# First smoke - 7lb pork butt



## kyletn (May 10, 2015)

Finally got a chance to try out my new Smoke Vault yesterday with a nice 7lb pork butt.  It was coated with mustard & a nice rub from a recipe found online & sat in the fridge overnight.  After bringing the smoker to temp, the butt went on about 6am.  I used a combination of cherry & applewood chunks.  Since I had the temp probe in the whole time, I watched carefully & it passed 140 deg at about 3 1/2 hrs in.  Here it is at about 6 hours:













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__ kyletn
__ May 10, 2015






Since this was my first smoke, I deliberately did NOT plan to feed anyone else, so I didn't have hungry guests waiting for it to be done.  I was hoping for the "approximate" 1.5 hrs/lb smoking time, but learned that its pretty much a wild *ss guess when it'll be done.  The butt hit a stall around 9 hrs in at about 168-170 deg & stayed there for about 2 1/2 hrs. Once it started to move again, I foiled it at about 180 and finally took it out at about 196 (the boss was getting hungry!)  Total cook time was 13 1/2 hrs & the final result was very moist and tasty!













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__ kyletn
__ May 10, 2015





  













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__ kyletn
__ May 10, 2015






Lessons learned:

- As others have noted, the control dial on the CCSV is very sensitive.  All you have to do is barely turn it to move the temp.  Mine seemed to want to hang out between 235-245 deg & I was OK with that.  May have to check out adding a needle valve to the regulator.

- I was hoping that allowing 12 hrs for what "should" have been a 10 1/2 hr smoke would allow us to eat about 6.  I'll be smoking 2 butts over July 4 for company that the wife wants to feed about 1pm.  I think I'll allow the 2 hrs/lb + 2 hr buffer that I saw another member here suggest.

- First timers: read as many threads here as you can stand first, & you'll be prepared to make great BBQ!


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## bellis309 (May 10, 2015)

Always a great idea to do a test tun to give yourself an approx baseline of how things work. Looks like you did a great job!


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## rmmurray (May 10, 2015)

Kyle, great first smoke. Heck, great smoke period. Good for you. The nice thing about a pork butt is that after it's done, you can always wrap it and stick it in an empty cooler filled with towels and it will stay warm for 2 - 4 hours. Better to plan ahead and be done early then to have hungry guests waiting. Enjoy that pulled pork. 
:points1:
-Ryan


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## themule69 (May 10, 2015)

Fine first smoke. Check to see if your gauge is correct as most are NOT. As said above you can hold it in a cooler wrapped with foil and towels for hour. You can also smoke and pull the day before and reheat. It will be as good as the day you first smoked it.

Happy smoken.

David


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## kyletn (May 10, 2015)

themule69 said:


> Check to see if your gauge is correct as most are NOT.


Thats something that I learned from my pre-smoke reading.  I used my Thermapen TW8060 to monitor the smoker temp & the meat, but the built in gauge is only off by about 10 deg.


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