First time smoking pork then finishing in the oven

[JustinLoos]

Cook: cook the day before a party. Rewarm on the day of the party.

Prep: score fat layer on top to creat diamonds

Dry rub: salt and pepper (1/2 and 1/2) add paprika for color

Cook fat side up, and drip pan underneath

Cook temp: 250 and water pan

Wood: oak

Total Cook time: 10-12 hours

Cooked uncovered for 3 hours, (don’t open). At 3 hours check bark and fat tenderness every 30 min (spritz with apple cider vinegar too). Aim at the sides, don’t cool the fat on top.

When to wrap: Look for when the fat splits. The fat no longer bounces, it becomes sticky and can be pushed through. When all the above occurs, wrap it. Prolly around 165-170. I ended up wrapping at 6 hours.


Double layer wrap in AL foil, put in foil pan on tray in the oven at 225.

Done around 200-210, scapula should move easily. Probe goes in like butter.

Rest: at least 1 hour.

Pull it, place in aluminum foil pans, add drippings, cover, refrigerate.

——————————————————

Reheat (this needs to be worked on)

Oven 275, 1/2 inch apple sauce and the drippings from the cook day, 45 mins. Then turn down to 190. Stay at 190 all day long. At two hours it wasn’t warm enough to eat yet. I’ll need to adjust reheating directions.

 

[schlotz]

Looks like it turned out real good! Butts are about the most forgiving meat and you can smoke them at any temp 200-300º. Personally we do ours at 250º but don't bother spritzing since they have plenty of fat to maintain moisture. Oven is a good choice if you have a limited time schedule. After 6 hours in the smoker it will have plenty of smoke and should be around 160º, pop it in the oven (wrapped) at 300º and it will finish in ~3 hours. (IT 203-205º)

 

[JLinza]

Looks like it turned out great

 

[JustinLoos]

Looks like it turned out real good! Butts are about the most forgiving meat and you can smoke them at any temp 200-300º. Personally we do ours at 250º but don't bother spritzing since they have plenty of fat to maintain moisture. Oven is a good choice if you have a limited time schedule. After 6 hours in the smoker it will have plenty of smoke and should be around 160º, pop it in the oven (wrapped) at 300º and it will finish in ~3 hours. (IT 203-205º)

Thanks for the reply. I read to spritz the edges so they don’t get dry. Thank for your recommendations!

 

[JLeonard]

Looks good to me!

Jim

 

[Brokenhandle]

Looks good to me as well!

Ryan

 

[Redicans]

Looks Great! You got some beautiful color on those!

 

[Newglide]

Those look great.
I did the same thing last weekend.
Like already said butts are very forgiving.
When I wrap I put the butt in a foil pan with about 1/2 inch of apple cider then foil over the top and seal it up good then put it in the oven to finish it off.
Once it's done I pull the edges of the foil to let it cool. I will then dump the juices in a container and stick it in the freezer for a bit.
The fat will float to the top and get hard. Once the fat is hard I pull it out of the freezer and pull the fat off the top and mix the juices in when I start to pull apart the butt.

To reheat, I pulled mine the day I cooked it and had the pulled pork in foil pans covered in aluminum foil, then I put it in the oven at 350 for about an hour. I stirred it every so often. Was just as good as when I cooked it.

 

[tbrtt1]

Looks real purdy to me. Love the color.

I just did one last weekend and posted it belatedly on Tues. You may not have the option, depending on your smoker, but I do mine overnight. Sleep while you smoke.

Reheating can be a bit tricky sometimes. Most ovens vary with temps and aren’t always what they read or what you set it at. Plus the temps swing up and down as most aren’t digitally controlled. I’m of the mindset to reheat it at a low temp and allow for extra time.

 

[texomakid]

Real BBQ right there. They look amazing

 

[JustinLoos]

Those look great.
I did the same thing last weekend.
Like already said butts are very forgiving.
When I wrap I put the butt in a foil pan with about 1/2 inch of apple cider then foil over the top and seal it up good then put it in the oven to finish it off.
Once it's done I pull the edges of the foil to let it cool. I will then dump the juices in a container and stick it in the freezer for a bit.
The fat will float to the top and get hard. Once the fat is hard I pull it out of the freezer and pull the fat off the top and mix the juices in when I start to pull apart the butt.

To reheat, I pulled mine the day I cooked it and had the pulled pork in foil pans covered in aluminum foil, then I put it in the oven at 350 for about an hour. I stirred it every so often. Was just as good as when I cooked it.

Thanks for the reply. I’ll have to try that rewarming technique.

So before you move the butt to the oven you wrap it and set it in the 1/2 inch of apple juice? What’s the reason for adding the apple juice then? Isn’t the oven simply heating the juice. The pork is wrapped at this point.

 

[JustinLoos]

Looks real purdy to me. Love the color.

I just did one last weekend and posted it belatedly on Tues. You may not have the option, depending on your smoker, but I do mine overnight. Sleep while you smoke.

Reheating can be a bit tricky sometimes. Most ovens vary with temps and aren’t always what they read or what you set it at. Plus the temps swing up and down as most aren’t digitally controlled. I’m of the mindset to reheat it at a low temp and allow for extra time.

Can’t do that with mine. I use an offset smoker that I stoke with wood every 30-45 min.

My oven runs hot by about 25 degrees, so I take that into account when setting the cook temperature. I have 2 young kids so I need to figure out a way to enjoy my hobby while also being present in there lives on a cook day. Thus, I arrived to the smoking then oven technique.

 

[tallbm]

Cook: cook the day before a party. Rewarm on the day of the party.

Prep: score fat layer on top to creat diamonds

Dry rub: salt and pepper (1/2 and 1/2) add paprika for color

Cook fat side up, and drip pan underneath

Cook temp: 250 and water pan

Wood: oak

Total Cook time: 10-12 hours

Cooked uncovered for 3 hours, (don’t open). At 3 hours check bark and fat tenderness every 30 min (spritz with apple cider vinegar too). Aim at the sides, don’t cool the fat on top.

When to wrap: Look for when the fat splits. The fat no longer bounces, it becomes sticky and can be pushed through. When all the above occurs, wrap it. Prolly around 165-170. I ended up wrapping at 6 hours.


Double layer wrap in AL foil, put in foil pan on tray in the oven at 225.

Done around 200-210, scapula should move easily. Probe goes in like butter.

Rest: at least 1 hour.

Pull it, place in aluminum foil pans, add drippings, cover, refrigerate.

——————————————————

Reheat (this needs to be worked on)

Oven 275, 1/2 inch apple sauce and the drippings from the cook day, 45 mins. Then turn down to 190. Stay at 190 all day long. At two hours it wasn’t warm enough to eat yet. I’ll need to adjust reheating directions.

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Hi there and welcome!

That is a good looking pork butt!

As for the reheat. From cold and wrapped in foil, I have notes for my whole pork butt hams I've been doing for the holidays. I smoke them and then reheat a few days later the day of eating.
My notes say put into an oven at 350F and in 2 hours (usually less) they will be hot to serve but not overly reheated.
Feel free to test this out on your reheat step in the oven the next day with a cold pork butt and you may want to lower your holding temp more to 170F. At 190F you very much can/will continue breaking down the collagen and end up with over cooked dry meat after it has all melted out :)

Also, I agree with others about not spritzing on the pork butt. It is so forgiving you should be fine.
I don't know what kind of smoker you run but in my Masterbuilt digital Electric 40 inch (MES40) it retains moisture so well I don't have to add a water pan or spritz any meats. The bark comes out amazing!

Finally, it was probably a very good think if you didn't wrap/cover until the Internal Temp (IT) of the meat was 170F or so. If you wrap a big meat like this (or brisket or chuck) too early it will come out tasting like a roast instead of BBQ. It is totally demoralizing to spend all that time and effort smoking a large hunk of meat for it to come out tasting like an oven roast instead.

Great job and I look forward to the next smoke you post :D

 

[tbrtt1]

Some good advice from the others. Seriously.

Since you are stick-burning, a suggestion would be to smoke it in the evening@~ 8:00pm, depending on thickness, not weight or overall size. Run the smoker at a good temp to form a good bark, then place in oven ~225* or so. Maybe set an alarm for 6-7am and cover/ wrap and get some more rest. By mid-day you’ll be scarfing down some killer butt.

Look, you are going to get myriad opinions on this site. Many, many experienced smokers and experts will proffer their knowledge. And it is all good knowledge. The key is……….well…….smoking.

Experience is just that: experience. That won’t come from this forum or any other. It comes from well, again, experience. The advice and the experience offered by those experienced and expert smokers are terrific guidelines. Use that. What you do and what you like depends on your experience.

I’m with you on spending quality time with kids and family. But you can find a way to get awesome smokes done and spend that quality time with the fam.

Stick burners provide ample smoke flavor, and in a short amount of time, depending on your technique. My overarching thought is, get that good stick-burning smokiness from he pit, transfer to your oven and depending on the bark level, either put it in the oven, uncovered, and/or unwrapped, then cover and wrap later. Or, after smoking for some time on your stick burner, just cover and/or wrap when you put it in the oven.

You can have your cake and eat it too.