Overnight Pork Butt questions

[Smoking Audi]

We decided to smoke a butt for the weekend but also decided to try it for an overnight smoke.

Traeger Pro 34 pellet pooper for the smoke. Love the Traeger but would like to have more temp options. My choices are SMOKE, 180, or 225 for the lower end of things.

We were thinking of setting it to 180 and let it run 12+ hours overnight. Or should we pick a different temp?

Trial run for an overnight smoke before we do an overnight brisket.

 

[JLeonard]

I'm not a pooper user.....Lots of guys will chime in here soon.

Jim

 

[Smoke-Chem BBQ]

I'd go with 225F. I'd be concerned if using 180F that the inside of the pork shoulder wouldn't reach a safe temperature (140+) fast enough. You don't want your meat between 40F and 140F for more than 4 hours. 40F to 140F is the danger zone for bacterial growth.

 

[smokerjim]

I second the 225.

 

[Jarhead6870]

When I do an overnighter on the RecTec 700, I start at 225 and check internal temp next morning, 10-12 hours, and decide at that point if I want to leave it at 225 or up it to 250-275 degrees.

 

[thirdeye]

I'm not a pellet guy, but I can't even guess as to how many butts or briskets I've cooked overnight. The first questions would be how big of a butt do you have? And how close are you going to trim it?

Safety wise, you want the surface temp to equal or exceed 140° after 4 hours, and chances are you have a salty rub working in your favor too.

Flavor wise and smoke ring wise, colder meat and lower pit temps will help with both.

Reliability wise, your Traeger isn't as difficult as holding a low temp charcoal fire. In other words 180° is really hard to maintain with charcoal.

So all that said, I'm sure you could pull off a 180° cook because after all, you know your equipment better than I do. But I would consider a few hours at 180°, then ramp up to 225°. After 7 or 8 hours you can always ramp back down to 180° if you are cooking too fast.

 

[pineywoods]

If you didn't inject the butt I would set the smoker to the smoke setting until I was ready to go to bed then I would bump the smoker temp setting up to 225.
If you injected the butt then I'd set the smoker to 225 from the start

 

[Smoking Audi]

Alright just put it on. Set for 180F and it is rolling sone very nice smoke. Will check the IT at 10:30 and see if I can let it ride or turn it up to 225.

IT is starting at 50F

 

[tomhooper]

I'm just going to jump in here. I just put a couple of butts on 15 minutes ago.

Take what you want and forget the rest. I don't cook to time, I cook to temp. I'll cook these all night at around 215. Take them to an IT of 190. I'm figuring around 14 hours or so. Maybe more, maybe less. I won't open the Traeger again until morning just to take a picture. The beauty of butts is that you have to try real hard to mess one up. Here's my stuff.

Couple of big Boston Butts going on the pit tonight about dark.
Pulled pork sliders tomorrow.
Sweet Baby Ray’s (SBR) as a binder. They were out of Meat Church Honey Hog and I only had a little bit so I got some of the new Meat Church Texas Sugar, and a thing of Meat Church Holy Voo Doo and mixed them together for the rub.

I'll add some more pictures later.

 

[Smoking Audi]

My starting pic, used a shelf rub. Have to look up the name

 

[Smoking Audi]

Sitting around 105 at 3 hours in, bumped to 225

 

[bmudd14474]

moving along good.

 

[Texas Cookin']

I just did an overnight butt on my Traeger 2 nights ago. I went 225.

 

[DougE]

I'd go with 225F. I'd be concerned if using 180F that the inside of the pork shoulder wouldn't reach a safe temperature (140+) fast enough. You don't want your meat between 40F and 140F for more than 4 hours. 40F to 140F is the danger zone for bacterial growth.

Solid muscle that hasn't been injected or deboned only needs the surface temp to exceed 140° in 4 hours, not IT. If it has been injected or deboned, than the 140° IT in 4 hours applies. It's rare for me to even start temping until 4 or 5 hrs in on a longer cook like a butt.

 

[tomhooper]

Mine are sitting at around 165. Hit a stall around 2 this morning. Appear to be pushing through now. FYI I'm going on the cooking graph on my Meaters. I slept like a log.
Oh and I don't wrap mine to push through the stall. I just let it push through on its own. I don't like what the wrap does to my bark. Like I said earlier in my post, I don't cook to time, I cook to temp. And with pulled pork you have a huge leeway of time to eat after it reaches that temp. So I just start cooking with plenty of time available.

Sorry folks. Put up the wrong picture for early this morning. Here is the correct one,.

And now they are starting to look right.

 

[Smoking Audi]

Just woke up and will wrap soon. Traeger is sitting at 141 and my Govee is sitting at 154. Those 2 never seem to run together. Ran at 180 F overnight. I think when it’s time to do my brisket I will run it at 225

 

[tbrtt1]

I do all my big meats (butts and briskets) overnight. I have more than one smoker and only one does not have temp control. My old Traeger Lil Tex Pro; I think that's what it is...can't member exactly, had it so long, is a a popular go-to for overnighters. I augment the smoke with a tube usually when using the Pellet Pooper.

Depending on size and thickness, and considering when I want to server, I put the meat on sometime between 9pm and midnight. Get up around 7 or when my meat probe hits my desired wrap temp, or if not wrapping, close to being done temp. Then I check it with my nice, accurate Thermopen, and go from there.

I also monitor the cook chamber and the meat with a 2 probe remote thermometer so I sleep well knowing if something goes haywire, I will get an alarm.

 

[tomhooper]

Mine are off. Had to hack a chunk off of one of them to take out to my in-laws, 85 and 90 years old and still in great shape. Then ripped them apart and letting them cool a bit before I pull them. Don't want to burn my little fingers.
I'll put them in a foil pan, cover them, then put them back in the Traeger on warm till we get ready to eat. Here in about an hour or so.

 

[02ebz06]

Yum!!

 

[Smoking Audi]

Just pulled and tossed it in the cooler to rest. It was a long smoke. 19 hours roughly for about an 8.5 lbs butt. Hit 206 on the Traeger probe and 201 on the Govee probe.

While the 180 should yield great smoke flavor and a nice ring, it is perhaps too low for an overnight. Thinking 225 for next time. I betting that 200 would have been a better setting but the Pro 34 does not have 200 as an option and I am not seeing a controller to replace with to get more precise temp control short of upgrading the whole smoker

Pics to follow after the rest.