Four hand butt MB 560 all day cook

[fxsales1959]

Morning Y'll,
I was drafted by my boat club to provide viddles for our oceanside picnic on Sunday. I got a 7 lb Smithfield butt. Figured was a good time to see how my MB560 acted on a cook this long. I do have a couple questions on tips at the end. cook temp throughout was 225-235. time was "Around" 11 hours. When it hit 199deghrees, i had to have my wife help lift if off the smoker to avoid complete falling apart. long story short it was wondermous. a couple of quick questions: By nature I am not a "wrapper" and when i do its pink butcher paper. There were parts of the bark that seemed "tough' and required an undue amount of "chopping" to mix with the finished pan. a very small amount of the smoke ring almost seemed dried out, but only 1/8 to 1/4". I did spritz with apple juice/ACV throughout'
do you think a wrap at about 165 might have helped, without ruining the bark?
thanks all
john

 

[bauchjw]

Looks excellent! I'm sure you had some happy skippers with that cook! I cant give a contest answer, only cooking for friends answer, but IMO a wrap does affect the bark, but for PP I don't think its a negative because you aren't taking a bite (like a Rib or poultry) expecting a certain texture on the outside. Instead, a PP bite is a lot of different textures and flavors mixing. When I wrap a butt I have noticed, for me, that there is definitely less dry spots where there's less fat, but I can still get those tough parts in the bark, pre-wrap, too. However, I like those chopped up and mixed in, to me those hard little "Bark Bits" lets me know it is smoked PP and not a crock pot PP. Or maybe I'm making excuses! I'll be curious what others think.

 

[SmokinAl]

I don’t wrap my butts either, however I do baste the butt with the pan juices to keep the bark moist. Also a lot of the time I smoke the butt in a pan, so it’s easier to baste. You can put a rack in the pan to keep the butt out of the juice, but I have put the butt right in the pan sitting in the juice. I also pull the butt by hand, (no forks). That way I can feel any pieces that I may not want to serve to my guests, like to stringy, or a hunk of un-rendered fat, and leave them out of the final PP. Also, I would suggest a finishing sauce. It really takes your PP over the top.
Al

 

[bauchjw]

I second that finishing sauce. I started using chef jimmyj finishing sauce after I joined here and that is pretty much all I use now . . . I even hesitate to put BBQ sauce out for friends and family to use with PP.

Tangy Pulled Pork Finishing Sauce
This is more of an Eastern North Carolina style Finishing Sauce...
2 C Apple Cider Vinegar
2T Worcestershire Sauce or more to taste
1/4C Brown Sugar
1T Smoked Paprika
2 tsp Granulated Garlic
2 tsp Granulated Onion
2 tsp Fine Grind Black Pepper
1 tsp Celery Salt
1 tsp Cayenne Pepper or Red Pepper Flake. Add more if you like Heat.
1/2 tsp Grnd Allspice

Mix together on low simmer then put in plastic bottle or spoon onto pork as you pull it (mix by hand is best). Don't dump the whole thing in, do a little bit at a time until you like the flavor. One time I went a little overboard and it had way too much vinegar taste, foamheart and chef jimmyj tag teamed and talked me through it, had me add honey until the vinegar flavor balanced out. Strangely fond memories, I was cooking for over 30 people and those guys saved me a lot of frustration.

 

[fxsales1959]

Looks excellent! I'm sure you had some happy skippers with that cook! I cant give a contest answer, only cooking for friends answer, but IMO a wrap does affect the bark, but for PP I don't think its a negative because you aren't taking a bite (like a Rib or poultry) expecting a certain texture on the outside. Instead, a PP bite is a lot of different textures and flavors mixing. When I wrap a butt I have noticed, for me, that there is definitely less dry spots where there's less fat, but I can still get those tough parts in the bark, pre-wrap, too. However, I like those chopped up and mixed in, to me those hard little "Bark Bits" lets me know it is smoked PP and not a crock pot PP. Or maybe I'm making excuses! I'll be curious what others think.

completely agree here. I got several kudo from even the no-smoke educated that it surely wasn' oven bake d pulled pork. I think next time I'll wrap once i have ring/color. I'll just have to budget time to chop the tid-bits to mix in the serving container.

 

[schlotz]

I found that once I get an 8# bone-in butt with 6 hours of smoke, (usually run 245º-250º), the stall has occurred. I then dbl wrap tightly in foil, place in an alum pan, and bump the temp to 300º until the IT is somewhere around 203º-205º. Test for doneness and when there, pull and rest for 2 hours in a cooler. Yep, the bark does soften but oh so flavorful. As SmokinAl said, I too pull the meat by hand and incorporate all the the juices, ergo the use of the pan.

 

[bigfurmn]

If you are worried about a tough bark, maybe dont wrap it until a higher temp. Wrap at 180 not the stall to keep it a bit softer. Never tried it myself but seems like it coukd work.

 

[philcooper2]

I also pull the butt by hand, (no forks). That way I can feel any pieces that I may not want to serve to my guests, like to stringy, or a hunk of un-rendered fat, and leave them out of the final PP.

I will second this- mainly because I then get to get those large globs of fat that didn't render out, and toss them in the trash where they belong.

If it's one thing I hate, it's a fatty/greasy pulled pork. Unfortunately, this often is what you get. I didn't used to like pulled pork til I couldn't find my "shredding claws" (which are now in the trash, with the fat, where they belong!) and realized how much fat there is in the average roast that gets indiscriminately included. De-fatting after the cook made a HUGE difference in my cooks. Pulled pork is now a favorite!

I will definitely have to look into this finishing sauce!

 

[912smoker]

Well it looks mighty good to me and I love some of that crunchy bark in the mix !
And yes the finishing sauce is a game-changer!

Keith

 

[masssmoke]

I will second this- mainly because I then get to get those large globs of fat that didn't render out, and toss them in the trash where they belong.

If it's one thing I hate, it's a fatty/greasy pulled pork. Unfortunately, this often is what you get. I didn't used to like pulled pork til I couldn't find my "shredding claws" (which are now in the trash, with the fat, where they belong!) and realized how much fat there is in the average roast that gets indiscriminately included. De-fatting after the cook made a HUGE difference in my cooks. Pulled pork is now a favorite!

I will definitely have to look into this finishing sauce!

It is interesting to hear this as I smoked a small boneless butt yesterday (forgot pictures) on my pellet. Ran between 250 and 275 for 6.5 hours for a 3.5 pound butt. I wrapped at the stall (165) and seemed to have another mini-stall at 190 before it then went up to 203 pretty quick. Rested it for an hour and the pulled. It pulled nice but I did notice some very fatty and stringing pieces that I weeded out. I thought maybe I had a bad cut of meat but it's been awhile since I smoked a butt. This one came out nice and moist, not much bark, but I find I don't get much of one on a pellet anyway.

 

[fxsales1959]

thank you all
now will look into basring sauce at the end. I always pull by hand after the rest period. unlike my ribs which i always overcook.
I also like the ide of putting in a pan after the stall for basting. I typically have two pans on the lower cooking grid to catch fat and eliminate any flare ups.

 

[philcooper2]

I found that adding a large water "heat sink" (big pan, about 2 gallon capacity, to catch the drippings before they get into the fire (assuming I am not doing a mac-n-cheese) and act as a heat sink while keeping the meat more or less self-basting) made a huge difference in my BBQ.

That said, I am no expert!