Help with a pork butt

You don't really say how big the butt is, but a pork butt is VERY hard to mess up. Rub it up, smoke at 235 for 12-14 hours. Smoke til it gets to around 200. Check the Pork Butt 101 thread at the top of the Pork forum.

I agree with Andy - if you smoke it between 225 - 250, and take it out between 190 - 200, you will be very happy. The rest is just tweaking the temps and the amount of wood to your taste. I try to start it quite early in the am to have it ready for dinner. Good luck and please post results!

Ah yes, Jay makes a good point. Don't go overboard with the wood chunks. Go with maybe 2-3 pieces, 3-5oz total weight. Very easy to over smoke it.

Depending on when you are serving and how late you usually stay up... If I'm serving for dinner, I usually start at 180 about 10:30 - 11:30 at night, then turn it up to 235 in the morning when I get up. If I'm serving for lunch, I just set it a 235 at night.

Keep in mind if it's done early, you can foil it, wrap in a towel and place in a pre-heated cooler and it will stay hot for a good four hours.

All great advice.

To tag on, read thru Pork Butt 101 at the top of this forum for detailed info.

What everyone has said above is great advice. I but my PB's in at midnight. 225 degrees I know it will be done around noon. I like to double wrap and foil them when they reach 190. I put them in a towel in a cooler. (FTC) I have had them still too hot to handle after 6 hours in the cooler. I can serve dinner anytime, but I can have a small sample at 12:00pm.

Also, I don't even open the door once in the 12 hours. Took a few times to realize I don't need to when you have a good external temp probe.

I do the same as AndyJ. Perfect every time.

You can pretty much figure 2hrs/lb at 225* in the SM025.

Sorry didn't post weight of pb it will be around 10 lb. serving for dinner around 6pm, thought I would put in smoker at 225 degrees at about 4am? And I will post how it turns out!

I'd start at midnight (or 10PM), foil @ 175 (mid morning), & FTC @ 200 (between noon & 2 ish). Rest it until dinner. Once you foil, you can bump the temp if you need to move it along. Like Cal said, @225 it will be at least 16 hours.
Better to be done early as opposed to late & you're not messing with it @ 4AM !

Have to admit that I'm confused with cook temperatures after revisiting this site. Haven't been on here for awhile nor have I cooked a pork butt recently. Every butt I did I followed previous forums and/or the cookbook. I have a 009 and followed the 2hrs/lb while at 225. Ive done about 10 butts total. Everyone has enjoyed the results, but my personal opinion is it could always be better. I've read so many threads here about nothing being left after it was served. Mine was eating, but not devoured. Perhaps I don't have a pork loving family. I think I'm now reading that I should actually be cooking at 60 degrees above desired temp in some threads while this one seems to support my original way of doing it @ 225. I apologize for being out of touch and confused on such an often talked about subject, but so much information has clouded my direction. I know I could just try one at higher temps to see results, but I want to hear some feedback first to get me up to speed if philosophies have changed recently.

there is no "magic" temp. It really comes down to your taste buds and the finished product.

225 is fine and cook until it's tender. You can NOT cook it (repeat, not) on a x hours per pound. Work for a certain Internal temp (as a guide) but also probe the thing to see if/how tender it is.

I've never been a fan of xx hours for xx pounds for any BBQ. This isn't a cake as there is some art to it.

Smokin is right. Probe,probe,probe everything you cook.

I use 203, wonder where I got that number? That, and I wrap around 150 or so internal temp. Actually double wrap and put on one of those frog mats to avoid the "lasagna battery" effect. The juices that come out of the foil are pure gold.

Just a dumb question.

I see alot of folks foil pork butt then wrap with a towel and put in a cooler. Couldn't you just let it rest in the cookshack without the cooler once the butt is wrapped?

You could. Let it cool down a bit then set the temp to 140 and use it as a warming oven. I've done it before. Unless of course you are going to throw some ribs or maybe a pan of beans in the smoker. Which some of us have been known to do as well.

quote:

Originally posted by harborbreeze:
... Couldn't you just let it rest in the cookshack without the cooler once the butt is wrapped?

As long as the temp inside the smoker is below your finish temp so that it doesn't keep cooking.