In the past, I've only cooked large pork butts. 12-15 pounds worth at a pop. They've always turned out decent with a good bark, and if I do it right, even a bit of a smoke ring, even though it's in an electric smoker.
My normal method is cooking it at about 180-185 and stop when the temp of the meat matches the temp of the smoker. With those large butts, they've typically only taken about 12 hours which isn't too bad and the meat was good. With the brown-sugar based rub I usually use, it would have a wonderful bark on it, decently thick, and not cloying in taste.
3 months back, I was in a professional smoking competition and I took first place. The other guy in the contest, who works 4 cubicles down took second place. It was an elite competition, what can I say? Anyhow, I cooked it with the above method, but 175 temp. Slower, slightly cooler = better. My competition cooked his at 200. I won because I used a rub and he used nothing, otherwise he would have destroyed me as juicy as his was.
Last night, things got ugly... First, I went to a near-to-home grocer for the butt. It was significantly smaller. 5-6 lbs worth. The first thing I noticed was that there was a fat cap on the bottom of this butt. I'd never seen that on other butts I've gotten. This was a good thing for me, since anybody that does brisket really likes that fat cap and for good reason. With it only being 5-6 lbs (and $8.50, yay!) I figured the cook time is about 7-8 hours. Just guessing. 8-10 hours could be mildly acceptable... but I was hoping on the lower time. I put it on the empty rack with a pan on the next shelf half-filled with water. I love me some drippings gravy.
I have a wireless thermometer, so I would just go out every 2 hours, put a few more waterlogged apple chips into the tray and go back inside where I can watch the temp from there.
The temperature hit 156 and stuck there for about 2 hours. I'd never seen the meat plateau on shoulders before, but this didn't scare me because the mean knows how to do its thing.
After the plateau, it got to 178 and then I saw it go down to 177. 176. 175. WTF? I run outside to look... and since my 5-6# butt was only going to take 7-8 hours, I'd set the timer to 10 hours so I didn't have to worry about it.
Oops.
I cranked it to 225 so it would finish a little faster and since it was already past the fat-melting stage. This took it another hour and a half to hit my target temp of 200 degrees. Ok, I cheated and took it out at 196. At this points, it's 12:30am. I only barely missed dinner time. Worst smoking ever.
I opened it up, gave it 2 minutes with the open door to let the smoke clear out, and pulled out the butt. Most of it. It was falling apart! Things weren't a total wash. I finished getting it out, took it inside, and cut off a piece of reward.
Perfection! The flavor was amazing (and still is and will be for 4 days or more in the future) and the meat is oozing juices.
What lessons I took from this?
Lower is not always better. It boiled down to me going 200 until after the plateau and cranking it to 225 to finish it off. I suspect the larger butts weren't quite as tender because at 175-180, they very likely weren't much (if at all) past their plateau.
Fat! This one had a nice fat cap on the bottom, which I made sure was on top. Score that sucker before the rub. Give it a good 1/2 - 3/4" incision for that rub to get down in there for the smoking.
The rub! Put it on MORE than 24 hours beforehand and get the sucker in the fridge. In the past, I'd only put the rub on 4-6 hours beforehand. 24 hours makes an enormous difference. I think the sugar soaking into the meat helps seal it up better for the smoking so you get a smaller amount of juice loss.
Best mistake EVAR!
My normal method is cooking it at about 180-185 and stop when the temp of the meat matches the temp of the smoker. With those large butts, they've typically only taken about 12 hours which isn't too bad and the meat was good. With the brown-sugar based rub I usually use, it would have a wonderful bark on it, decently thick, and not cloying in taste.
3 months back, I was in a professional smoking competition and I took first place. The other guy in the contest, who works 4 cubicles down took second place. It was an elite competition, what can I say? Anyhow, I cooked it with the above method, but 175 temp. Slower, slightly cooler = better. My competition cooked his at 200. I won because I used a rub and he used nothing, otherwise he would have destroyed me as juicy as his was.
Last night, things got ugly... First, I went to a near-to-home grocer for the butt. It was significantly smaller. 5-6 lbs worth. The first thing I noticed was that there was a fat cap on the bottom of this butt. I'd never seen that on other butts I've gotten. This was a good thing for me, since anybody that does brisket really likes that fat cap and for good reason. With it only being 5-6 lbs (and $8.50, yay!) I figured the cook time is about 7-8 hours. Just guessing. 8-10 hours could be mildly acceptable... but I was hoping on the lower time. I put it on the empty rack with a pan on the next shelf half-filled with water. I love me some drippings gravy.
I have a wireless thermometer, so I would just go out every 2 hours, put a few more waterlogged apple chips into the tray and go back inside where I can watch the temp from there.
The temperature hit 156 and stuck there for about 2 hours. I'd never seen the meat plateau on shoulders before, but this didn't scare me because the mean knows how to do its thing.
After the plateau, it got to 178 and then I saw it go down to 177. 176. 175. WTF? I run outside to look... and since my 5-6# butt was only going to take 7-8 hours, I'd set the timer to 10 hours so I didn't have to worry about it.
Oops.
I cranked it to 225 so it would finish a little faster and since it was already past the fat-melting stage. This took it another hour and a half to hit my target temp of 200 degrees. Ok, I cheated and took it out at 196. At this points, it's 12:30am. I only barely missed dinner time. Worst smoking ever.
I opened it up, gave it 2 minutes with the open door to let the smoke clear out, and pulled out the butt. Most of it. It was falling apart! Things weren't a total wash. I finished getting it out, took it inside, and cut off a piece of reward.
Perfection! The flavor was amazing (and still is and will be for 4 days or more in the future) and the meat is oozing juices.
What lessons I took from this?
Lower is not always better. It boiled down to me going 200 until after the plateau and cranking it to 225 to finish it off. I suspect the larger butts weren't quite as tender because at 175-180, they very likely weren't much (if at all) past their plateau.
Fat! This one had a nice fat cap on the bottom, which I made sure was on top. Score that sucker before the rub. Give it a good 1/2 - 3/4" incision for that rub to get down in there for the smoking.
The rub! Put it on MORE than 24 hours beforehand and get the sucker in the fridge. In the past, I'd only put the rub on 4-6 hours beforehand. 24 hours makes an enormous difference. I think the sugar soaking into the meat helps seal it up better for the smoking so you get a smaller amount of juice loss.
Best mistake EVAR!
