Howdy y'all. As my introductory post points out, I am brand-new to the meat smoking game. I was hoping to provide pulled pork for dinner one night this weekend on the family trip to a log cabin in middle-of-nowhere Wisconsin. I have never made pulled pork before, even in just a conventional oven, so please forgive me for my noob-ish questions.
I have seen a couple different techniques on smoking pork butt. Recteq's method is simply leaving it on the smoker at 225°F until it reaches 200°F internally. Mad Scientist BBQ's method on YouTube is slightly more involved. He suggests smoking it at 250°F throughout the entire cook, as 250°F renders fat and breaks down connective tissue better than 225°F. Personally, I am dubious that a slightly higher temp does anything more than speed up the cook, because that "connective tissue" and fat is all getting cooked to the same final temperature regardless.
Anyway, his method calls first for smoking it unwrapped and totally untouched for 3 hours. Then maybe spraying it every 30-45 minutes after that 3-hour mark, avoiding getting spray on the fat cap. And once the butts reach the high 160's to 170°F internally and the fat cap seems rendered (usually around the 6-hour mark), wrap them in foil. He then says to cook them while wrapped for "several more hours" until they register around 200°F, and a temperature probe goes in "like butter".
Now, I am not sure whether spraying pork butt is necessary, as pork butt is much thicker than a rack of ribs, so my presumption is that it would be much less prone to drying out. I also see some disagreement about whether you should wrap pork butt. I would be more inclined to do so, simply because I like shorter cooks, and it's often said that wrapping keeps meat more moist.
I can get the meat on Thursday morning, however, I will be away from home for about 10 hours. Therefore, doing the Mad Scientist BBQ method might be unworkable. Does anyone have any suggestions on how to do this properly? Maybe smoke it at 225°F, and bump it up to 250°F and wrapping it at the 10-hour mark?? Although some folks, including Meathead himself, say that wrapping pork butt is simply not necessary to retain moisture, it simply speeds up the cook and helps tenderize a "tiny" bit.
My plan to store it and reheat it is: let the pork rest for an hour, pull the pork ahead of time, put it in ziplock bags, and refrigerate it until needed. And to reheat, per chef jimmyj, just place all of the meat in a tightly sealed foil roasting pan, and throw it in the oven at 325°F. I'm just not sure if I can capture drippings to add back into the pan, because there is literally no room to place a drip pan under the grates on my RT-1250. And there is no guarantee that what goes into the drip bucket stays clean of anything blowing around outside in the air...
I know this is a long post, so apologies for that. Any insight is greatly appreciated!
I have seen a couple different techniques on smoking pork butt. Recteq's method is simply leaving it on the smoker at 225°F until it reaches 200°F internally. Mad Scientist BBQ's method on YouTube is slightly more involved. He suggests smoking it at 250°F throughout the entire cook, as 250°F renders fat and breaks down connective tissue better than 225°F. Personally, I am dubious that a slightly higher temp does anything more than speed up the cook, because that "connective tissue" and fat is all getting cooked to the same final temperature regardless.
Anyway, his method calls first for smoking it unwrapped and totally untouched for 3 hours. Then maybe spraying it every 30-45 minutes after that 3-hour mark, avoiding getting spray on the fat cap. And once the butts reach the high 160's to 170°F internally and the fat cap seems rendered (usually around the 6-hour mark), wrap them in foil. He then says to cook them while wrapped for "several more hours" until they register around 200°F, and a temperature probe goes in "like butter".
Now, I am not sure whether spraying pork butt is necessary, as pork butt is much thicker than a rack of ribs, so my presumption is that it would be much less prone to drying out. I also see some disagreement about whether you should wrap pork butt. I would be more inclined to do so, simply because I like shorter cooks, and it's often said that wrapping keeps meat more moist.
I can get the meat on Thursday morning, however, I will be away from home for about 10 hours. Therefore, doing the Mad Scientist BBQ method might be unworkable. Does anyone have any suggestions on how to do this properly? Maybe smoke it at 225°F, and bump it up to 250°F and wrapping it at the 10-hour mark?? Although some folks, including Meathead himself, say that wrapping pork butt is simply not necessary to retain moisture, it simply speeds up the cook and helps tenderize a "tiny" bit.
My plan to store it and reheat it is: let the pork rest for an hour, pull the pork ahead of time, put it in ziplock bags, and refrigerate it until needed. And to reheat, per chef jimmyj, just place all of the meat in a tightly sealed foil roasting pan, and throw it in the oven at 325°F. I'm just not sure if I can capture drippings to add back into the pan, because there is literally no room to place a drip pan under the grates on my RT-1250. And there is no guarantee that what goes into the drip bucket stays clean of anything blowing around outside in the air...
I know this is a long post, so apologies for that. Any insight is greatly appreciated!
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