Bull Pork Butt Questions!

[RavensMinded0012]

So I'm planning of smoking my first pork butt for tomorrow's dinner. Have a few questions of what does & doesn't make the most sense.

1) I am making a 9lb pork butt. Some say fat cap, some say none. I plan to cook with it on, but when it comes time to mince the meat, do you keep the fat or discard most of it?

2) Love the idea of starting the cook late tonight (11pm) and let the meat sit in Xtreme Smoke for a handful of hours. Is it worth it or not? If I started overnight, would folks recommend wrapping or not and at what temperature? Spritz or no spritz?

3) Planning on dinner for 6pm. If I start cook tomorrow morning, I assume I will have to wrap the butt at 165° to fight the stall and have time to still let the meat rest for 1 or 2 hours. Recommendations on a start cook time?

4) If starting the cook tomorrow morning, is it ok to season the meat tonight? Plan on using vinegar based mustard and half/half of Meat Church Gospel AP and Honey Hog BBQ. Not sure if putting rub on that long is bad for flavor.

 

[Sully1546]

So here are my thoughts.

1. I usually cook with the fat cap just for flavor and it allows some of that to render into the meat. When I am done and shredding usually I will discard most of it. I think it is matter of preference but if it's not shredding most people don't want a big glob of fat like that.

2. I would go till 165 and wrap. As far as spritzing it really depends how much bark you want. if you don't spritz it all you're going to get a thicker harder bark versus spritzing will allow for a bark but it'll be more moist and not as hard.

3. Figure an hour and a half to 2 hours per pound. If it gets done early wrap it up and some towels and place it in a cooler. It'll just be a longer rest time and will not lose a lot of temp.

4. I always use mustard and some sort of dry rub when doing pork butts. I will wrap them sometimes two to three days in advance.

Hope this helps and good luck with your cook!

 

[jfrosty27]

1. I trim nearly all of the fat cap off. Rub won’t penetrate it and
plenty of fat in that butt for flavor and moisture. Also, see #4.
Wrap when it stalls. About 150-165 degrees IT.
2. when you start depends on what cooker temp you plan to run. The cook time is governed by cook temp and thickness of the butt. A 9 pounder will be pretty thick I imagine. Plan for a long cook and if done early, hold in a faux cambro until ready to pull and serve. It will stay plenty warm. I would start around 5 AM and run the cooker at 225-240 all the way through. Wrap as noted above. Adjust either parameter to fit your schedule or needs.
3. Absolutely season the night before. You want the salt to penetrate for a dry brine effect. I like to use a thin coat of
yellow mustard as the binder for the rub.
4. Discard the fat when pulling/shredding. Folks don’t want to eat that. Plus any rub on it goes away with it.
Good luck! Post photos of the cook and results!

 

[opus]

Here are my thoughts on the cooking part. I don't have a recteq yet but I do have a pellet grill. Last weekend I deviated from my norm of doing 6 or so hours on my stick smoker and then moving to the pellet grill. This time I experimented and put the pork on around midnight on the pellet grill and set it to smoke, which is around 200 degrees. After about 12 hours of that I cranked it up to 250. The meat was done by about 5pm.
I was still not impressed with the smoke flavor. I'm just spoiled with what you get with a stick burner I guess. For my tastes and my coworkers tastes, I'm going to have to stick with doing part of my cooks on the stick burner.

 

[C. Keeper]

I have a 8 pound butt brining now for my Bull virgin cook.

Like mentioned, I'll put it on at midnight at 225 and may foil at 160 IT???

 

[BethV]

So here are my thoughts.

1. I usually cook with the fat cap just for flavor and it allows some of that to render into the meat. When I am done and shredding usually I will discard most of it. I think it is matter of preference but if it's not shredding most people don't want a big glob of fat like that.

2. I would go till 165 and wrap. As far as spritzing it really depends how much bark you want. if you don't spritz it all you're going to get a thicker harder bark versus spritzing will allow for a bark but it'll be more moist and not as hard.

3. Figure an hour and a half to 2 hours per pound. If it gets done early wrap it up and some towels and place it in a cooler. It'll just be a longer rest time and will not lose a lot of temp.

4. I always use mustard and some sort of dry rub when doing pork butts. I will wrap them sometimes two to three days in advance.

Hope this helps and good luck with your cook!

So I'm planning of smoking my first pork butt for tomorrow's dinner. Have a few questions of what does & doesn't make the most sense.

1) I am making a 9lb pork butt. Some say fat cap, some say none. I plan to cook with it on, but when it comes time to mince the meat, do you keep the fat or discard most of it?

2) Love the idea of starting the cook late tonight (11pm) and let the meat sit in Xtreme Smoke for a handful of hours. Is it worth it or not? If I started overnight, would folks recommend wrapping or not and at what temperature? Spritz or no spritz?

3) Planning on dinner for 6pm. If I start cook tomorrow morning, I assume I will have to wrap the butt at 165° to fight the stall and have time to still let the meat rest for 1 or 2 hours. Recommendations on a start cook time?

4) If starting the cook tomorrow morning, is it ok to season the meat tonight? Plan on using vinegar based mustard and half/half of Meat Church Gospel AP and Honey Hog BBQ. Not sure if putting rub on that long is bad for flavor.

I always remove the fat cap. Bark is way more important to me than the fat on the top. This cut of meat is full of fat and in my opinion does not need any more on the top.

I wrap when the bark is the color and texture I like. Spritz prior to the wrap to remove any smoke residue so that you can see the actual color of the bark.

Like any big hunk of meat, it's done when it's probe tender. I've had butts go to 200 and I have had many more go to 179 and be probe tender and it pulls very easily. What you don't want to have happen is to get short on time to meet a dinner hour and pull it from the smoker before it is probe tender. Probe tender means your probe goes into the meat like it is going into warm butter. Nothing like trying to pull pork that is not ready to be pulled. It won't happen.

I personally like to start my cooks at 11 pm. Your chances of having it done by when you want to eat are so much better. And it will probably get done early. If so, wrap in a towel and stick it in your cooler until you are ready to eat.

I use a simple AP rub of salt, pepper, onion and garlic granules. No binder. I like seasoning it after the cook and once it's pulled. You can definitely season it and keep it in the fridge until you are ready to cook. I like a vinegary sauce but that's a personal preference. Use what you like.

I am also cooking one tonight. My brother sent me a 7 pound Heritage Berkshire Boston butt for my birthday. I'm very excited to try it. You know your life has changed when you trade jewelry for meat!

There are so many fine cooks on this forum and we all do it different ways. Pick what works for you and have fun.

 

[RavensMinded0012]

Thanks a bunch guys! I'm going to go with the overnight cook and roll smoke on it early then bump to 225°. Will post pictures of the finished product sometime tomorrow before the meat-coma kicks in. Many thanks!

 

[ndfan6464]

https://amazingribs.com/tested-recipes/pork-recipes/perfect-pulled-pork-recipe

 

[Newb]

Regarding trimming, I’ve done it both ways. If I leave the fat cap on I remove it after the cook before I shred the meat. I actually prefer to remove it before the cook because I want more bark, and there’s plenty of fat trapped in the meat. I recommend you try it both ways and see what you prefer. Experimenting is fun. Oh, and I use a smoke tube for extra smoke flavor. Keep it away from the vents or all the extra smoke will go straight out of the smoker.

 

[Mastertech59]

I trim the fat cap as close as possible and what remains is usually in the up position on the grill. I agree with other that posted earlier the bark is more important to the cook than fat. Plan on the cook taking longer than expected so start it early and if finished early wrap in foil of butchers paper, my preferred, and place in a warmed up cooler to let it rest and to keep it warm.

 

[RavensMinded0012]

Thanks again everyone for their insight. Cook came out great. 17 hours on the smoker and was really happy with the results.