I am going to sous vide then smoke a butt

[CindyCRNA]

My first pork butt turned out fine with a super bark but slightly dry. I did not foil wrap it until the 13 hour mark. and it went a full 24 hours having to be finished in a 375 degree oven for 45 min at the end as I stalled at 192. My next one i have decided on sous vide for 24 hours at 165 then smoke 2 hours at.........300. Does that temp sound right? I am thinking that a fully done tender pork butt only needs a high temp smoke to get a crust.Anyone else do this? Many on the sous vide Facebook page have but wanted to check with you experienced smokers.

 

[SmokyMose]

How big was this pork butt and what temp were you smoking? That seems like a LONG time....
By the way, welcome to the forum!

 

[kilo charlie]

Welcome to SMF !

I'm not sure you're going to get the desired results but if you do try it. please report back with your findings. Most of us are open to new things!

 

[jcam222]

I really think something must have went sideways on your first butt. Burt is so fatty is hard to dry it out. Having to smoke for 24 hours and finish in oven has me questioning the accuracy of your thermometer for both cooking temp and finish temp. At most cooking temps you could have literally finished a whole hog in that time. What type smoker are you using? What temp did it say you were cooking at? I often turbo cook butts cooking at 275F, into pans with a little liquid and covered, finished at 205F and into coolers for about an hour to let juice redistribute. Always juicy. I’ve done longer at 225F cooking temp with juicy results too. I’d give the standard process a go again if I were you.

 

[CindyCRNA]

I really think something must have went sideways on your first butt. Burt is so fatty is hard to dry it out. Having to smoke for 24 hours and finish in oven has me questioning the accuracy of your thermometer for both cooking temp and finish temp. At most cooking temps you could have literally finished a whole hog in that time. What type smoker are you using? What temp did it say you were cooking at? I often turbo cook butts cooking at 275F, into pans with a little liquid and covered, finished at 205F and into coolers for about an hour to let juice redistribute. Always juicy. I’ve done longer at 225F cooking temp with juicy results too. I’d give the standard process a go again if I were you.

I would agree however I used 2 different IT monitors and both read within 1 degree of each other. I do have an oven thermometer so possibly the fault lies with the temp the oven says it is.

 

[jcam222]

I would agree however I used 2 different IT monitors and both read within 1 degree of each other. I do have an oven thermometer so possibly the fault lies with the temp the oven says it is.

What type smoker are you using? What was your cooking temp in the smoker?

 

[CindyCRNA]

I really think something must have went sideways on your first butt. Burt is so fatty is hard to dry it out. Having to smoke for 24 hours and finish in oven has me questioning the accuracy of your thermometer for both cooking temp and finish temp. At most cooking temps you could have literally finished a whole hog in that time. What type smoker are you using? What temp did it say you were cooking at? I often turbo cook butts cooking at 275F, into pans with a little liquid and covered, finished at 205F and into coolers for about an hour to let juice redistribute. Always juicy. I’ve done longer at 225F cooking temp with juicy results too. I’d give the standard process a go again if I were you.

Smoker is a Cookshack. IT temp of the meat was checked by 2 independent testers that were 1 degree apart. I cooked it at 225 but did not check the oven temp for accuracy with a separate thermometer. It stalled at 192 and when we were 22 hours in, I was running out of time so put it in the oven. I also did not wrap it until 13 hours as I was debating whether to wrap it or not but it had such a nice thick dark bark on it I knew nothing would be lost.

 

[pineywoods]

I like others would suggest checking your smoker temp if that's the only thing you haven't checked. Personally I'm not a fan of hard crunchy bark so I usually wrap a butt in foil and seal up the foil well when it hits about 160 this allows the butt to braise in it's own juices and it finishes much faster than unwrapped.
I don't think I've ever had a pork butt be dry so my first thought would be over cooked.
If you wrap in foil when done rest the butt at least one hour two is better still wrapped and placed in a warm dry cooler use a couple old towels under the butts in the cooler then wrap the butt with it. I say old towel just in case you have soot or grease on the outside of the foil.
When done with the rest carefully unwrap the butt take the meat out and carefully put the juices in a glass jar or measuring cup if you have one big enough then place in the freezer for a bit. The fat will gel and be on top scrap it off then add the other juice back into the pork once you pull it and mix it up.
The other thing you could do is after pulling the butt add a finishing sauce which depending on recipe can/will add another flavor profile to the pork. Finishing sauce recipes can be found right here on SMF.
Good luck with the next one and remember practice makes perfect and you can eat the test ones till you get the method down pat

 

[noggin]

As others have said, sounds like a problem with the smoker temperature and not the meat. I made a PID controlled propane/NG smoker. I had the cabinet temperature probe near the top of the smoker. Smokes routinely took 24 hours to do a pork butt. At some point, I put a spare probe about 2" from the meat on the rack. That spare probe read 20 °F lower than the main cabinet probe. I moved the cabinet probe to be close to the meat, and cook times dropped from ~24 hours to ~14 hours.

So, as others have said, it sounds like your cabinet temperature is low.

 

[rjob]

We cook with a Cookshack SM160. Cook temps have been as low as 225 and as high as 275. Finally selected 240 for butts. Butts range from 8-12 #. Cook time runs 8-12 hours. We will temperature check @ 8 hours looking for 190-205. Will probe check @ 198 looking for "soft butter" feel. As Smokin Okie use to quote "It's done when it's done ". Never have wrapped a butt.
Produces tender and moist butts.
Any chance the cooker temperature probe has a coating on it? That will cause faulty readings. One error we made was loading a butt in and pushing it against the cabinet temperature probe. Started cooker and walked away, came back to low temperature cooker reading but the heating element was pouring the heat to the cooker. Great bark but learned to more mindful of meat placement.

 

[CindyCRNA]

We cook with a Cookshack SM160. Cook temps have been as low as 225 and as high as 275. Finally selected 240 for butts. Butts range from 8-12 #. Cook time runs 8-12 hours. We will temperature check @ 8 hours looking for 190-205. Will probe check @ 198 looking for "soft butter" feel. As Smokin Okie use to quote "It's done when it's done ". Never have wrapped a butt.
Produces tender and moist butts.
Any chance the cooker temperature probe has a coating on it? That will cause faulty readings. One error we made was loading a butt in and pushing it against the cabinet temperature probe. Started cooker and walked away, came back to low temperature cooker reading but the heating element was pouring the heat to the cooker. Great bark but learned to more mindful of meat placement.

I have an oven temp thermometer and I will check the temp the next time I use it.