First Smoke, First Butt

That area just looks toooooo clean.

Show us a photo after 100 smokes (can we say grease dripping on the floor and nice cabinet)

Let us know how it goes.

Nice setup muleman. Also, looks like the house was custom built around the smoker (now that's taking the love of smoking to an extreme ). Perfect location.

Well....12 hours later. I pulled it at 188 degrees.
I know "it's done when it's done", but it took a lot longer than I anticipated. At ten hours I was only at 174 so I bumped up the temp to 230.

Average times are 2 hours so that would be 10.6 hours, you were close. Did you wrap in foil? If you did, next time bump to 250 to finish. I actually cook all my butts at 250.

Yea...I wrapped in foil to rest, so I'm figuring the temp came on up some more. I will definitely use higher temp on butt next time or perhaps, as some suggest, maybe bump to the higher temp to get it through the plateau.

All that being said...I was really pleased with the result. Very moist, and for me...just the right amount of smoke. It was a great midnight snack!

I am with okie here

I use to do the 225 thing because I thought it was "better"

Now I run almost everything at 250-275

Taste just as good and doesn't take 14 hours to cook

Also. I haven't done any smoker temperature testing. I had the butt on the top shelf....maybe that was a factor as well in taking the 13 hours.

My maverick arrived in the mail after I started the butt....and I swore that I wasn't gonna open that door.

Oh well...."it's not the destination..it's the journey".

Something to keep in mind,as we build our experience level,is there is no straight line,among size/shape,weight,temp,and time to pull and rest.

Think about a 1/2 inch thick slice,across a butt that weighs about five lbs.

It might weigh 3/4 lb?

We heat a skillet to medium,335* ?,cook the butt slice one minute on each side.Yep,it is done-right?

How would it eat,or pull into pulled pork?

Remember,the goal is to render fat,and break down collagen.

Thus, the old adage of slow/low cooking-around 225*- had been used by bbq cooks for a bunch of years.
There are even some good cooks that swear that the longer it stays in the plateau,the more fat it renders and the better it breaks down collagen.

Also,thinking about carryover temp rise.

A five lb butt,cooked at 225*,and tossed in an empty cooler,might not rise a couple of degrees.
A ten lb butt,finished at around 300* and tossed in a cooler full of the rest of the case you are cooking,and rested 2-3 hrs,might rise 15*.

Anyone think there could be a difference in the final product?

Just a couple thoughts,as we are pondering our notes.