Boston Butt

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stugots

Newbie
Original poster
Jun 1, 2013
9
10
Midlothian, Virginia
So here is a picture of my 8 pound Boston Butt at the halfway point of a 12 hour smoke. I just put the internal probe in it and it is currently reading 152* so hopefully in about another 5 hours it will hit the golden mark at 195*.

 
I can smell it from here.  Looks amazing!

Kat
drool.gif
 
Well here is the finished butt. My only issue is that after 12 hours the internal temp never got above 165* It hit 165 about 8-9 hours into the cook but never got any higher. Cooking temp was pretty much right on 250* with a small amount of fluctuation higher and lower but nothing too crazy. My question is: should I have let it go longer? I took it off after 12 hours because the people we were having over for dinner started to show up.
 
So I guess time has less to do with the cooking and more focus is on the internal temp that you are shooting for. I always planed on having it finished for a certain time slot but now I will cook it until I hit my desired temp. How long does it usually hold at the plateau temp?
 
So I guess time has less to do with the cooking and more focus is on the internal temp that you are shooting for. I always planed on having it finished for a certain time slot but now I will cook it until I hit my desired temp. How long does it usually hold at the plateau temp?
stalls can vary greatly.

You can try foiling and bump the temps up to 275° 

Many folks give 2 hours per pound for a butt, so your'e looking at 16 hours.

But it's done when its done, I pull mine at an IT of 205°

You may get a quicker cook time without the pan, I am not sure so I will leave that up to the folks familiar with your smoker.

My stickburner averages 80 min a pound and less unfoiled at 260 -275.
 
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So I guess time has less to do with the cooking and more focus is on the internal temp that you are shooting for. I always planed on having it finished for a certain time slot but now I will cook it until I hit my desired temp. How long does it usually hold at the plateau temp?
stalls can vary greatly.

You can try foiling and bump the temps up to 275° 

Many folks give 2 hours per pound for a butt, so your'e looking at 16 hours.

But it's done when its done, I pull mine at an IT of 205°

You may get a quicker cook time without the pan, I am not sure so I will leave that up to the folks familiar with your smoker.

My stickburner averages 80 min a pound and less unfoiled at 260 -275.
Sqwib hit it right on the head.  No problems with shooting for a time, just remember that the time is going to be an estimate, and also helps to use the 2 hour per pound as a general rule of thumb.

Great thing about butts is that they can be held for quite a long time once they've hit the desired IT.  IF your dinner is planned for 6:00, work backwards from there giving yourself 2 hours per pound, PLUS a couple extra hours to rest and pull your pork.  For an 8 pounder, call it 18 hours total time.   Say that you put the Butt on at 10PM.   16 hours of cook time would take it to 2PM.   When the butt reaches 205 or thereabouts, pull it out, double wrap it in foil, then in a towel and place it in a cooler to rest.   At 4pm or thereabouts, take it out of the cooler and pull it.  If you pull it quickly, you might put it in the oven at lowest setting to hold until serving.

All of these timings can be adjusted as needed.   IF your butt finishes early, at noon perhaps, that's fine.  You can safely let it rest foiled in the cooler until 4.  Or if you want, remove and pull at 2pm, spritz with apple juice, cover and put in oven on lowest setting possible.

Thing to remember is that a Butt is not a ribeye.  You don't have to time it so that it hits the perfect temp 20 mins before serving time allowing for some time to rest.  Get it done early and have time to mingle/converse with your dinner guests   :)

As for how long it holds at the plateau temp, it varies.  Sometimes a butt won't even go through a stall stage.  With some butts, you might get a double stall.  
 
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Thanks for all the information. After today I have 5 days off from work so I plan on doing another butt in that time frame and will use your words of wisdom.

Thanks again,

Tony
 
Letting it go to 195-200*F with a rest would make it fall apart tender, optimum. However, in a pinch anything above 165*F will be good Sliced or if for sandwiches...Chop the meat fine and proceed as if it went the distance. Few would know the difference. Estimating cook times, 225-250*F average 2 hours per Lb, 250-275, 1.5/Lb. You can shave about 30 mins per pound with each 25 degree increase up to about 30 minutes per pound at 350*F...JJ
 
Thanks Chef JimmyJ and the rest of you who replied,

The pork turned out really tasty and some of it was pretty tender so all in all it ended up a good dinner with none left at the end. I plan on doing another one this weekend and I will use all the tips you all have given me.

Thanks again,

Tony
 
 
OK so I did another 10 pound shoulder this weekend. I brined it for 24 hours and put on a homemade rub with the usual ingredients on top of a yellow mustard coating. Put it in the smoker at 10:00 pm on Friday night and let it go through to about noon on Saturday hovering at 250* to 260*. Internal temp got to 170* and stayed so I cranked the heat up to 300* and got the internal up to 200* at around 2:00 pm so I pulled it out, wrapped it in foil and a blanket and put it in a cooler for an additional hour. Well I took it out and it shredded with 2 forks and was so tender. I mixed in a little of some NC vinegar based bbq sauce and I must swear that it was the best pulled pork that I have ever tasted and all of the people at the party said the same. Sorry no pictures but I was way too busy with all the stuff going on around here. Thanks for all the tips and words of wisdom!!!
 
OK so I did another 10 pound shoulder this weekend. I brined it for 24 hours and put on a homemade rub with the usual ingredients on top of a yellow mustard coating. Put it in the smoker at 10:00 pm on Friday night and let it go through to about noon on Saturday hovering at 250* to 260*. Internal temp got to 170* and stayed so I cranked the heat up to 300* and got the internal up to 200* at around 2:00 pm so I pulled it out, wrapped it in foil and a blanket and put it in a cooler for an additional hour. Well I took it out and it shredded with 2 forks and was so tender. I mixed in a little of some NC vinegar based bbq sauce and I must swear that it was the best pulled pork that I have ever tasted and all of the people at the party said the same. Sorry no pictures but I was way too busy with all the stuff going on around here. Thanks for all the tips and words of wisdom!!!
Congrats  Stugots.   Now you've established yourself a kind of "baseline" for future butt smokes.  For a 10#'er, you had 14 hours in the 250 - 260 range.  That's 1.4 hrs per pound.  Then 2 hours at 300, or .2 hrs per pound.    Numbers will roughly scale for other sizes of butts if the other variables are kept the same. 
 
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