Pork butt burnt ends in a different way

[husker3in4]

I want to make these for the game tomorrow. I made them once before by smoking a butt to 170, cutting into cubes, then saucing and putting them in a pan and back into the smoker for a cpl hours. Turned out pretty good.

I was going to do it the same way tomorrow, but found a different way online that sounds intriguing. This guy chunks up the butt while raw, applies rub and lets it sit in the fridge overnight. Then he smokes the chunks until 190 degrees, at which point he applies the sauce, etc. My question is, would I just stick my meat probe into one of the chunks to monitor the IT? Seems alot safer when inserting 4" inside a full butt. I was thinking of trying it this way because I will get bark on all sides. Here is the link:

http://olddavespo-farm.blogspot.com/2015/04/pork-burnt-ends.html

 

[crazymoon]

H3i4, I would probe a few of the fattest pieces and call it good !

 

[husker3in4]

Thats what I ended up doing. I put them on this morning at about 7am. I have to work until noon, so I lowered the head to 220. They should be more than done by the time I get home about 12:15, right? Then Ill sauce them throw them in a pan and back in the smoker. I dont need to let these things rest before eating do i?

 

[husker3in4]

Update: These turned out badass! I made these, a chopped/shredded butt, some beans, potatoes and chocolate chip cookies. the burnt ends barely made it 20 mins and were gone! The poster on the link I followed was right, cubing them and applying rub BEFORE smoking was the key. Bark on all sides and a bit more smoke flavor overall.

Since I put them on before work and wasnt able to get home until 5 hours later, they were on the smoker about an hour or 1.5 hrs too long. I put my meat probe in one of the bigger cubes and it read 183, although when we are talking about a meat chunk instead of a whole butt, I wonder how accurate that was. In the bigger cubes it didnt matter, in the smaller chunks you could tell they were over done. In some recipes I see people applying rub again when they are sauced. I just put sauce on them and back in the smoker for another 1.5 hrs.

So when I do them again (already been asked when are you making these again?), I will plan a bit better and take them off at the 3.5 hr mark, assuming they are at least at 170 at that point, then sauce and put back in the smoker for an hour.

This was a bone in butt, I was thinking for the next time, a boneless one would be much easier to cut into cubes since I dont have to cut around the bone. Is there much difference between bone in and boneless butt?

Here is some Q-view, the last pic shows them sitting next to the Wicked Bean recipe from this site: