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GAsmoker

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Original poster
Nov 22, 2020
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I am smoking my first Boston Butt for pulled pork. I have set my temperature ranges from 235 to 250 and cooking to a internal temp of 205. I plan on wrapping it in foil at a temp of 150 and letting it finish up. Question is. Is this adequate?
 
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Dont get caught up with maintaining a specific temperature range. Pork shoulder(butts) have a lot of intramuscular fat and connective tissue so it can be very forgiving. 225 to 325 is fine. Low temps take longer and high temps take shorter to cook. No difference in texture or flavor. Also spritzing does nothing but take longer to cook. I literally place my porkbutts in and pull when it reaches 160 to wrap. I am not a big fan of bark so thats why I wrap. Then take it to 201 to 205 until it probes tender. If you like bark then leave it in until you reach temps and tender.

George
 
Your fine with the temps, although allot of folks are starting to smoke them at higher temps. I shoot for 250* to 275*. Wrap it at the stall. Then remove the wrap when the temps start rising again. I usually keep in wrap for about a 20* rise - then back in the smoker. Most are finished in the 200/205* range, but you'll know when it probes tender. Good luck and enjoy.

Chris
 
I am smoking my first Boston Butt for pulled pork. I have set my temperature ranges from 235 to 250 and cooking to a internal temp of 205. I plan on wrapping it in foil at a temp of 150 and letting it finish up. Question is. Is this adequate?
I am smoking my first Boston Butt for pulled pork. I have set my temperature ranges from 235 to 250 and cooking to a internal temp of 205. I plan on wrapping it in foil at a temp of 150 and letting it finish up. Question is. Is this adequate?
20201205_112236.jpg

[Looking good so far]
 
Think you are covered here. Pork butts are super forgiving. I cook anymore around 275F and wrap around 160 ish. I don’t actually wrap either, I put them in foil pan with a cup of liquid and cover tightly. The real key is once it hits your finish temp let it rest still covered in the cooler for an hour. I don’t know what you are using as a smoker but if you can put a pan below the butt filled with pork or chicken broth that stuff is money to mix back on your pulled pork. Refrigerate it over night, de fat and mix in. Freeze the leftover smokey broth for soups or dry meat in the future. Liquid gold.
 
Basically the same. I wrap at 160-170 IT in butcher paper. I use an MES 40, and the butcher paper helps make a nice bark, not too hard. Otherwise I do the rest the same. Take off smoker when probe tender and elt rest wrapped for at least an hour, maybe 2 hours.
 
I am smoking my first Boston Butt for pulled pork. I have set my temperature ranges from 235 to 250 and cooking to a internal temp of 205. I plan on wrapping it in foil at a temp of 150 and letting it finish up. Question is. Is this adequate?
Meats like brisket or pork butt don't have an internal switch that suddenly turns on the 'tenderness' at a certain internal temperature. It might probe tender before 205° or it might reach 205° and stay there for 45 minutes before becoming tender. Also when probing there are many muscle groups in a butt. The muscles around the bone and on the opposite end will be more tender and flavorful than the center muscles of the butt. It's not uncommon to have the center muscles a little tighter when pulling.
 
T
Your fine with the temps, although allot of folks are starting to smoke them at higher temps. I shoot for 250* to 275*. Wrap it at the stall. Then remove the wrap when the temps start rising again. I usually keep in wrap for about a 20* rise - then back in the smoker. Most are finished in the 200/205* range, but you'll know when it probes tender. Good luck and enjoy.

Thank you
Meats like brisket or pork butt don't have an internal switch that suddenly turns on the 'tenderness' at a certain internal temperature. It might probe tender before 205° or it might reach 205° and stay there for 45 minutes before becoming tender. Also when probing there are many muscle groups in a butt. The muscles around the bone and on the opposite end will be more tender and flavorful than the center muscles of the butt. It's not uncommon to have the center muscles a little tighter when pulling.
Thanks great advice
 
I am smoking my first Boston Butt for pulled pork. I have set my temperature ranges from 235 to 250 and cooking to a internal temp of 205. I plan on wrapping it in foil at a temp of 150 and letting it finish up. Question is. Is this adequate?


Sure, You're in the Ballpark!!! 150° is a bit early to foil, if you like Smoke Taste.

Here's 3 different Butts, using 3 different Temps.
Two were foiled at 165°, and one wasn't:
Pulled Boston Pork Butt (230°--April 23, 2013) foiled
Pulled Boston Pork Butt (265°--Oct 21, 2018) foiled
Pulled Boston Pork Butt (275°--Sept , 2020) not foiled

Bear
 
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Until I started smoking meat, I roasted pork butts in the oven at 325-350F, sometimes higher if I needed to hurry them along. Always came out juicy and moist. I never was crazy about crockpot meat, even though I've owned at least one since the day I got married over 4 decades ago.

225-250F works nicely in a smoker because those are safe temps that are easy to maintain, but there's nothing magical about those temps. I've smoked butts at 325-350F to shorten the cooking time, and they came out just as delicious as those I smoke overnight at 225F.

Once you wrap it, there's no reason to keep smoking it unless you've got a bunch of fuel you want to use up. You can move it to the oven or keep feeding the smoker.
 
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I don’t wrap either, butI do inject with a variation of Pops brine, then leave it in the brine completely covered for 24 hours. Then into the smoker, in a pan with a grate under the butt. That is my method & I haven’t got any complaints yet! I use the pan juices mixed in with SoFlaQuer’s finishing sauce and mix it in with the PP. I also pull it with gloved hands so I can separate any un-rendered fat out of the PP. I just don’t like to bite into a big hunk of fat in my PP sammie.
Al
 
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I think the guys have you well covered.

I would just like to reiterate Bearcarver Bearcarver 's point about wrapping too early.
I always recommend people wrap no earlier than 170F Internal Temp (IT). Heck I personally dont like to wrap anything below an IT of 180F.

The reason I choose these numbers is because if you wrap beef (brisket) too early you basically get the same flavor as beef roasted in the oven. What is the purpose of going through all the trouble prepping, smoking, and monitoring your smoke to end up with beef that taste like it was cooked in the oven.
So I always recommend those temps for wrapping. ALSO what works for wrapping beef in this case also works for wrapping any of the pork cuts that people tend to wrap. So it's pretty much a one size fits all for wrapping anything that needs to become tender.

Now other people wrap because they want to power through the Stall. Not me I care more about the flavor than powering through the stall. The desire to power through the stall can be solved very easily by learning and planning your smoke with enough time to naturally handle a stall so that it isn't an issue at all.
I think of planning like this.
I could buy a 20 pack of lightbulbs that I know they randomly burn out quick so I have plenty of extras to handle the situation.
OR, I can buy a 5 pack of bulbs that last 10X as long and reliably do the job they are intended to do.

So again, my approach is to plan to handle the stall by timing everything well for cooking unwrapped because I desire better flavor over fixing a stall problem that isn't really a problem ;)
 
Last edited:
Counterpoint:
(Jane, you ignorant slut ... for you early SNL fans :emoji_slight_smile: )
I do care about powering thru the stall for a few reasons:
1. I won’t leave a cook unattended overnight, and it was too damn cold to start it at 4am
2. I end up portioning and vac sealing/freezing most of it anyway, and bark is then irrelevant.
3. I am not convinced it is taking on much more flavor after 8 hours in the smoker, which is about where I draw the line.

That said, ask 3 engineers (or smokers)a question, and you get 6 different answers :emoji_slight_smile:
Your mileage may (will) vary, but enjoy the ride.
 
Counterpoint:
(Jane, you ignorant slut ... for you early SNL fans :emoji_slight_smile: )
I do care about powering thru the stall for a few reasons:
1. I won’t leave a cook unattended overnight, and it was too damn cold to start it at 4am
2. I end up portioning and vac sealing/freezing most of it anyway, and bark is then irrelevant.
3. I am not convinced it is taking on much more flavor after 8 hours in the smoker, which is about where I draw the line.

That said, ask 3 engineers (or smokers)a question, and you get 6 different answers :emoji_slight_smile:
Your mileage may (will) vary, but enjoy the ride.

Yup you bring up my favorite saying. A lot of what is posted is personal preference. Although there are those who post based on the facts.

Warren
 
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