I'd bought about a 4lb pork butt on sale at the local grocery, brought it home and promptly forgot about it. It had been in the fridge for about 5 days when I remembered it, so I figured I'd better get it on the smoker. Wednesday night I seasoned it with a rub consisting of the usual brown sugar, pepper, onion and garlic powder, ground mustard and smoked paprika. I salted it fairly heavily with kosher salt before applying the rub, then vacuum sealed it.
Then Thursday I got the smoker fired up with Kingsford, Cherry and Hickory. Was shooting for early morning, but didn't get it on til almost 1:30. Bad planning on my part.
I've been using the WSM without the water pan lately and its been working great, but for this one I decided to use it. I didn't want to scorch the bottom of the butt over a several hour cook. It generally will run, with all vents open and a full water pan, at 275°.
Then I just let it roll. It's not a big piece of meat, and at 275° I figured it'd take 5-6 hours, wrapping for the last 2 hours.
Here it is at the 2 hour mark.
And at 4 hours. At this point I put it in a foil pan with some apple cider vinegar and into the oven at 325° to finish up.
Then after 2 hours I pulled it...
And made some sandwiches with hot bread and butter pickles and pickled red onions. Didn't have time for much of a rest, it was 5 and a half hours from the time the meat hit the smoker to the time I took my first bite. It was super tender, moist and had a nice flavor from the rub. Smoke flavor was subtle but definitely there. Next time I'll give it another couple hours in the smoke, but had a few things going on that day and only a short window to get it done. I'm not one of those "it's done when it's done" people. If I say dinner's at 7, it's gonna be at 7. All in all it was delicious and I was pretty proud of it. Thanks for looking!
Then Thursday I got the smoker fired up with Kingsford, Cherry and Hickory. Was shooting for early morning, but didn't get it on til almost 1:30. Bad planning on my part.
I've been using the WSM without the water pan lately and its been working great, but for this one I decided to use it. I didn't want to scorch the bottom of the butt over a several hour cook. It generally will run, with all vents open and a full water pan, at 275°.
Then I just let it roll. It's not a big piece of meat, and at 275° I figured it'd take 5-6 hours, wrapping for the last 2 hours.
Here it is at the 2 hour mark.
And at 4 hours. At this point I put it in a foil pan with some apple cider vinegar and into the oven at 325° to finish up.
Then after 2 hours I pulled it...
And made some sandwiches with hot bread and butter pickles and pickled red onions. Didn't have time for much of a rest, it was 5 and a half hours from the time the meat hit the smoker to the time I took my first bite. It was super tender, moist and had a nice flavor from the rub. Smoke flavor was subtle but definitely there. Next time I'll give it another couple hours in the smoke, but had a few things going on that day and only a short window to get it done. I'm not one of those "it's done when it's done" people. If I say dinner's at 7, it's gonna be at 7. All in all it was delicious and I was pretty proud of it. Thanks for looking!
