MES 30 Gen 1 to get it preheated and went back inside to drink my morning coffee while the MES came up to 240 degrees. At 7 AM the butt went into the smoker and I filled the AMNPS with a 70/30 mix of Pecan and Hickory. Ten minutes later, when it was smoking nicely, the AMNPS went into the mailbox. Now it was simply a matter of waiting. Game on!!
The MES dropped 45 degrees when the cold butt went in, but slowly the temperature came back up to 240. For the next 9 hours, the MES held the temp at a reasonably steady 240ish degrees. The fact that I opened the door only once (to insert the Maverick meat probe) helped enormously—my MES loses heat like crazy with even a quick open and close.
Just after 5PM the butt stalled at 162 degrees, so I moved the show into the kitchen. I double wrapped the butt in foil, inserted the Mav meat probe, and put it in a preheated 250 degree oven. This time, I didn’t add any foiling liquid. The butt had enough fat and juice that I decided extra liquid simply wasn’t needed.
Finally, the Mav alarm went off--the IT had reached 205*. Total cook time was 12.25 hours, with smoke for 10 hours of the time. I probed the butt in several places. The probe just slid into the meat like it was butter.
The unwrapped butt then sat on the counter cooling for 3 hours (dinner wasn’t until the following day). The bone almost fell out—nice and clean.
While it was cooling enough to pull, I emptied the catch pan from the smoker into a bowl and put it in the fridge to chill enough that degreasing would be fairly easy.
Ten o’clock that night I pulled the pork. Man was it tender and juicy.
Our share of the PP:
All the fat from the butt went into a vac bag to be frozen and used later when I cooked up another batch of supplement to add to Roxy’s dry dog food—lucky hound!! As you can see, almost 1/3 of the butt ended up in the scrap bowl. Neither Miss Linda nor I eat any fat.
Late the next afternoon I gave the thawed chunks of brisket point a heavy coat of the same rub I had used on the butt and coated all the pieces with honey/garlic BBQ sauce. Then into the smoker at 240* for an hour and a half to carmalise. Boy did they look good!! They were fantastic.
While the vac packed pulled pork was reheating in a couple of pots of simmering water, I headed to the fridge to get the dripping out and degrease them. They weren’t there!! As it turned out, Miss Linda thought it was just a bowl of grease. She had emptied it into a Tupperware container that afternoon and put it in the freezer for Roxy.
Since my momma didn’t raise no fools, I just bit my tongue, took it out of the freezer and degreased it (a couple of hours in the freezer actually made that job easier), and nuked it to add to the pulled pork. That added tons of flavor to the PP.
Dinner that night was pulled pork on buns served with coleslaw, SoFlaQuer’s finishing sauce, Miss Linda’s homemade potato salad, homemade jalapeno pickles, and of course, burnt ends. Everything was delicious. The puled pork was moist and tender, and the burnt ends were fantastic. With 4 adults, a teenage boy, and a 6 year old girl all chowing down, I only managed to save enough pulled pork for 2 buns the next day. The burnt ends had simply disappeared before I could get a pic.
That was butt #1. Smoked low and slow. Now onto butt #2. Smoked hot and fast.
I needed to smoke up some pulled pork for a friend of mine down in Calgary. I’ve been making a hunting knife out of an old butcher knife that had belonged to my grandma. Everything was pretty much finished on the knife—except for the handle. My abilities when it comes to woodwork are, to be kind, really second rate. My friend Spencer, on the other hand, in addition to being a knife maker, is extremely talented at woodworking. So, to make a long story short, in exchange for some of my pulled pork he’s crafting and installing a handle on my knife. I figure that’s a great trade.
So another 10 pound butt came out of the freezer to thaw. I prepped it almost exactly as I had the first butt. The only difference was that I cut this one in half, making two 5 pound butts. I did this to add more flavor to the butt. I felt that butt #1 could have used more flavoring from the rub. So by cutting the butt into 2 smaller butts I had 2 more sides to cover in rub. Sadly, this is the only remaining pic from this smoke—I have absolutely no idea what my computer did with the others.
This time I preheated the MES to maximum temp, which contrary to Masterbuilt’s claim 0f 275*, was only 265*. Oh well it was closer than I expected. I used 100% hickory this time. Miss Linda prefers the milder smoke of Pecan, but then, she wouldn’t be eating this pork.
Start-up was basically the same as Butt #1. At 8AM the two 5 pound butts went into the MES with the AMNPS happily smoking away in the mailbox. 4 ½ hours later the meat stalled, this time at 159 degrees. Normally I would foil the butt when it hit the stall, but I decided to wait it out. No increase in smoker temp to help with the stall—the MES was already at maximum temperature. Finally, at 3:30 PM, the warning alarm on the Maverick went off—ITs were at 205 and 207 degrees when checked with my Instant Read Therm and both probed beautifully. So I took both butts into the kitchen and let them rest for about 3 hours before pulling. Again, the bone slid out easily and clean. After the meat was pulled, I vac sealed it in 1 pound servings and froze it all. I then mixed up and bottled a batch of SoFlaQuer’s Finishing Sauce to go with the PP.
The meat from these butts was delicious—yeah I had to do some quality control checking. The bark was harder than that on Butt #1, probably due to the higher cook temperature and not foiling at the stall.
Conclusions
Thanks for looking.
Gary
Low & Slow vs Hot & Fast
Let’s talk pork. Pork, and especially pork butt, is one of the most commonly seen meat coming out of a smoker. Pork butt is, in my opinion, the most forgiving cut of meat out there. It’s really hard to mess up when smoking a butt. All a butt asks is that you cook it long enough to reach that magic number on the thermometer that will ensure that all the connective tissue and collagen has been broken down. Once that temperature has been reached and the meat probes tender, it’s practically written in stone that the resulting pulled pork will be moist and tender. Sounds simple doesn’t it?
Well there seems to be quite a difference of opinion when it comes to smoking a pork butt. A lot of members like to cook them hot and fast, while others swear by low and slow. Personally, I’ve always been a fan of low and slow. I’ve never even cooked one hot and fast. This time, since I had 2 butts approximately 10 pounds apiece to smoke, I figured I would do a comparison of the two methods—I’d cook one each way.
Miss Linda and I had company coming for supper last week and I had promised the kids pulled pork. Never having eaten a butt smoked hot and fast and not willing to chance it, the first butt would be smoked low and slow. Also on the menu would be burnt ends from the point of the packer I had previously smoked, cubed, vac packed, and frozen.
I seasoned up the butt with a healthy coating of Teddy’s Happy Hog Butt Rub, covered it with plastic wrap, and put it in the fridge for 24 hours.
The next morning at 6 o’clock, I fired up the MES 30 Gen 1 to get it preheated and went back inside to drink my morning coffee while the MES came up to 240 degrees. At 7 AM the butt went into the smoker and I filled the AMNPS with a 70/30 mix of Pecan and Hickory. Ten minutes later, when it was smoking nicely, the AMNPS went into the mailbox. Now it was simply a matter of waiting. Game on!!
The MES dropped 45 degrees when the cold butt went in, but slowly the temperature came back up to 240. For the next 9 hours, the MES held the temp at a reasonably steady 240ish degrees. The fact that I opened the door only once (to insert the Maverick meat probe) helped enormously—my MES loses heat like crazy with even a quick open and close.
Just after 5PM the butt stalled at 162 degrees, so I moved the show into the kitchen. I double wrapped the butt in foil, inserted the Mav meat probe, and put it in a preheated 250 degree oven. This time, I didn’t add any foiling liquid. The butt had enough fat and juice that I decided extra liquid simply wasn’t needed.
Finally, the Mav alarm went off--the IT had reached 205*. Total cook time was 12.25 hours, with smoke for 10 hours of the time. I probed the butt in several places. The probe just slid into the meat like it was butter.
The unwrapped butt then sat on the counter cooling for 3 hours (dinner wasn’t until the following day). The bone almost fell out—nice and clean.
While it was cooling enough to pull, I emptied the catch pan from the smoker into a bowl and put it in the fridge to chill enough that degreasing would be fairly easy.
Ten o’clock that night I pulled the pork. Man was it tender and juicy.
Our share of the PP:
All the fat from the butt went into a vac bag to be frozen and used later when I cooked up another batch of supplement to add to Roxy’s dry dog food—lucky hound!! As you can see, almost 1/3 of the butt ended up in the scrap bowl. Neither Miss Linda nor I eat any fat.
Late the next afternoon I gave the thawed chunks of brisket point a heavy coat of the same rub I had used on the butt and coated all the pieces with honey/garlic BBQ sauce. Then into the smoker at 240* for an hour and a half to carmalise. Boy did they look good!! They were fantastic.
While the vac packed pulled pork was reheating in a couple of pots of simmering water, I headed to the fridge to get the dripping out and degrease them. They weren’t there!! As it turned out, Miss Linda thought it was just a bowl of grease. She had emptied it into a Tupperware container that afternoon and put it in the freezer for Roxy.
Dinner that night was pulled pork on buns served with coleslaw, SoFlaQuer’s finishing sauce, Miss Linda’s homemade potato salad, homemade jalapeno pickles, and of course, burnt ends. Everything was delicious. The puled pork was moist and tender, and the burnt ends were fantastic. With 4 adults, a teenage boy, and a 6 year old girl all chowing down, I only managed to save enough pulled pork for 2 buns the next day. The burnt ends had simply disappeared before I could get a pic.
That was butt #1. Smoked low and slow. Now onto butt #2. Smoked hot and fast.
I needed to smoke up some pulled pork for a friend of mine down in Calgary. I’ve been making a hunting knife out of an old butcher knife that had belonged to my grandma. Everything was pretty much finished on the knife—except for the handle. My abilities when it comes to woodwork are, to be kind, really second rate. My friend Spencer, on the other hand, in addition to being a knife maker, is extremely talented at woodworking. So, to make a long story short, in exchange for some of my pulled pork he’s crafting and installing a handle on my knife. I figure that’s a great trade.
So another 10 pound butt came out of the freezer to thaw. I prepped it almost exactly as I had the first butt. The only difference was that I cut this one in half, making two 5 pound butts. I did this to add more flavor to the butt. I felt that butt #1 could have used more flavoring from the rub. So by cutting the butt into 2 smaller butts I had 2 more sides to cover in rub. Sadly, this is the only remaining pic from this smoke—I have absolutely no idea what my computer did with the others.
This time I preheated the MES to maximum temp, which contrary to Masterbuilt’s claim 0f 275*, was only 265*. Oh well it was closer than I expected. I used 100% hickory this time. Miss Linda prefers the milder smoke of Pecan, but then, she wouldn’t be eating this pork.
Start-up was basically the same as Butt #1. At 8AM the two 5 pound butts went into the MES with the AMNPS happily smoking away in the mailbox. 4 ½ hours later the meat stalled, this time at 159 degrees. Normally I would foil the butt when it hit the stall, but I decided to wait it out. No increase in smoker temp to help with the stall—the MES was already at maximum temperature. Finally, at 3:30 PM, the warning alarm on the Maverick went off—ITs were at 205 and 207 degrees when checked with my Instant Read Therm and both probed beautifully. So I took both butts into the kitchen and let them rest for about 3 hours before pulling. Again, the bone slid out easily and clean. After the meat was pulled, I vac sealed it in 1 pound servings and froze it all. I then mixed up and bottled a batch of SoFlaQuer’s Finishing Sauce to go with the PP.
The meat from these butts was delicious—yeah I had to do some quality control checking. The bark was harder than that on Butt #1, probably due to the higher cook temperature and not foiling at the stall.
Conclusions
Both butts were very moist and tender
Butt #1 took 4 ½ hours longer to cook that Butt #2
Butt #2, because it was cut into two 5 lb pieces had more flavor from the rub and cooked faster than Butt #1 at 10 lbs—much better IMO
Both butts had about the same amount of bark, but the hotter cook temp and not foiling at the stall made the bark on Butt #2 much harder
All in all, except for time and bark, I found no difference in the pulled pork, whether it was smoked low and slow or hot and fast
Thanks for looking.
Gary
