Cooking Boston Butts This Weekend

The friendliest place on the web for anyone that enjoys cooking.
If you have answers, please help by responding to the unanswered posts.

Greg Rempe

Web Celeb
Moderator Emeritus
Joined
Jan 4, 2005
Messages
8,177
Location
Cleveland, Ohio
Steve...I think NC style is more geared to the sauce you would use at the end. Getting there it should be the same...more or less.

Typically, I rub my butts with Texas BBQ rub or Fatz PigPowder. Depending on the mood, I'll use some woshti sauce or plain yellow mustard as a top coat and then apply the rub. This is done while the coals are getting fired up in the chimey via the Minion Method.

I like to keep my butts chilly so a bigger smoke ring will build around the butt! Then, when the twenty coals are ashed over, I pour them over the top of the unlit coals in the ring, assemble the smoker, meat and all, and then watch the pit temp rise. I keep all bottom vents open 100% and the top vent 100% also. When the pit gets to 200* I start closing down the vents...typically I close the one that might get the most wind all the way down and then adjust the other two to about 1/3 of the way open and thenwatch to see where the pit settles. I make adjustemnts from there. The top vent is always 100% open!!

Usually, the ramp up process takes an hour or so depending on the wind. Then it's off to bed for me. If there is some variance in temp I don't concern myself so much with that...as long as it isn't a huge spike that lasts a long time.

I figure 2 hours a pound or so and pull it when its 195* internal temp. Then wrap it in some towels and rest it in a dry cooler for a few hours. Then pull and enjoy...that's how I do it Steve :!:
 
Jersey BBQ said:
GREG... How long will the WSM go at 225 while your SLEEPING? Geez this is sounding too good to be true. I am currently "re-tooling" my BBQ operation.. replacing an ECB and New Braunfels offset with a new Gator Pit and a WSM. This butt cookin' while I am sleeping sounds good. I was wondering, doesn't the charcoal put off a smell when they light from scratch? Compared to when they are lit and greyed over?

Jersey,

With some minor adjustments and a full ring of Kingsford, I have gotten 22hrs of burn time (HONESTLY!!!) and others will vouche for the long burn times as well! :D

I would love to add a Gator to my repitoire as well but it's just not in the budget right now! :-( On the TVWB, there is a lady named Keri who has a big stick burner that they use often but only use the WSM for butts becuase of its consistent temps without the hassel of constantly putting in a log to keep the heat. It is a plus but I would rather have an off-set if I had my druthers. I have done numerous butt cooks overnight where I have gone to bed at 11pm with the temps at 230 or so and woke the next morning at 8am and the WSM is still going strong and holding temp.

As far as putting off a bad taste...that is not the case. Jim Minion has a better expalnation than me on why this doesn't happen but I think it has something to do with the fact that they are all not lighting at once or something :) :) . Whatever the case, the taste is good and it does not give the butt a bad taste at all!

Hope that helps!! :(
 
Steve Z said:
Thanks Fatz I will if it gets here in time :D :D

Greg so if I understand you right it does not matter what rub I use?

A different rub will make the bark tatse different. Fatz's is more shake-able and TXBBQ has more of a thicker feel to it. Either one is really good and I have tried them both and would refer either as well!! :!: =P~
 
Steve Z said:
I'm planning on cooking 2 butts one is 4 lbs and the other is about 6.5. I want to put a dry rub on one (such as Texas bbq or Fatz rub). The other one I would like to cook North Carolina style. This would be my first time cooking butts. I would to know how you cook yours and your NC recipe that you use. BTW I'm cooking with a WSM.

Thanks For Your Help In Advance :D :D :D

Steve

Steve,
Cook the butts with a dome temp between the 240-260 range until you get an internal temp of 190*. Double wrap in HD Aluminum Foil, wrap in a heavy towel or blanket and let rest in a dry pre-heated cooler for at least an hour, 2-3 hours is even better. They will still be too hot to touch, so don't worry about the length of time they are in the cooler.

For the traditional pulled pork, just pull it and apply additional rub and your sauce of choice if desired.

For the NC style pull the meat off the bone in chunks and with a good sized sharp knife chop it until you get almost a shredded consistency in the meat. Mix the meat with the vinegar sauce as desired.

For the sauce, I use apple cider vinegar, black pepper, red pepper flakes, little bit of chili powder, and a touch of sugar. Make the sauce the day before. Combine all of the ingredients, bring to a boil, let cool and put into a shaker bottle.
 
Welcome Smokehouse! You'll find a lot of folks who just use water in the pan, but some use sand...I've used both, and they both work pretty well. Sand is a little easier to clean, cause you just put foil over the sand and simply remove it afterwards....that's good for long cooks too, cause you don't have to replenish sand like you do with water.
 
They'll be pretty similar...Rempe just went to work, but he'll be here later with more details.

I find that the sand takes a little longer to heat up, but is more stable afterwards. Your vent settings will vary depending on certain conditions...wind, temps, etc.

Butts are easy, and the perfect choice to break in your WSM. Don't worry much about temp spikes and drops....just try to get used to adjusting your vents to maintain a steady temperature in your chosen range.

Larry is alkso a great source of info on this, he'll also be along shortly,.
 
Captain Morgan said:
They'll be pretty similar...Rempe just went to work, but he'll be here later with more details.

I find that the sand takes a little longer to heat up, but is more stable afterwards. Your vent settings will vary depending on certain conditions...wind, temps, etc.

Butts are easy, and the perfect choice to break in your WSM. Don't worry much about temp spikes and drops....just try to get used to adjusting your vents to maintain a steady temperature in your chosen range.

Larry is alkso a great source of info on this, he'll also be along shortly,.

Thanks Cappy!

They way I've been using the MM is like this. I'll load up the charcoal ring with coal and wood chunks and make a hole in the middle of the bed of charcoal. Then I assemble the cooker, using sand and put the meat directly onto the cooker before adding the lit coals. I then put the ET-73 Probe half way into the thickest piece of the meat I am cooking and place the lid onto the cooker. Then I pour the already lit coals (warm days 10/colder days 15-20) into a metal bowel and with a good sized metal sppon, load them into the hole into the bed of charcoal. All of the vents are 100% open and especially like Greg said the top vent should always regardless of anything be open 100% or you will have soot and a rotten tasting piece of meat. This is due to improper ventilation which causes the charcoal and wood to smolder vs. slow burn. Leave the vents fully open until you get 200* and I always close all three 75%, leaving 25% open. I will normally get about a 5-10* temperature drop, but within 5-10 minutes the temp is climbing and will slowly climb into the 240-260* dome temp (giving you a top grate temp between 225-245) and stay there for many many hours with no adjusting whatsoever. Just be patient, the more adjustments you make to your cooker the longer and more frustrating your cook will be due to temp drops and spikes. After several hours you may start to see the temp drop a little. If so tap all the sides of the cooker with your fist to get the ash build up to fall through the grates. But not too hard or you will get ash on your meat. I hope this helps and just remember each WSM may burn (hotter/colder) than others so use the advice as a guide not as a rule.
 
Patience is a virtue....if you're running hot and you close the vents just to a slit, it will still take time for the unit to cool down, and vice versa. Again, don't panic, it's really not going to affect your cook much if your 20 degrees hotter than you want for half an hour or so. Butts are forgiving....just have fun!
 
WSM's are porcelain coated so they don't really need seasoning. You can spray the inside if you want, but I don't think it's necessary.
 
I coated mine with veggie oil and then burned kingsford in there for a good while at about 350*...but like cappie said, no real need to...I took seasoning advice from Glenn R. :!:
 
Captain Morgan said:
WSM's are porcelain coated so they don't really need seasoning. You can spray the inside if you want, but I don't think it's necessary.

Cappy's right, no need to season! Fill 'er up with meat and have fun!
 
Steve Z said:
It's 1:30 in the morning I just put 2 Boston Butts on the Smoker. On one I put woos sauce and Texas BBQ rub. The other I put mustard and Larry Wolfes BBQ rub. (Thanks Larry for being so kind for making the rub and dropping it off @ the house). I'll stay up for about another hour and keep an eye on the temps. :( :(

Steve, no problem it's my pleasure. I hope you like it. It's 7:49am, hows the cook going? We had heavy rain last night, did it effect the cook any?
 
Steve Z said:
I got up @ 6:30 and the temp was @ 293* I had the vents open just a tad. I added cold water to the pan and took the lid off for a while. I think the probe went bad so I switched em. The small butt is @ a temp of 157* and I got the temp down to 220* @ grill level. Still playing with the vents. But it smells real good. Too bad I didn't cook this earlier I would have it for breakfast :D :D

Steve leave the lid on, make the adjustments with the lower vents. Taking the lid off is gonna give you some flare ups. If your temp won't go down, close the bottom vents 100%, and add ice cubes to the water pan. The temp will go down, just not instantaneously.
 
No need to panic...butts are very forgiving....I've fallen asleep and found
temps over 300! You'll be fine....as far as removing the lid, if you feel you must, just take it off and hold it upside down for a few seconds to let the hot air escape. The replace the lid...this is called a heat dump, and is really necessary only in extreme situations. No biggie, let her rip.

Are you familiar with the plateau level of the meat?
 
Back
Top Bottom