Quuestion about Holding Pork Butt in Cooker

I would just take it out when done to the temp you want.Let it sit,wrapped, for 30 min or so,put on any additional finishing sauce or rub,re-wrap it,in HD aluminum foil.When it has cooled a bit,put it in the refrigerator.It doesn't take long to reheat in foil in the oven at 350 or higher if you want it heated a bit quicker. Other may say to double wrap,put in a towel then in a cooler.I worry too much about food temp I guess

GC,

Since this is your 1st butt in your smokette, I'd get that butt out, pull it, and just wrap your LEFTOVERS in the foil and re-heat later! lol. Get the idea? Start eating that thang NOW! lol.

I wouldn't leave in the smoker that long. I've wrapped mine in foil, and a ton of paper, put into a dry cooler and left for 4 hours. Meat was still HOT when I pulled.

As far as doing it for 6 hours? Hmmm...I don't know. Kathy's idea would be safer as far as that goes.

Just my .02. Hope it turned out well!

Split the difference if it's 8 hours or less.

Smoke it until it's done then see how many hours you have left. Say 8.

Double wrap it and put it on 140 to hold for 1/2 the remaining time, say 4 hours. You can add a little Apple Juice if you want.

At 4 hours, take it out, and put it in the smallest cooler you can find that will hold it. Too much air space is bad, that's why I say pick the smallest. If you leave it in there the whole time, the temp will be fine, it will stay above 140, but holding for 8 hours you will risk it drying out.

Taking it out, putting it in the fridge and then taking it out and reheating when you're going to eat even a few hours later sounds like too much work. And if you put a warm butt, say you left it on the counter and it drops to 160. A 160 butt in the fridge will take hours to cool off. So much so that if you don't cool it quick enough it can cause other food issues. That why FSIS recommends quick chilling items before they go in a fridge.

If you were cooking them today for tomorrow, then I would fridge them.

Well, holding it didn't turn out to be a problem. I still have it cooking at 225*, at 4:00 p.m. as I write, and it has reached 195*. It has been on 195* for the past hour or longer. I wanted to let it reach 200* before taking it out of the cooker, but I don't know what to think now. I wonder if it is drying out by cooking this long -- since 8:00 p.m. last evening -- 20 hours. Guess I ought to open the door and peek, and sample. Hmmmmm

Why 195 and 200? Says who?

Temp is just a guideline, not a guarantee.

Is it tender, is it done?

I would check the meat itself to see if it's tender. Shake the bone to see if it comes out clean.

There is a post "pork butt what am I doing wrong" just below this one. Read that also for my thoughts on telling when it's done.

Smokin Okie, your comment asking why 195 - 200 is like turning on a light in my head. That has to be the answer. The butt was done at a lower temperature and I continued cooking it until I dired it out more than I should have.

Overall, it had a good flavor. Being too dry was the only real problem. My wife and I both thought it needed a little more smoke. Next time, I will try 4 oz of wood (used only 2 oz this time), and will start checking it with a fork test or bone wiggle to see it it is done, long before it has cooked for 20 hours. Many thanks for your help.

If it's dry, just add a little vinegar sauce, as it won't overpower the butt.

I lived in Eastern NC for 4 years, fell in love with pulled pork BBQ. Made my first pork butt in my 055 last weekend, made a batch of Smokin Okies Vinegar Mop for Pulled Pork (from PB 101), loved it, and found it to be very representative of the Eastern NC sauces. To taste it straight, your face may contort a little. Put it on the pork, and it's a beautiful thing.

Turned out so well, two more butts about to go on the 055 in about one hour ...

Hi gc/tx,
I don't know why it's taking 20 hours to smoke. I smoked 3 butts yesterday, 10 lb,8lb,7 lb. I put them on at 8:30 pm and at 8:00 am they were at 190 and 192 internal temp.I was cooking at 225 degrees too. I took them out at 192 and they were great.Pulled and sprinkled with rub MMMMMMM.

I put one in last night at 4:40PM took it out this morning at 7:30AM (198degrees). Wrapped it in foil then plastic. Its in the cooler now. I will stick to this process until proven wrong. Thanks goes out to everyone here at the forum for advice on this method.
As far as spice goes. I agree, you cant go wrong with too much spice on a pulled pork butt. That said, I like my meats without sauce. Unless it needs it. My thought there is "if it needs sauce you are doing something wrong!" But I wouldn't throw out a cut of meat because it was too dry. I would add the sauce.
To spice up my butt, I dusted it heavily with Cayenne then a heavy coat of Obie-Cue's BIGBULL.

Don't worry, although dry, NONE of the butt be wasted. Adding vinegar sauce cured the dry problem. In addition to eating it on a plate, I like to chop it, mix regular barbecue sauce into it, slice a sweet onion, use white bread, and make mouth-watering sandwiches. My wife uses the vinegar sauce on hers for sandwiches, but I like regular Q sauce for a sandwich. My, oh my, it is good stuff!

Another happy camper! It just gets better from here on out. Hmmm, one likes Q sauce, one likes vinegar; have to start smokin' em two at a time . Glad everything turned out so well!

Thank you. Yep, you could say I'm a happy camper. I plan to cook a rack of spare ribs next, probably on Sunday or Monday. Already looking forward to Cook #2.