Cookshack virgin no more!

I *love* the smell of pork butt in the morning...wait...that doesn't sound quite right...I loved the smell of smoked pork in the morning...ya, that sounds better...

quote:

Originally posted by liquordealer:
Lost my Cookshack virginity last night and started my first pork butt. I rubbed it with Butt Rub and brown sugar - left it in all of night before last and yesterday. Put it on at 22:30 and haven't opened the smoker. It is up to 176 degrees and I hope all is well! 7 pound butt w/ 3.8 oz hickory and 1 charcoal briquette.

Sill only up to 179. Been there a couple of hours... might need to turn temp up a little? Have had it on 225 all night.

Curiosity finally got the best of me - opened it up to look - mopped it with Smokin' Okie's vinegar mop - kicked up the heat a bit.

Noon - up to 192 degrees.

Pulled it at 198 degrees. Didn't recognize it by looking - looked a lot more like a burnt offering than a desirable meal. I don't know whether it is just over-cooked, over smoked, over rubbed, or a combination of all of them. Bone pulled fairly cleanly and once past what should have been edible bark, the meat wasn't bad - not the best I've ever had but not bad. There was a lot of waste so I only had a speck over 3 pounds of decent meat. I smoked it at at 225 all night and only turned it up to 250 about 11 AM when it was stuck at around 192 degrees. I'll have to get some more info because I definitely didn't do something right. I used Bad Byron's Butt Rub with a little brown sugar. The meat was fairly salty in places. The butt came from Tyson and did "contain up to an 4% marinade" - This was stated right beside the statements "No artificial ingredients, 100% all natural w/ no added hormones or steroids". Guess all natural pigs are born witht 4% marinade?

Gonna' have to do some homework and maybe figure out a plan B before next time.

don't rub over night; I never rub pork more than 30 min or so, the salt in the rub will cure the pork pretty easily.

Don't use brown sugar for long cooks if you didn't like the bark (go with something lighter, maybe turbinado sugar).

Listen to Smokin, the brown sugar definitely darkened it up more than turbinado would have.

I think what Liquordealer was saying was that he rubbed the butt then put it into the smoker for all of the night before and yesterday, not that he rubbed it and left it long before smoking.

I had to re-read it to get what he meant.

LD, I think what you experienced was what I experience not that long ago. My butt was holding at 179 for so long, that I started to worry. I opened the smoker and repositioned the probe (CS smoker probe), also used my Thermapen and it still read the same. I decided to run a wooden skewer thru it and it was like butter. Perfect. I took it out and pulled it, and it was one of the best I have ever had.

I purchased it at Restaurant Depot, it was a Smithfield (not brined as far as I could tell) and boneless Boston. It was surprisingly the only one they had.

What kind of butt did u use?

This is a strange but true example of Smokins rule of thumb, IT'S DONE WHEN IT'S DONE.