First Pork Butt

[Rafter H BBQ]

Nice cook, that looks tasty! WSM is a great smoker.

 

[sandyut]

Hey Pookiebear:
not to steer you off SMF by any measure - that is the best group of people ever! but, this site is all WSM - http://www.virtualweberbullet.com/ I used it a lot for WSM specific info/use etc. before I found this SMF.

if your WSM tends to leak smoke (mine did through the side door like crazy). some people put the gasket on the lid and bottom seam as well. you can get gasket kits that work real good. another mod I loved was the hinged lid.

this site has all that and more; https://bbqgaskets.com/kits-by-brand/weber.html

 

[SecondHandSmoker]

thats the best way through a stall, never see it!

Yep. Especially for those of us who don't wrap.

 

[JAEBR29]

Did you foil once the stall hit? Since it took 11 hrs I’m guessing not. I like the foil it keeps me from over smoking plus I not dying of starvation waiting for the 205f+ temps for easy pulling, but looks to be a success none the less

Great looking pork! It took me hours longer on my first too (I'm also a newb). I foiled at 165...so after the stall on my smoke, but from reading this you want to foil during the stall to speed it up? Out of curiosity how much time (range) can that cut out?

 

[sandyut]

interesting - I have never wrapped a pork butt...only briskets (flats only so far - full packer is next)

 

[PoukieBear]

Hey Pookiebear:
not to steer you off SMF by any measure - that is the best group of people ever! but, this site is all WSM - http://www.virtualweberbullet.com/ I used it a lot for WSM specific info/use etc. before I found this SMF.

if your WSM tends to leak smoke (mine did through the side door like crazy). some people put the gasket on the lid and bottom seam as well. you can get gasket kits that work real good. another mod I loved was the hinged lid.

this site has all that and more; https://bbqgaskets.com/kits-by-brand/weber.html

Awesome, thanks for the extra info!

My WSM is pretty good, I don't really notice a lot of smoke escaping the cracks, but I do want to upgrade to the Cajun Bandit door and lid hinge. Except they don't ship to Canada, and I can't find anywhere that sells them in store.

 

[sandyut]

these guys ship world wide https://bbqgaskets.com/shipping
Shipping & Handling:

We ship WORLDWIDE via USPS and FedEx and LTL.

I think all the door hinges are the same - i looked at a few they all seemed the same to me...

 

[jcam222]

I am proud of your butt too!! That pork looks good as well :) sorry couldnt resist.

 

[JJS]

Looks good. Nice job on your first butt.

I prefer to put them on overnight and let the inkbird keep watch.

What’s next on the list besides perfection of the pork butt?

 

[PoukieBear]

Looks good. Nice job on your first butt.

I prefer to put them on overnight and let the inkbird keep watch.

What’s next on the list besides perfection of the pork butt?

I'll be doing chicken wings tomorrow night for my mom and husband.

 

[tallbm]

Thanks! I had read about over smoking meat, so I was careful and tried to avoid that. I used 4 fist size chunks and a few smaller pieces that were in the bag.

I cooked it on my new WSM, so still trying to learn how to control the temp. I had it perfectly set at 225 for a couple of hours, then the wind picked up and the temp spiked. It took a while for it to come back down after I had closed off the dampers a bit.



The bark was amazing! There was definitely a fight over the leftovers...which I lost. LOL.

It took a lot longer to cook than I thought it would. I was expecting about 8 hours, but it ended up being 11 hours before I pulled it. I still would have liked to let it go longer (It wasn't at 200-205 yet) but my brother was visiting with his 4 young children and it was getting late and too close to bedtime.

Oh well, live and learn!!

Nice job!

For a pork butt you don't worry too much about heat spikes and such. Pork butts and briskets don't care about the spikes or for what temp you choose to smoke at, just worry about flare ups burning out of control and burning your meat up.

If you smoke an unwrapped pork butt or a brisket at a smoker temp of 275F then they will take about an hour a pound (usually just a little over an hour).
Armed with this info you can now plan your smokes to finish about 4-5 hours early. When you finish that early you just double wrap in foil, wrap in 3 bath towels, and set on the counter until time to eat. It will be piping hot and ready to pull apart 4-5 hours later and this way you are never late or waiting to eat :)

Finally, I'm a huge fan of unwrapped. You won't get anything near the bark you just produced if you wrap. Feel free to try all the various of wrapped/unwrapped but I encourage you to not let cooking time determine whether you wrap or not and let your flavor preferences determine that for you.

I hope this info helps! :)