Butt on the grill tomorrow. I need help

[sharky]

Hey Guys -

I have half a bone-in butt in the fridge and I will be putting it on the kettle tomorrow for dinner tomorrow night. I haven't cooked a butt recently, so I figure I will let you uys tell me how to cook it!

Any recommendations?

[sharky]

any help here? I need to get this on the grill in the next few hours:-)

[Deuce]

I've never grilled a pork butt, only smoked one. I would definately go indirect and probably spritz it every now and then with apple juice.

[MrAiric7]

How did it work out? I have never tried one. What did you wind up doing?

[sharky]

yeah, I will be doing indirect on the kettle with wood chunks for smokking. I'm interested in the recipe, etc...

I've got my rub. I was thinking of slathering it in mustard BBQ sauce, throwing the rub down over top and then just slapping it on the grill indirectly.

any other recommendations?

[StPeteBBQ]

Don't put the sauce on in the beginning... get yourself a good rub, or make one up... good recipes & directions at www.virtualweberbullet.com.

Low and slow... cook it until it's 165 or so, then foil it until it gets to 195 internal if you want to pull (shred) it, 185 if you want to slice it. Sauce it when it's done.

And it's gonna take some time, don't rush it. It's don't when its done.

You can spritz it with some apple juice or pineapple juice after 3 hrs or so... just don't wash off the rub or you'll get no bark.

[realmccoy10751]

When I smoke my butts I put them in a tin container so they will cook in there own fat. I also put a bottle of Carolina Treat in with them. Smoke em for 20 or so hours @ about 165 F. I use an electric smoker(cause im lazy) with water. I have to put more water once or twice. For pulled bbq this is the way to do it in my opinion.

[sharky]

OK.. too late!

What I did is similar to what we did last year at the BBQ Cook-off we went to. I mixed 2 parts mustard with 1 part bbq sauce. I threw some rub in there and mixed it up with my hands. I slathered it on the butt and then coated it in my Pork-Butt Pirates Sweet rub, then sprinkled chili powder over it all as well.

It's sitting in reserve right now while the coals heat up in the chimney. I'm taking pics of my process so we'll see how it works!

We didn't do so bad at the competition last year, so I figure this can't be too bad!

:-)

[StPeteBBQ]

remind me to bring you a finished butt next time I smoke some...

[sharky]

please do!

I've been having some issues with this one. It's a 4lb butt... and I've been having problems keeping the temp under control.... It's been on for 5 hours now and is 180 right now. Now this is a MUCH smaller butt than the one I cooked before, so I'm assuming that has something to do with the faster cook. Now, with that said, I am measuring the temp of the grill with my hand.. lol.. I don't have an internal temp guage.

I will have some pics for you shortly of my process.

This is odd.. I am very good with direct heat.. but this indirect stuff kills me! I hope it turns out good... it's all i've planned for dinner!

[Deuce]

Pork butt is very forgiving so you should be ok. If you can foil it and let it rest for some time it will be even more forgiving. Are you shredding or slicing?

[sharky]

OK.. here we are 2 hours later and i THOUGHT it was done (7 hours total). Temp got to 197, so I pulled it off and wrapped it in foil to sit for about 15 minutes. After it had time to settle, I opened her up and attempted to pull the bone out (last one I made pulled out without any give), it wouldn't come out. So I pulled a fork out and tried to pull the pork apart... NO LUCK!

So... I've wrapped it back up in foil again and tossed it back on the grill (still indirect) for what I expect to be another hour.

any suggestions? what did I do wrong here? Should I have foiled for an hour or so before pulling it off?

On a good note, I did try a piece of the bark and it tasted pretty good!

[sharky]

Pork butt is very forgiving so you should be ok. If you can foil it and let it rest for some time it will be even more forgiving. Are you shredding or slicing?


I am planning on shredding it with forks.

[Niagara River Smoker]

Being as it's a 4 lb butt instead of a 7 or 8 won't mean that the cooking time is half...It'll be a little shorter but the collagen and connective tissue still has to have time to break down. I cook my butts at around 220 to 225 and they typically take 14 to 18 hours in a WSM (One took 23 hours and still never got to 195). Foiling will help speed up the process from what I've heard butt, I've never tried it.

[Deuce]

When it comes off the smoker wrapped in foil I wrap it in a towel and then put in a cooler(no ice) for at least an hour and it shreds easily. Did you put some liquid in when you foiled it? I usually put 3/4 to 1 cup of liquid in when foiled.
If you couldn't pull the bone out then I don't think it is overcooked so you might be ok.
I might be wrong but at this point this is what I would do: rewrap the butt in foil with some liquid and put back on for an hour then wrap in towel and put in a dry cooler for another hour and then shred.
Once foiled you could always put it in a 275-300* oven for an hour to an hour and a half and then shred it..

[Deuce]

Of course if you had a thermometer you could tell where things are at

[sharky]

Today was a VERY dissapointing day fo me on the grill. The butt tasted GOOD, however it wasn't GREAT. The connective tissue dind't break down enough, and I was still unable to shred it.. so I just sliced it up as best I could.

In all, I'm glad I had my South African Pinotage to drink with it... it made it go down MUCH better! I'll post the pics I took a little later.

[sharky]

st pete.. We'll have to get together and you can show me how to cook butt!

[StPeteBBQ]

That's sounds good... I've never cooked one on a kettle, but I've got then general idea.

[Ghost of Winter]

Hmm..sounds like I need to cook up a couple and send ya one Sharky! would hate for ya to think bad about doing butts on a smoker or kettle or EVEN a gasser LOL

[sharky]

OK, here are the pics from this "Learning Experience!"

One thing I forgot to mention is I noticed this butt had quite a bit of skin left on it.. one side in particular was covered in it. Should I have taken that off?

[StPeteBBQ]

I can't tell from the pics, but if you had skin on it, it might have been a picnic. You can leave the skin on or take it off. If you take it off, you'll get more area for bark.

I don't ususally get any skin on my butts.

[Niagara River Smoker]

I was thinking the same thing StPete. The shape in the pan looks more like a picnic than a butt. What did the bone look like, Sharky?

[sharky]

What is a picnic? On the packaging it said Pork Shoulder.

I don't remember what the bone looked like honestly... I just remember being pissed and frustrated. The meat stuck to the bone. Even on slicing i couldn't get it all the way off.

[Niagara River Smoker]

The Picnic is the lower half of the pork sholder. The Butt is the upper half. These come from the front of the pig whereas the ham comes from the butt. :rolleyes: True!

http://www.grassorganic.com/images/chart-pork.gif

It sounds like either the meat was not up to around 195 or 200, or, it was cooked a little too quickly. (Sorry about the pic ~ TVWB's meat charts don't seem to be available at this time..)

[Ghost of Winter]

ok Bud, let me help ya out. as someone that cut meat for about 6 years I am very familiar with both beef as well as pork. what you have there Sharky is a pork shoulder picnic. think of it as the upper arm of the pig, whereas the boston butt is the shoulder blade region. hope that helps ya on what you had there.

[sharky]

OK. so what you are saying is my bad experience is because my meat was labeled wrong and not actually my cooking!

:-)

[StPeteBBQ]

Yeah, that's the ticket... bad label... :rolleyes: :)

[sharky]

OK. so I was at publix yesterday and confirmed what I bought before was a Picnic. Don't I feel stupid!