my butt's are smokin' - how 'bout yours?

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sumosmoke

Master of the Pit
Original poster
OTBS Member
SMF Premier Member
Dec 29, 2007
3,420
75
New Smyrna Beach, FL
The SMF Forum chat room members (Pineywoods, Ron50, desertiles, travcom, to name a few...) have convinced me it's time to graduate from ribs and london broil, to a boston butt. Not only did they convince me, the encouraged me; another great thing about this site -the camaraderie!

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I'm smoking these butts to make pulled pork for my office buddies, including my boss. Am in this for the long haul and can't wait until the finished product is produced!!!

Here's the low-down on my boston butt smoke:

Details:
1. 2 - bone-in butts (9.3 lbs, and 4lbs)
2. Jeff's rub - didn't have time to marinate, applied just before placing on smoker
3. wood = hickory chips
4. Water pan contains 50/50 mixture of water and cherry juice (WDs use on the mother bird motivated me to try this in the pan, instead as a spritz)
5. Outside temp. 83 deg
6. Internal smoker temp = 225-230 deg F

Plan:
1. Maintain smoker temp at 225-250 deg F range. Add wood chips as necessary to maintain TBS
2. Once internal temp of meat hits 100 deg F spritz meat with 3:1 mixture of juice and rum - does the idea of using a mixture of 3:1 cherry juice with spiced rum sound alright????
3. Once internal temp of meat hits 165 deg F double wrap meat in heavy duty aluminum foil, spritz the meat again prior to sealing up and continue smoking until internal temp hits 195-205 deg F
4. Remove foiled meat from smoker and wrap up meat tightly with foil.
5. Place meat in cooler, covered with a few heavy towels. and let meat rest for an hour.
6. Unwrap meat and move to pan, begin the shredding process!!!
7. Douse the meat with my favorite bbq sauce - Dreamland (based in Tuscaloosa, AL) and cover up for sammies the next day.

Here's some q-vue to kick off the post. Will update with more pics as available:

Picture of boston butts, bone-in. Big one is 9.3 lb., the smaller is 4 lb. I didn't measure the thickness, but would estimate it between 5 to 6 inches.






Jeff's magic rub - love this stuff!




Butt's rubbed and resting - awaiting their fate on the grills
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Butt's on the grills



It's a beautiful day, looking forward to this smoke!
 
Sounds like a good plan sumo. You could go 50/50 on the spray if you want that's what I have been doing. Post more qview as the tbs smoke progresses.

Jason
 
Lookin' good, Laurel!! Enjoy your smoke and be sure to take plenty of pics for us Iowegians that got stuck back into the deep freeze this weekend...<grumbles>.
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I don't think your cherry juice/rum ratio makes a whole lot of difference...I've seen some one here that mix 50/50 ratio of juice/alcohol-of-choice. I still like that cherry juice idea....sounds delicious to me...
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L8r,
Eric
 
Looks good
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solid plan cherry spritz sounds good. Keep the Qview coming and I'd be the one doing ribs today
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Thanks gang for taking a peek at my butts!
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Here's an update on where we are 2 hours and 30 minutes into the smoke.

Internal temperature of the larger cut is around 100 deg F, the smaller cut is hovering around 118-120 deg F. Gave the babies their first drink of a spritz (3:1 mixture of cherry juice to spiced rum, total of 1 cup).

Crewcab - when this 1st cup of spritz runs out, I'll up the ratio to 50/50, thanks for the suggestion! Jerry - where's the q-vue of those ribs??
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Thanks Kookie and Eric for the posts!

Updated q-vue:

Spritz ingredients




Butts pre-spritz





Butts post-spritz




 
More q-vue as these pieces o' meat are still smokin' along. Internal temps are 139 deg and 131 deg F, the larger piece of meat being warmer than the smaller.

Smoker temps have been hovering around 225-230 deg F.

Smells good outside. As long as the skeeters aren't biting it's a great evening to be outside.
 
Lookin good glad all is going well forming good bark too
 
Good looking smoke sumo.
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I am interested in your thoughts about the cherry juice. I have seen a few people post about it recently. I guess I should just try it myself, but opinions are welcome. Thx in advance!!!
 
been busy around the house today,have a chanch to peek at your butts you Hussy!Laurel those look great-and I love the intro & play by play as they progress-just 1 suggestion is when you pull the little 1 and rest it for a hr. in the cooler-see how it pulls,somtimes I find I need to let mine rest longer for a more easy pull-anyway looks like you have a handle on things and great pics gal. Points to u. great job!
 
Great looking smoke! I have two of the larger ones in the freezer. Guess it's time to get one out. Your Qview is making me hungry!
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Nice butts! They look great, I usually use fruit punch or berry juice; cherry will give a nice bark.
 
After logging out of the chat room around 11:45pm last night (thanks Bob and Jerry for hanging in there with me
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) I gave the butts one last check. Internal meat temps were steady around 168 and 170 and they were going through the plateau phase of the smoke. Smoker temp was steady 225deg F.

Set the alarm for 1:30am and woke to check on the butts. The little one moved to 190 and the 9.3lb was still around 170. Smoker temp still steady at 225 deg. F.

Re-set alarm for 3am and must've slapped that sucker's snooze button 'cause next thing I know, hubby was shaking me asking "is the meat done?" - 4am. Ran outside and the 9.3lb still said 168 at this point I'm thinking there might be something wrong with my manual dial in that one. Little 4lb was at 200. Hoping for the best on the big butt, I pulled both and triple wrapped them in foil, and placed into a cooler to rest (towel was placed on top of meat to keep as much heat in as possible).

Woke up at 11am, rest time was 6 hours! Pulled butts from cooler, unwrapped, and smoking euphoria was achieved! Butts smelled great, pulled as easy as melted butter, and was an overall success!!!! Couldn't have done it without my SMF buddies! Thanks again!!!

Final pics after pulled from cooler:









To those that asked about the cherry juice, it turned out really well and will definitely do it again. Provided a mild, non-sweet flavor. The only modification I'd make is to add some apple juice to the mix.

Time to settle down and watch the Penguins whoop up on the Rangers!
 
LOL - yes he has, Tip. Not only did he wake me up to check the q, he sleep walked out to the kitchen to nab him a piece before slumberin' back to bed!
 
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