1st Boston Butt

T

TexasSmoke

New member
I am currently smoking my 1st boston butt.  It's 7 1/2 lbs and I covered it in oil and some of Rudy's rub (regional barbeque joint) and let it marinate overnight.  I used 5oz of hickory and added some water in a tray next to the smoker box.

I got my Auber set up and auto tuned last night. I had already seasoned the smoker earlier in the week.  I put the meat in the smoker at 8:30am.  I am figuring it will take about 15 hours (2 hours per lbs).  I hope to hit the mark by 11:30pm.

When I got home at 6:00pm I was square in the stall holding at 160 degrees and I am hoping the magic is really happening.  The Auber is doing a great job and it has been locked on 225 every time I have checked.  I am shooting for an IT of 195.  I have decided not to foil the butt and go for the best bark I can get.

Once I get to 195 should I wrap and rest the meat before I pull it?  How long?

Any other suggestions?  Thanks for the forum it has been fun getting set up for the 1st one.
 
Hey Ron, welcome to the club. Great combination with the #3 and the auber, you will produce some great Q and have many friends and family asking, or should I say begging for more.

In regards to your smoke, I usually allow 1.5 hours per pound, therefore your smoke should be complete within 12 hours for a 7.5 lbs butt, especially if you are holding a consistant temperature with the auber.

When complete, I would wrap and rest for at least 1 hour, or even 2 hours if you can wait.  Even if you wrap for 2 hours, it will still be warm and ready to pull. Allowing it to rest will really allow those juices to make the meat nice and moist.

Happy smoking and post some pics.
 
Tony is right on, although my butts usually are usually in the 2 hour per pound range.

I would say a minimum of 30 minute rest, but 1-2 hours is best. I have recently been resting 2 hours and the meat is still very hot after the two hours.

It sounds like you are well on your way to some great pulled pork.

Make sure to post some pics.
 
Well the first one is done....finally.  It tastes great (if you like pulled pork for breakfast) and I was very surprised at how well the bark turned out. The Auber was awesome.  I thought it was not working correctly at first because it was locked on 225 and never moved.  I stuck my trusty digital thermostat in the smoke hole and it confirmed the 225.

But here is my big issue. It took 22 hours to get to an IT of 190.  I thought maybe I had a bad Auber probe but I confirmed the IT of 190 with my digital when I pulled the butt out.

Any ideas of where I can improve the time?  I did not brine this one.  I will in the future.  I did not use foil during the smoke.  I had 5oz of hickory, a small tray of water on the floor of the smoker next to the smoker box.  It had about 2" of straight water.  The Auber was set for 225 until an IT of 195.  As I said I checked the Auber several times per hour and it was locked on 225. The ambient temp was in the low 60's.  There was only one shelf in the box and I had the meat directly on the grill.

It was a 7 1/2 lbs cut of pork and was fairly thick but not much different than the other to choose from.
 

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I had never read so many posts about long smokes until I joined this forum so I have been trying to rack my brain as to why.  Granted, I foil and have never had a smoke last more than 9 or 10 hours but I'm still very interested in understanding the "why?".  My personal view on pork butt is that it is a large cut that tends to be pretty forgiving.  That being said, I've never tried cooking one at 225.  At 240 - 250 I still get fantastic results so I wonder how much time is added to a cook with a 20 degree cooking temp difference?
 
While 7.5 pounds is not really that small, it is on the smaller size of the ones that I usually smoke. I usually get the two-packs at Sam's and they average 8-9lbs. We have recently been hearing a lot of occurrences of smaller pieces of meat taking longer or as long as larger pieces. I don't have an explanation for this yet, but know it is not uncommon. It could be because you didn't brine, although I always thought the brining typically actually increased the smoke time. Every cut of meat is different and you may have just got a stubborn one. ;)

Dave, you make some good points. Like you have said of me, I am a bit set in my ways (and I admit it ;)). So, I haven't really tried upping the temp. I just do it the tried and true way that I have found works best for me when it comes to Boston Butts. I like to experiment with a lot of things, but with as many BB that I have smoked over the years with a variety of different methods in different smokers, I really think I have this process down to the point that for me, I don't think I would change anything other than the rubs and binders that I love to experiment with.

My schedule of putting it on at midnight and it being done for the next day's dinner works perfectly for me. I am an evening person and am routinely up until Midnight or later. So, I wouldn't really want to speed up the process as this would require me to get up early and put it on. Coincidently, since I am an evening person, it makes sense that I am not a morning person. I still like the low and slow method plus skipping the Texas Crutch hassle aspect of smoking at 225 too. Although, you could make the point that technically 250 is relatively low as compared to grill and oven cooking.

I know you are not the only one that cooks their butts at higher temps with no issues. I think Ed (AKA es1025) smokes his at 235 or so usually and has really good results.

Ultimately, I am not sure how big of a difference it makes between 225 and 240-250. Like I said earlier, I mainly do it because the timing works out perfectly for me, and I like the simplicity of putting it in at Midnight and not touching it until it is time to pull out and rest.
 
One thing that I suspect adds time to the smoke relative to my previous smoking experience is the time it takes for our cold smokers to get up to cooking temps, hence, I tried starting a thread to see how long others with my model were experiencing to get up to program temps.  With a propane smoker, I was there in minutes.  With the SI, I'm over an hour and a half to even get to a good smoking temperature.  With a lot of guys having units with the smaller heating elements, I wonder what they are experiencing? 
 
My #3 definitely takes longer than my Propane Masterbuilt XL. But I would say, I am up to 225 within 30-45 minutes. I always start at 140 for 45 minutes before I bump up to 225. So, it has been a long time since I have started from scratch and went to 225.

90+ minutes to get to smoking temp does seem a bit long though.
 
SuperDave said:
NDKoze said:
90+ minutes to get to smoking temp does seem a bit long though.
Click to expand...
Enormous volume of a #4?  I'm hoping that I see the plus side of this on my cheese smoke.  ;)
Click to expand...

Yeah, that could be. But with the increased size of the #4 element, I would have hoped that that would have accounted for the big size.

But way to look at the bright side, it could be a plus when trying to cold smoke your cheese.

Do you have the #4 cold plate or an A-MAZE-N smoker? Or how are you going to try to keep the temps down?
 
Ron, the butt looks great!  Try upping your temp to 235-240.  It won't make a difference on the pork butt, as far as quality.  I have never had a butt go longer than 1.5 hours per pound, so I understand Super Dave's comments, too!  I don't know if it's the meat from a particular region, or what, but I've smoked a lot of butts, and never encountered those loooong smoke times!

Gregg - brining actually decreases smoke time.  Not sure of the science as to "why," but it does.
 
Some years ago before I had a smoker and was experimenting with infrared on charcoal and gas grills I noticed that when a meat, any variety, was brined the cooking times were significantly reduced.  I think I read, or reasoned, that the extra moisture in the meat from brining conducts the heat more so than without the extra moisture which explains the reduced time to come to a temp. as compared to not brined. If I remember the weber site has some good info on this subject.
 
Thanks for the correction on the brining. I have always brined them since I got my Smoking-It, so I wasn't 100% sure.
 
I have had butts take as long as 3 hours per pound. Mine are usually in the 2-3 hours per pound range. Not sure why mine seem to take longer than others (even with brining), but your experience at 22 hours (about 3 hours per pound) does not seem totally out-of-whack to me. Turning up to 250 should be fine for butts if you feel the need to speed it up.
 
SuperDave said:
DivotMaker said:
TexasSmoke said:
Now what to do next?
Click to expand...

Full-packer brisket, of course! ;)
Click to expand...
You throw him in the deep end of the pool quick, Tony.  LOL!
Click to expand...

Hey Dave, it's "sink or swim time," baby!  lol.  Naaa, that end of the pool isn't that deep, with the help he'll get from us! 8)  His briskie will make any Texan proud!
 
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