# Boston Butt - Temps



## cybergoon (Mar 23, 2012)

This weekend, I am smoking 2, 8lb Boston Butts, 2 racks of St. Louis style ribs, 8-10 turkey legs and a couple of rope sausages. I've not done the turkey legs before, but I love getting them at fairs and such, so decided to try it myself.

I do have a question about the Boston Butts...I have smoked many many of these before, always using Memphis Dust for the rub. I never get up early enough, so the meat usually gets pulled when it is between 183-185 degrees. I know it is ideal to get them to between 195-205 degrees, but I have never had bad pulled pork out of this smoker. I am curious what to expect the difference to be when smoking them all the way to 195. The ones I have done come out fantastic and everyone who has tried it has said it is by far the best pulled pork they have ever eaten. It pulls very easily, is very moist and has a fantastic smoke flavor. Tomorrow, I plan to get up at 3am to fire up the smoker so that by 6-7pm, they should be pretty close to 195 for dinner time.

I will be taking some photos throughout the smoke and will be sure to post them.

Thanks,

Marc

Edit: Sorry this made it into the wrong forum. Meant to put it under Smoking Meat -> Pork. Guess I need to pay attention to which forum I am in when I start a thread.


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## smokinhusker (Mar 23, 2012)

I've always taken mine to 200-205* for pulling and the bone literally falls right out. I have started doing them with no foil and the stall on the last one (11 lbs) took forever. You just never know time wise how long it will take them to reach the IT you are shooting for. I'd go ahead and put them on and if you are shooting for IT 195*, one if not both might make it, or as you've stated you have good results at the lower IT 185*. Did you factor in a resting time?


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## cybergoon (Mar 23, 2012)

SmokinHusker said:


> I've always taken mine to 200-205* for pulling and the bone literally falls right out. I have started doing them with no foil and the stall on the last one (11 lbs) took forever. You just never know time wise how long it will take them to reach the IT you are shooting for. I'd go ahead and put them on and if you are shooting for IT 195*, one if not both might make it, or as you've stated you have good results at the lower IT 185*. Did you factor in a resting time?




I don't do the crutch at all. I'd rather it take longer than cheat ;)

I do rest them for about 30 minutes prior to pulling. The bones have always pulled out clean and easily. I just wondered what the difference really was between a 185 degree butt and a 205 degree one. I guess I will find out tomorrow evening!

Thanks,
Marc


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## cliffcarter (Mar 23, 2012)

Cybergoon said:


> I don't do the crutch at all. I'd rather it take longer than cheat ;)
> 
> I do rest them for about 30 minutes prior to pulling. The bones have always pulled out clean and easily. I just wondered what the difference really was between a 185 degree butt and a 205 degree one. I guess I will find out tomorrow evening!
> 
> ...


I have had butts done at 182°F, to me if the temp probe slides in without resistance then it is done. If you keep cooking it from that point you risk drying it out, which I have done before.


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## cybergoon (Mar 26, 2012)

Well, I got them on the smoker at 315am Saturday and took them off at 715pm. Still only got them up to about 187. Guess I should have just started them before I went to bed for the night. LOL

I thought the previous butts were good when I had them cooked to 183, but this one was MUCH easier to pull than the previous ones. The meat was fantastic and melted in the mouth.


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## realtorterry (Mar 26, 2012)

So what happened to the pics??


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## lght (Mar 26, 2012)

I usually pull them around 190 and rest for an hour wrapped in foil, towels, and then the cooler.  By the time I take them out of the cooler I don't have to pull the bone out because it usually falls apart inside the cooler.  I do rehydrate them after pulling by using the juices leftover in the pan.


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## boykjo (Mar 26, 2012)




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## cybergoon (Mar 26, 2012)

I took a couple of pics as I was getting it all set up, but when dinner was ready, we were in a rush and I didn't get a chance to snap any more.

One prepped and ready for overnight in fridge...







2nd one rubbed and ready for fridge...







Chimney lit and WSM loaded and ready to go...







And here we go!!!







WSM doing it's job...







The pp was fantastic. I modified the recipe for the Memphis Dust a bit this time. I changed out the white sugar with Turbinado and put almost double the dark brown sugar in. It was a very good recipe change.

We ended up doing one rack of ribs that turned out great. We did 6 turkey legs and 2 Italian Ropes on the Weber Kettle.

Everything went over great with all of our dinner guests. Everyone got plenty of leftovers to take with them and I vacuum sealed a couple of bags of pp and froze for dinner later in the week.

By the way, thanks to those of you who have posted mods for the WSM. I added wheels with breaks and put the slit in the side for the ET-732 probe cables to route through. I have found a couple other mods that I will likely be doing soon!

Thanks for the replies and sorry the Q-View didn't include the end result!

-Marc


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## smokinhusker (Mar 27, 2012)

Sounds like they came out well! Congrats on a successful smoke!

I'm going to try an IT of 190 next time and see how that turns out. Mine at 200-205 have always been moist though.


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