Stubborn Butts!

[marty catka]

My wife and I volunteered to make pulled pork for our bowling league banquet/payoff night. The owner loves PP, but his wife says she can never make it right. Cooks it low and slow at 300* for about 6-7 hours. Always comes out tough. So we volunteer, our donation. Everybody brings in something, this was ours.

I started prepping the butts on Friday evening, rinsing, applying rub and wrapping in plastic wrap.







We were going to eat on Sunday evening about 7:30, so I was trying to time my smoke in my MES accordingly. I figured on about a 16 hour cook time from previous experiences. I didn't want to stay up all night so I figured some time resting in foil and towels in a cooler would bridge some of the time. Might have to put in warm oven to carry over.

So I start the MES at around 4:30 to give it plenty of warm up time for a 6:00 pm start. Controller set at 230*.







I fed chips and small chunks to the wood miser every 45 minutes or so until the meat therms read 160 degrees. This was about 2 a.m. Then I went to bed.

I woke about 8:30 - 9:00 am and the therms read 182 and 175. I figured we were doing ok, about 15 hours into the smoke.



After 16 hours, still at 188 and 176. After all the threads I read here, I was going to be patient, after all, still a long time to dinner. After 17 hours the first one finally hit 200. While getting my crap together (like I should have been ready in 17 hours), it rose to 202. OK, let's get it out and wrap it up.





The money shot!



Pulled



Did I mention that the second one was still at about 180 at this time? Well, I decided that patience was a virtue and let it go at 230* in the cooker. Finally after 21 hours, it was ready to come out, IT at 200*. Everyone loved it, especially the owners of the lanes.

 

[south jersey bbq tim]

wow..looks great.. great pics..so how long for a butt thats 7 lb in a pan...lol

 

[eman]

If you mes is anything like mine ,You are cooking at around 200.
I run real low compared to my settings.
I have set to 275 and NEVER got to 250.
Make sure and use a probe to check grill temps besides meat internals.

 

[marty catka]

Have done that, my MES is only around 5 degrees different than my probe reads. This one was just stubborn.

 

[white cloud]

Thats a heck of a long time to cook a butt. But if you enjoy sitting there and tending more power to ya. If you cook at say, 250* and foil at 170to180 you could dramatically decrease the amount of time by probobly 5-6 hours. With the same or better results I might add.

 

[brutalgrandpa]

It depends on how you like the bark. I pull mine around 170, put in a pan in the oven with foil over top and finish up to 200. I have found the bark softens up and I can incorporate much more into the finished product. But, those that love the crunch need to keep it on the smoker for the most part. I do agree that 250 will definitely help save some time without sacrificing any quality.

 

[kaiser]

The last ones I did were taking forever too and I was running up against a dinner deadline, so once I foiled them I turned the heat way up... in the 275-300 range.

I figure with 'em wrapped you aren't putting in any more flavor, you're just waiting for the heat to render out the fat. They came out great!