My first pork butt

[rpindianajones]

I smoked my first pork butt today. It was a small one about 3.5 pounds with no bone.  It is what I had in the freezer, so I used it.  I used DM's Brine (with the pink curing salt) for for about 9 hours.  Rinsed and dried it.  Used vegetable oil for the binder and used Famous Dave's Rib Rub then let it sit in the fridge for about 4 hours.  I used 1.5 oz of hickory and .5 oz of cherry.  Set the SI #1 for 225 deg.  It took 7 1/2 hours to reach 195.  That surprised me,  I was expecting more like 5 or 6 hours because of the size.  The result was perfect.  It had to be the best pulled pork I have ever eaten.  It was tender, moist, terrific flavor, and what a wonderful bark flavor.  I couldn't stop eating it.  My wife liked it a lot also, and that is quite a feat to get her to actually like something like that.  I am so excited that it came out that good.  The best thing I have cooked to date.  I couldn't have gotten there without all the posting on this board.  Followed everyone's recommendations and seemed to bypass the learning curve.  I am sure that all things won't be this easy, but this one came out what I would call perfect.  The flavor was phenomenal.  Perfect amount of smoke flavor, and the most wonderful flavor pulled pork I have ever had.
I think you can tell I am excited.  Thank you all for all your postings and comments. I could not have accomplished this without you.   What a perfect way to get into smoking.

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[rpindianajones]

I forgot to mention, which you can see in the picture, the Frogmats are absolutely great.  When it was time to get it out, I just grabbed the corner of the mat with my fingers ( it is not hot) and slid it right onto a tray.  Not a single drip hit the deck.  Nothing sticks to the Frogmat so getting the pork onto a platter is very easy.  Clean up is a cinch.  I ordered a 19" x 34" and cut it into 6 equal pieces.  They are the perfect size for my #1.  Cost is less than $6 each that way.  I can't imagine cooking without them.  I highly recommend them.

[SconnieQ]

The Frogmats are great. I use them mostly for fish, but they are useful for everything. You have experienced the effect of smoking small pieces of meat. Pork butts less than say... 7 pounds or so... can take 2-3 hours per pound, and the smaller the butt, the more hours per pound it takes. Think of it this way, pork butt just takes a certain amount of time for the connective tissue and collagen to convert to gelatin. Regardless of size. Whether you have a small butt, or a large butt, this conversion process just takes time. So cooking/smoke time is not necessarily a mathematical formula based on weight. The smaller the butt, the more hours/per pound it will take. Or... a 6 pound butt might take the same number of hours as a 10 pound butt, just because of the collagen to gelatin process that needs to happen.

[rpindianajones]

Thank you SconnieQ, your explanation makes lots of sense.  I had seen some references to the long cooking times for small pieces and couldn't really get my head around.   I understand better now.  The rendering process will take say 8 hours, the size of the meat will increase the time from there.  That sort of makes sense.  Probably won't be doing a small one again, but I had it so I felt I should use it before I bought more.  Thanks again.  I love this forum.