First attempt at a boston butt

[jleeman]

Well, here are a few shots of my first attempt at a boston butt. Being 9.5 lbs, I thought it could take up to 18 hrs, so I started it last night around midnight at 225 F. I watched it close for the first few hours and sprayed with apple juice every hour. Placed in pan at 3 hrs in. The time change last night kinda screwed me up.

Woke up at 830a and it was already reading 180 F This surprised me since it was a larger cut, but it eventually stalled at this temp for several hours and finally hit 195 F around 12:30 pm. Just over 11 hours...slightly earlier than I expected.  Planning to test my probe setup before my next smoke and attempt to reach 205 F

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• jleeman
• Mar 9, 2014

Covered and placed into a cooler with foil and towels for about an hour while I ran a quick errand (beer run).  

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• jleeman
• Mar 9, 2014

Started pulling around 2:00pm

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• jleeman
• Mar 9, 2014

For fun I tried the kitchen aid stand mixer with the dough attachment for mixing and a few finer strands. Worked pretty well

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• jleeman
• Mar 9, 2014

Post mixer

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• jleeman
• Mar 9, 2014

Warmed up about half the jus in a saucepan after scraping the fat from the top. Poured a little onto the pulled goodness and topped with a splash of Arthur Bryant's sweet heat. Delicious!

Thanks to all those who post advice on this site. Very helpful!

 

[so ms smoker]

 LOOKING GOOD! Glad the first one came out great!

   Mike

 

[foamheart]

Sweet looking butt. I try never to cook by the clock, the meat will wait till its the worst possible time to prove it does not tell time. LOL I have some hamburger buns, swap ya for some pork!

 

[leah elisheva]

Hey that looks moist and wonderful! Great job! Cheers! - Leah

 

[va_connoisseur]

Looks good. Welcome to the addiction that is bbq. LOL. And using a stand mixer to shred pork? Well played my friend. Well played.

If you're worried about the accuracy of your probe, do a boiling water test. (Get a pot of water to a rolling boil, insert probe. Should read ~212.)

 

[hambone1950]

I would always advise someone to make pulled pork as their first cook in a new smoker. It really proves to the novice that they can make great authentic BBQ. Nice job , I bet that was tasty.

 

[johnnyb99]

that definitely looks tastey!  Looks like your first attempt was a success.  Did you freeze some for later, or was it too delicious not to eat all at once?

 

[jleeman]

 
Sweet looking butt. I try never to cook by the clock, the meat will wait till its the worst possible time to prove it does not tell time. LOL I have some hamburger buns, swap ya for some pork!

We ended up using slices of toasted sweet Hawaiian bread and piled the pork high!   But i'm always up for some bartering

 

[jleeman]

 
that definitely looks tastey!  Looks like your first attempt was a success.  Did you freeze some for later, or was it too delicious not to eat all at once?

Even after handing a pound over the fence to my neighbor, we still ended up with three quart size freezer bags, roughly three pounds. Plenty leftover for a few new creations!

 

[gaffney982]

I would always advise someone to make pulled pork as their first cook in a new smoker. It really proves to the novice that they can make great authentic BBQ. Nice job , I bet that was tasty.

That's exactly what I'm doing Hambone! I just picked up a Landmann 34" gas smoker and for my first attempt at smoking, I'm doing a 6.5LB boston butt which I started this morning @ 7am! Hopefully it turns out as delicious looking as our friend jleeman's pulled pork :-)

 

[james1nc]

Great job complete success