Ok, I bought my smokette in March and the first thing I did was smoke a 6.5# Boston Butt but had bad results. Flavor was good but I had to slice the meat and it contained ALOT of fat. I didn't let it cook long enough. So to soothe my soul (and hunger) I next smoked a beef brisket with dazzling results. That got my confidence up. I read a lot of stuff on the forum here and this is the advice I took away:
1. Get a Polder remote probe thermometer.
This is an invaluable tool. Worth every penny.
2. Cook to temp not time. This was tough advice for a noob like me.
3. Allow a ridiculous amount of time if cooking to a specific time. Someone mentioned that it took them about 2hrs/lbs on their pork butts. I'm finding my results are similar.
So this weekend I tried smoking a 9.25# Boston Butt from Sam's Club.
I used a modified version of Steve Raichlen's Basic BBQ Rub...I substituted chili powder for the celery seed. Let the pork sit in the frig for 8 hours with the rub on it and then put it in the smoker at 9PM May 3rd. I used 3 chunks of hickory wood (It's what came with the smoker) and set the temp for 225F. I estimated 18 - 20 hours to cook that large cut of pork. Next evening at 5PM I removed it from the smoker. I reached in with the tongs to try and pick it up and nearly split the pork in two pieces! I started drooling.
The pork had a rich flavorful bark and pulled apart like a dream. Final temp was 194F. Someone in another post said the bone should practically slip out of the meat, which it did. This time around a lot more of the fat rendered out while cooking. It was perfect and my family and relatives LOVED it!
I was happy this turned out so well. Thanks to everyone here who was brave enough to ask questions and thanks to all you forum regulars for your answers. You've got me smoking like a pro after only two or three smokes! I'm still astonished I did so well. When I put out product this good, folks stop sneering at me for paying so much for the smoker!
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