Pork Butt Dilemma

[dreammachine]

Picking quality meat is the key to great smoking. Cheap meat is not going to be as good. Spend a little bit more at a local butcher shop and get prime meat if you can.

 

[Hipplewm]

One other thing is generally once you get past the stall and wrap, you can safely bump up the temp quite a bit. I currently use insulated cookers and can easily go to 400 if I want to push the meat hard, but that just results in a longer rest period. That said , pushing to 275-325 isn't crazy and it will help get you meat to temp quicker and not affect the overall quality or moisture in the meat, especially if it is wrapped.

 

[BretM]

I wash and then marninate my Boston Butt in apple cider vinegar, apple juice, tad of lemon juice, and sometimes a sweet kiwi/strawberry juice for a hour or so (6 to 8 lb Butt). I do sometimes inject with the same juices as it is sitting in. Put my rub on it and then I put it on my Bull at about 200 F around 10:00 PM and allow it to slow cook until about 8:00 AM the next morning and then wrap it in double foil and cook it for about two more hours at 225F and then take it up and allow it to rest for an hour or so and then you can easily pull the bone out and the flavor of the meat is off the charts. Works for me.

Why do you "wash" your butt (pork shoulder that is...hopefully everyone is washing THEIR butts)?

I'm not so sure about strawberry/kiwi juice, but whatever floats your boat.

 

[Ruwallydog]

I literally laughed out loud on the “wondering why we’re eating at 11:00 at night” comment. I certainly have been there before...many times. Good stuff.

 

[ndfan6464]

In reference to washing your protein before you cook. It's always a gOod idea to rinse it off. Your removing anything left behind from the processing of the cut ie bone, loose fat, slimy stuff left from packaging etc. Nothing worse then biting into a juicy protein just to have your teeth meet a bone fragment..ugh...not pleasant

 

[ndfan6464]

I wash and then marninate my Boston Butt in apple cider vinegar, apple juice, tad of lemon juice, and sometimes a sweet kiwi/strawberry juice for a hour or so (6 to 8 lb Butt). I do sometimes inject with the same juices as it is sitting in. Put my rub on it and then I put it on my Bull at about 200 F around 10:00 PM and allow it to slow cook until about 8:00 AM the next morning and then wrap it in double foil and cook it for about two more hours at 225F and then take it up and allow it to rest for an hour or so and then you can easily pull the bone out and the flavor of the meat is off the charts. Works for me

I'll have to give this kiwi/strawberry thing a try. What brand juice do you use?

 

[Charlie]

OMG

 

[kevboz]

Some good knowledge by reading this.
I found a 6.5# bone in pork butt at the local grocery store. I'm going to throw it on tonight @ 3am. Hopefully it will be ready in 12 hours.
I've had my 590 for about a month and have only done ribs. I'm hearing all kinds of cook times from 1 to 2 hours per pound of meat. I was telling my wife the dilemma and she said, "Can you just cut it in half?" It made me wonder. Obviously more surface area. Has anyone ever tried that?

 

[C. Keeper]

I started with a 8 pound pork butt. Here's the data:
10:50 pm (last night) - 215F
3:45 am - raised temp to 225F, meat temp 130
7:30 am - meat temp 150
9:45 am - meat temp 161 (figuring this is the stall)
2:45 pm - meat temp 174 (wrapped with butcher paper to hopefully speed up cooking)
6:10 pm - meat temp 176

About 19 hours in and the temp is not getting about 176

I just pulled it off the smoker and I have checked and double checked temps with my thermopen and my smoke x. I did not use RT probes for this cook.

It seems done. So far it looks like I can pull it and it's moist. I tasted a piece with the bark and it's delicious.

I'm going to take it off the grill now to see what the deal is. I realize this can go 20+ hours, but to have the temp basically stall for about 6-8 hours seems a bit much for an 8 pound piece of meat. The bone does not slide out like it normally would, however, the roast is probe tender all over. I like it pulled. Hubby likes it chunky. We might just get the best of both worlds.

This is what I love about this grill....the experimenting. Fortunately, I got nowhere to go and nothing to do. And I have 4 smoked turkey legs ready to come off the grill as a backup.

Is there any danger if the internal meat temperature doesn't reach 140 degrees within a 4 hour period??
I don't think that caused any issues but asking for a friend

 

[BethV]

What issues did your friend have. Pork needs to be cooked to 165 to be out of the food danger zone. As long as the finished product gets to 165 that should be fine.

 

[C. Keeper]

What issues did your friend have. Pork needs to be cooked to 165 to be out of the food danger zone. As long as the finished product gets to 165 that should be fine.

I thought bacteria would grow if not up to 140 degrees within 4 hours, thanks for the clarification.

 

[Uncle Bob]

@BethV and @Chris_G more up to date info here; USDA Revises Cooking Temperatures for Pork (webmd.com) , also note the whole vs ground mention. Chris, it's not just a set temp, but also time at temp. If you look at some of the sous vide info on the net there is good discussion about added time at lower than suggested times having similar bacteria killing effectiveness.

 

[BethV]

Once it gets to 165, it will kill off bacteria. The USDA lowered the minimum temperature for pork to 145 F with a 3 minute rest from 160.

 

[Uncle Bob]

Since this is a pork BUTT thread, it should be noted that aside from the bacteria considerations just discussed, a butt has a lot of connective tissue that doesn't begin to degrade until 165-175, so to get the kind of texture most folks look for in a butt you need to exceed the 165 mark considerably (e.g. the magic 203, but probe tender is a better indicator) or be at that temp for a long time till probe tender. That said, if you're looking to slice the butt into ham/chop/steak style servings which require it to hold together you don't want to go much above 180.

 

[C. Keeper]

@BethV and @Chris_G more up to date info here; USDA Revises Cooking Temperatures for Pork (webmd.com) , also note the whole vs ground mention. Chris, it's not just a set temp, but also time at temp. If you look at some of the sous vide info on the net there is good discussion about added time at lower than suggested times having similar bacteria killing effectiveness.

Thank you @Uncle Bob for the link and education

 

[tpack]

This is the third piece of pork I have gotten that smelled so bad others in the house could smell it. The other 2 came from Costco. Normally I don't have issues with their meats. The sell by date was good (into September), but it's usually a sign that the pork was not kept refrigerated at a safe temperature at some point. I'm a certified food safety handler and my motto has always been when in doubt don't. The good news is that Costco takes their meats back. All you have to do is provide them with the label and receipt. No need to return the meat.

Always let your nose be the judge instead of the sell by date. Products can get laid down somewhere out of refrigeration for hours and then put back by someone who thinks they are helping when they are actually doing the opposite. Customers change their minds and just lay meat anywhere throughout the supermarket all of the time, plus sell by dates can also be manipulated or changed as well. Each supermarket chain has their own policy regarding shelf life for all meats and produce items, not a health department or state agency. After opening tens of thousands of packages of all cuts of beef, pork and chicken, if it has an odor or stink when the vacuum is broken that does not dissipate quickly it is probably not good and need to be discarded or returned to the store for a refund. People with poor immune systems(the young and elderly) do not need to be eating these items.

 

[TheRicker]

Beth...I've read through the entire thread on this and went back to your original post. I looked at your pic of the pulled meat. Looked great! Then, I went back and looked at your original picture of the intact, cooked meat. If you say that was a butt, I believe you. But the shape of the whole cooked piece of meat looks more like the shape of a fresh ham than a (shoulder) butt. It appears like the shape of the shank on the one corner. They typically come with a thick layer of skin/fat that sort of wraps around the meat. I've cooked those before, thinking it would cook like a shoulder butt. But it didn't. It turned out great but took forever to cook. And, as I recall, I only got it up to around 180. I wasn't able to pull or shred it as nicely as yours looks. I sliced it. It tasted great. But it was a totally different experience than I have with shoulder butts. Fresh hams are very dense. Not a lot of internal fat.

I somewhat accidentally did the fresh ham based on the part that the Bessinger Family BBQ restaurants do here in the Charleston area. They don't do the butt portion of the shoulder. They do the upper section of the shoulder...I think it's the upper. More "white" meat to that section. And that's what is typical of that brand of BBQ here in the SC Lowcountry...along with the mustard-based sauce. Anyway, I digress. I bought that fresh ham thinking that's what they cook. And I was wrong. Not totally disappointed in the end product but it definitely was not what I thought I was doing.

I've done whole shoulder, just the butt portion, and I've done the "ham". Different experiences for sure. My second time with a whole shoulder I did separate the butt from the shoulder for a quicker cook.

Suffice to say, I'm baffled by your 19 hour cook. At the end of the day, the final result is all that matters. I'll put this one into my memory bank for the future.

 

[BethV]

Beth...I've read through the entire thread on this and went back to your original post. I looked at your pic of the pulled meat. Looked great! Then, I went back and looked at your original picture of the intact, cooked meat. If you say that was a butt, I believe you. But the shape of the whole cooked piece of meat looks more like the shape of a fresh ham than a (shoulder) butt. It appears like the shape of the shank on the one corner. They typically come with a thick layer of skin/fat that sort of wraps around the meat. I've cooked those before, thinking it would cook like a shoulder butt. But it didn't. It turned out great but took forever to cook. And, as I recall, I only got it up to around 180. I wasn't able to pull or shred it as nicely as yours looks. I sliced it. It tasted great. But it was a totally different experience than I have with shoulder butts. Fresh hams are very dense. Not a lot of internal fat.

I somewhat accidentally did the fresh ham based on the part that the Bessinger Family BBQ restaurants do here in the Charleston area. They don't do the butt portion of the shoulder. They do the upper section of the shoulder...I think it's the upper. More "white" meat to that section. And that's what is typical of that brand of BBQ here in the SC Lowcountry...along with the mustard-based sauce. Anyway, I digress. I bought that fresh ham thinking that's what they cook. And I was wrong. Not totally disappointed in the end product but it definitely was not what I thought I was doing.

I've done whole shoulder, just the butt portion, and I've done the "ham". Different experiences for sure. My second time with a whole shoulder I did separate the butt from the shoulder for a quicker cook.

Suffice to say, I'm baffled by your 19 hour cook. At the end of the day, the final result is all that matters. I'll put this one into my memory bank for the future.

@TheRicker It was definitely a Boston Butt/Shoulder (at least that is what the label states from Restaurant Depot). I have never bought the shank other than to cook in my home oven and years ago. These days, I separate the coppa muscle from the butt and cook them at the same time. It's a whole new ballgame when you do that. It also gives you a much better understanding of the muscular structure of the roast. And two totally different "eats".

What I have learned is that while temperature is a good guide for when you can somewhat expect meat to get to the right consistency, it's all about the feel of the meat. I probe roasts, plate ribs, briskets, etc. and I don't pull them until the probe of my Thermoworks thermometer goes through it as if it were soft butter. Not just some areas of the roast, brisket, etc. but all of it. If there is a tough piece anywhere on the roast, you won't get the result you want.

Why that piece of meat took so long, I will never understand. But that's the beauty and the beast of the cook. You never know. If I anticipate a long cook, I do it overnight so that there is no stressing out when it's time to eat and the meat is not where it should be.

 

[Bif Hunkly]

I read two books I waited for my smoker to arrive. The first was Meathead and the 2nd was Franklin BBQ. Franklin doesn't believe it makes much of a difference smoking at 225 or 270 besides the time it takes. I've been following his style and I've made two 8 lb pork butts. One took 10 hours and the last one took just over 9 hours. I'm a pulled pork freak and they've been pretty close to perfect both times.
I only trim any stray pieces off of the butt that stick out and look like they'll burn. I slather it in Frenches mustard and season with a 1/2 cup of a 1:1 salt and pepper mix, with a little paprika for color. It sits on the counter for around an hour until the smoker gets to 270.
I put it in the smoker, fat cap up, for 3 hours and then spritz every hour until the fat cap cracks. After it cracks, wrap, stick a probe in the top and cook for another hour at 270. Then I increase the temp to 290 and take it out when it hits 203. It sits for an hour on the counter, then I start pulling.
It works well and tastes amazing.