Basic Pulled Pork Smoke

[northwet smoker]

I too have to thank Meowy for posting this. My first butt went off without a hitch yesterday thanks to these instructions. Thanks Meowy.

 

[meowey]

You are most welcome! glad it went well!

Take care, have fun, and do good!

Regards,

Meowey

 

[charlied20]

My thanks to Meowey as well. My first came out GREAT!!! Thanks again!!

 

[bill-n-jeanine_fl]

I've got to pass our thanks along as well. Following meowy's instructions, using Jeff's rub and SoFlaQuer's finishing sauce led to some very nice and tasty grub this weekend.

Going to have to do it again next weekend... as an experiment... just to make sure it wasn't a fluke... yea... that's the reason....

 

[meowey]

Reason, who needs a reason! LOL

Take care, have fun, and do good!

Regards,

Meowey

 

[teleburst]

Having read about the great results that some have had with charring beef brisket, I was wondering if you get the same result with butt.

 

[meowey]

I don't know, as I have never tried it. If you do, please report back to us. We would like to know how it comes out.

Take care, have fun, and do good!

Regards,

Meowey

 

[bill-n-jeanine_fl]

I was actually thinking the same thing, but I think we're going to go brisket this weekend instead... try the charred butt the following maybe.

If we go that route, we'll be sure to post some Q-view...

 

[teleburst]

Can you give me a rough breakdown about the time of each step? When you say 1 to 1.5 hrs per pound, are you talking about total time? Roughly how long does it take you to get to 165 degrees for 7 lbs? I realize that searing it will probably reduce this time, but i want to get a rough idea of how long the separate steps take, since I'm shooting to have it finished for the last hour rest by about 1pm Sat. afternoon (I want to take this to work at 2:30 with me). What I'm trying to figure out is if I can do perhaps is sear it on my Weber around 9 Friday night, and do the bastings until around 1am and then just let it sit in the covered grill overnight while the coals die out and I sleep. I could then either finish it in the oven or either start up the Weber again or fire up the ECB electric, add a few more wood chips for good measure and open it up to keep the temperature lower to compensate for the additional time that it's sat in the Weber, which by morning would be pretty cool but would have continued to slow cook the meat through most of the night.

Any thoughts on how this sort of timing might affect cooking?

 

[meowey]

The 1.5 hours a pound is total cooking time. It's more of a guide to estimate time for planning as you are doing. Each piece of meat is different. I've had 7 pounders get to 165 in 4 hours while others have taken as much as 8 hours. The searing will probably reduce the time by some, but it is high heat for a very short time. I would take a WAG and say that it might reduce the total time by 3/4 to 1 hour. Your 9PM start time sounds good idea. I would smoke and spray until it gets to 165°, double foil and then put it in a pan in a 225° oven and get some sleep. You can hold it foiled in a 200° oven for a couple hours if it finishes early before resting and pulling. (I am assuming that you are going to 200° internal meat temp for purposes of pulling.)

Hope this helps!

Take care, have fun, and do good!

Regards,

Meowey

 

[teleburst]

Thanks. This helps. Do you see any problems with just keeping it in the Weber overnight and letting the coals just die down (maybe feed them once about 1am)? I was thinking that this would keep it at a "holding temp" of an average of about 120 degrees (air temp) over the 6 - 8 hours, but this might actually bring it fairly closely to finish. I wanted to try to finish it up as close to 1:30 Sat. as possible so I wanted to finish it up a bit later.. I suppose that I could get up early and do it normally but that would mean starting it about 5am to be on the safe side.

I guess I'm wondering about the wisdom of letting the internal temp drop as the coals die only to bring it back up again hours later.

Don't know if I'm making sense here...sounds like I'm babbling a little...

 

[johnd49455]

I think getting that butt up to 200* then putting it in a cooler wrapped in towels to keep it hot is better. It will keep hot for a long time & I think keeps the moisture in the meat for pulling when you are ready.

 

[meowey]

As long as the temp of the meat does not drop below 140°F there should not be a problem. Once you get the temps above that you want to keep it out of the "danger zone" of 40-140°F where bacteria thrive. I still recommend that you let it idle in the oven if you can do that because you can be sure of maintaining a steady heat.

Good luck with the smoke!

Take care, have fun, and do good!

Regards,

Meowey

 

[teleburst]

Hmmm, considering my need to get it finished by 1:00 so that I can let it rest for an hour before pulling it, any ideas about when I should start it? I'm not so worried about the internal temperature dropping below 140 by morning for a couple of reasons - 1st, the danger zone has a 4 hour window, and 2nd, I'm going to bring it up to 200 anyway (this is addressing meowey's point).

I guess you're saying that the meat might dry out as it cools, right?

I really want to avoid having to get up at 5am to start it, but I will if I have to. I was just trying to figure out a way to get at least 6 or 7 hours sleep while it's cooking because getting up at 5am will give me a 18 hour day (my shift that night will probably last to at least 11pm).

Maybe I'll do the hold in the oven thing that meowey mentioned rather than trying to finish it in the Weber or the Brinkmann. I also have to factor in that I'm going to experiment with charring the butt (yes, I'm willing to experiment for the common good!) That's probably going to knock an hour off the cook time. What I might do is tamper with the procedure a little and put it in the oven after a couple of hours and let it simmer at around 180 for the night and then finish it on either the Brinkmann or the Weber. At least I'd have a solid internal temperature to work with when I got up. that would give me some guidance about how long to finish it up.

Would you say that I could keep it warm for up to 4 hours using the cooler/towel?

 

[meowey]

I've put 200° butts into a cooler, wrapped in towels, and they were still 185° after 2 plus hours. 4 hours should not be much of a problem.

Take care, have fun, and do good!

Regards,

Meowey

 

[teleburst]

Sorry to be such a pest but do they stay as tender if they drop in temperature. Basically, is the key just getting it to 200 degrees in the first place? Obviously I know that if you let it get too cool, it will tend to toughen up. But it should be fine as long as it stays up in the 170plus range, shouldn't it?

 

[johnd49455]

I have had butts in the cooler for over 6 hours & they were getting close to he 140* mark butt still hot enough. For my daughters open house I cooked them Tuesday for the open house on Saturday. I pulled them on Tuesday & put the pulled pork in vacuum bags. 1 gallon was perfect for each butt with a little finishing sauce to keep them moist. The day of the open house I dropped a bag in boiling water to reheat. When I opened each bag it was like I had just pulled them, perfect.

 

[meowey]

Yes. It stays tender if you completely cooled, packed in foodsaver or zip lock bags, and reheated (in the bags) in hot water. I usually smoke mine 2 or 3 days ahead of time (depending on my schedule), bag, and reheat. That way I know it will be ready when I want to serve it, and it does not mess too much with my sleep. I've frozen it for a month, reheated, served, and it is still tender. I highly recommend a foodsaver system for this purpose.

Good luck, and enjoy your smoke! Please post q-view in a new thread.

Have fun, take care, and do good!

Regards,

Meowey

 

[dadwith4daughters]

What Meowey said on the Foodsaver. Just be careful with it...when I got mine for Fathers Day I vacuum packed almost everything in the cupboard and fridge. Therapy has helped ween me from my sealer. .

I did a big Q (90lbs of butts) 3 days in advance. Pulled'em that night. Stuck'em in the 250 degree oven day-of for 2 hours and it was fine. sounds like timing is key for you so don't sweat it, do ahead.

 

[b-deep]

I just wanted to say I have done this twice, the last time for a 4th of July party. I smoked 30 pounds in my ECB, it was pushing the limits to be sure! But everything turned out GREAT, I swear every person at the party complimented me on the pork, and several want me to smoke it for them some time.

And we had a lot left over.


Thanks so much for this, it is really simple and gets AWESOME results.


and use the finishing sauce, it is perfection!