Stampede Pork Butt question

[harborinnman]

I am new to the smoking world. I have a 9lb pork butt I have seasoned and want to smoke. One side is the heavy skin. Which side goes down? Skin side or meatside?

 

[Greg Jones]

I prefer to smoke fat side down, but lots of people swear by fat side up so that the rendered fat bastes the meat. I think the bark is a lot better and there is no loss of the rub with the fat cap down. I also suspect that while a pellet grill is a convection oven, there is more heat on the grate side and the fat cap should face the heat side. I’d recommend trying it both ways to see if you have a preference. Also, some people prefer flipping it midway, but I’ve never tried that myself.

 

[orangebiker]

Agreed. I go fat side down for butts.

 

[pungo]

I cook fat side down to protect the meat from the heat below. Butts are pretty forgiving so hard to mess one up, fat up or down probably doesn't make a huge difference. I actaully cut much of the fat cap off so there's more bark and the seasoning is closer to the meat instead of on the fat. Near the stall, I put it in a disposable aluminum pan to collect the juice, then put that in a fat separator to incorporate the precious juice back into the meat when processing it, the fat gets discarded.

 

[Dano]

I also go fat side down. Apply rub then put on smoker at 200 degrees for 8-10 hours until internal temp of butt is 165 -170. Bump grill temp to 220 no wrap no foil until it’s 195 internal temp.