- Jul 22, 2017
- 24
- 28
So I went with a 4lb butt for my third smoking session. Only feeding 3 of us for the week so didn't need anything bigger really. I did a little research and planned as follows: cider vinegar/juice brine, rub (pieced together a recipe) at set overnight, start at 225F and planned pull at 195F IT and no foil wrap. Wood: 50/50 Pecan/Hickory. At 4lbs I was planning on about 6-7 hours cook time....
So here we go (with picture):
Day 1 - I scored the fat cap in a square pattern soaked the butt in a 1:1 apple cider vinegar/apple juice mixture for about 12 hours.
Day 1 Overnight - After Brine rinse, pat dry, apply yellow mustard, and cover with rub. Save the brine to use in the water pan.
Dry Rub:
1/2 cup light brown sugar
1/2 cup turbinado sugar
3 tablespoons paprika
1⁄2 teaspoon cayenne pepper
1 tablespoon chili powder
1 teaspoon ground turmeric
1 tbsp celery salt (or can use something like Lowry's)
2 teaspoon kosher salt
2 teaspoons garlic powder
1⁄2 teaspoon onion powder
2 teaspoons black pepper
1 teaspoons dried oregano
1 teaspoon dried thyme
Then cover with plastic wrap, and put in fridge overnight so the meat can absorb the flavor of the rub.
Day 2 - Smoking Day - used 50/50 Pecan/Hickory
6:30am - remove from fridge and allow to come to room temp
7:00am - pre-heat smoker to 225F
7:40am - meat in fat cap side down on the 2nd shelf grate and foil pan on the 3rd shelf grate. I put some of the leftover juice brine in the water pan. I also put the fat cap down on the grate in case the meat sticks to the grate (which it did slightly), I'd only lose fat and not meat.
11:30am - after 4 hours I inserted the MES Probe and I saw a nice bark starting to form. I gave it the first spray with fresh cider vinegar/juice mixture. MES probe read 145F so I figured I was getting close to the stall
12:40pm - Probe temp 148F. I heard these probes are't terribly accurate so I found an analog meat probe I had in the drawer and stuck it in. That read 158F so about in the stall. I then bumped temp to 250F. It was at this point I realized this was going to take a lot longer than the 7 hours I originally planned.
3:40pm - MES Probe 168F and Analog 178F. Gave another spray and bumped temp to 275F
5:30pm - MES Probe 185F and Analof 195F. FINISHED!!!! TOTAL COOK TIME 10 hours.
This was way past my planned cook time and I had to go out for a while. So I double wrapped in foil and a towel and stuck it in an empty cooler. I got back around 9:30pm to finally pull it apart. It was still fairly warm at about 145F.
Finished comments/questions: I didn't use any finishing sauce. Bark wasn't very thick for no foil wrap. How long should it be at or above finishing temp before you pull? I will try 205F next time. Also, while the flavor was excellent, it didn't look like I had much of a smoke ring. How much of a smoke ring should you shoot for? I could have preset hotter. Next time I will go right to 250F instead of 225F. Seeing that the MES probe was about 10F off (and so glad I checked with the analog thermometer), I went online and picked up a Maverick ET-733 dual probe for my next smoke.
Please, any thoughts, comments, and suggestions are greatly appreciated!!!
So here we go (with picture):
Day 1 - I scored the fat cap in a square pattern soaked the butt in a 1:1 apple cider vinegar/apple juice mixture for about 12 hours.
Day 1 Overnight - After Brine rinse, pat dry, apply yellow mustard, and cover with rub. Save the brine to use in the water pan.
Dry Rub:
1/2 cup light brown sugar
1/2 cup turbinado sugar
3 tablespoons paprika
1⁄2 teaspoon cayenne pepper
1 tablespoon chili powder
1 teaspoon ground turmeric
1 tbsp celery salt (or can use something like Lowry's)
2 teaspoon kosher salt
2 teaspoons garlic powder
1⁄2 teaspoon onion powder
2 teaspoons black pepper
1 teaspoons dried oregano
1 teaspoon dried thyme
Then cover with plastic wrap, and put in fridge overnight so the meat can absorb the flavor of the rub.
Day 2 - Smoking Day - used 50/50 Pecan/Hickory
6:30am - remove from fridge and allow to come to room temp
7:00am - pre-heat smoker to 225F
7:40am - meat in fat cap side down on the 2nd shelf grate and foil pan on the 3rd shelf grate. I put some of the leftover juice brine in the water pan. I also put the fat cap down on the grate in case the meat sticks to the grate (which it did slightly), I'd only lose fat and not meat.
11:30am - after 4 hours I inserted the MES Probe and I saw a nice bark starting to form. I gave it the first spray with fresh cider vinegar/juice mixture. MES probe read 145F so I figured I was getting close to the stall
12:40pm - Probe temp 148F. I heard these probes are't terribly accurate so I found an analog meat probe I had in the drawer and stuck it in. That read 158F so about in the stall. I then bumped temp to 250F. It was at this point I realized this was going to take a lot longer than the 7 hours I originally planned.
3:40pm - MES Probe 168F and Analog 178F. Gave another spray and bumped temp to 275F
5:30pm - MES Probe 185F and Analof 195F. FINISHED!!!! TOTAL COOK TIME 10 hours.
This was way past my planned cook time and I had to go out for a while. So I double wrapped in foil and a towel and stuck it in an empty cooler. I got back around 9:30pm to finally pull it apart. It was still fairly warm at about 145F.
Finished comments/questions: I didn't use any finishing sauce. Bark wasn't very thick for no foil wrap. How long should it be at or above finishing temp before you pull? I will try 205F next time. Also, while the flavor was excellent, it didn't look like I had much of a smoke ring. How much of a smoke ring should you shoot for? I could have preset hotter. Next time I will go right to 250F instead of 225F. Seeing that the MES probe was about 10F off (and so glad I checked with the analog thermometer), I went online and picked up a Maverick ET-733 dual probe for my next smoke.
Please, any thoughts, comments, and suggestions are greatly appreciated!!!
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