tough butt

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smokincoalkracker

Fire Starter
Original poster
Mar 6, 2009
44
11
Indian Trail, North Carolina
What causes a tough butt? I smoked two 8 lb. butts to the recomended internal temps. They looked ok and like I said the internal temps were about 165 deg. F. Unfortunatly the meat was like leather and very difficult to pull apart. Is some meat just tough? I was going to wrap in foil and recook for a few hours but I didn't. I rubbed the meat 24 hours ahead of time. I didn't marinate. I'm not sure what to think. These were the Sam's club cryovac butts.
 
for the butts to be pull apart I find that I take them to 195-205 internal temp, Hercules would be needed to pull them apart at 165.

IMHO
 
165 is a safe temperature to eat them and be safe from microbes. But as you found out, the meat is tough. As stated above, you need a much higher temperature for good eating.
 
Pulling at 165 was the problem. Next time wrap in foil with a little AJ and bring the temp up to 200-205 then it's like butter
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great advice..............lesson learned. Might be able to slow simmer in a crock pot to get something decent out of it!
 
As was said at 165 degrees foil it and take it up to 200-205 and it will be very tender. You can add a little apple juice and put into the crock pot and it should become tender after enough time
 
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