Overnight pork butts on the PBX

[Grillin Dad]

Alright, I’m going to attempt my first overnight cook on the PBX. For this special occasion, I’m smoking two pork butts, one 8.3 pounds and the other is 9 pounds. My game plan is as follows: Salted both butts Fri night (just completed this); Sat evening, I’ll season the butts with a mix of brown sugar, garlic powder, black pepper, and onion powder, load up the PBX with char-logs and hickory chunks, light, bring temp up to ~250, add the butts, bring temp back up to 250, attach my trusty PartyQ, and let it ride!!

This is where things get a little controversial. See, I really want to like the barrel. It’s got a way high cool factor. But honestly, I much prefer the ‘classic’ smoke flavor from my kettle over the ‘char-grill’ flavor from the PBX. So, my plan is to insert the grate into the barrel, hang the butts, and place a couple of drip pans (8x10 disposable Al pans) on the grate and under the butts. That way, the drip pans will prevent the juices from dripping onto the coals, allowing the hickory smoke to flavor the meat. Plus, I can mix the drip juices back into the pulled pork.

What’s the verdict? Am I missing something? What’s the consensus on the drip pan idea?

[negolien]

You'd have to put a lot of fluid in the pans to begin with or the drippings are just gonna burn the meat doesn't put out that much juice at one time imho. Otherwise I don't see an issue. Is there really that much of a difference in smoke flavor between the rigs?

[Grillin Dad]

Surprisingly, there is a big difference in flavor profile. And good call, think I will add a bit of boiling water to the pans.

[Oak Smoke]

The only experience I have that might shed a bit of light at all is putting my stainless platter on top of the deflector in a kamado. It catches all the drippings and some do char but there is normally quite a bit of fat rendered from a pork butt that doesn’t char. Much the same happens with a brisket but I do get more char because I smoke brisket at 300 F. The reason I use the platter is to help keep my cooker clean, not to change flavor. I haven’t noticed a difference. Even if you don’t get a noticeable flavor change you’ll have a cleaner smoker. Please let us know if you do notice a change in flavor.

[Grillin Dad]

I think there was a stronger smoke flavor. I attribute this to the drippings getting caught in the pan instead of getting burned up in the fire. In doing this, I lose the ‘char-grill’ flavor, but gain more ‘classic smoke’ flavor. Only real bummer was the caught juices all burned up, but I half expected that.

[RobertC]

When I do experiments, I usually experiment on one pork butt (or sometimes on half of one) rather than two.

[Grillin Dad]

Yeah, but 2 butts are the same amount of work as 1, plus they're cheap (got these on sale for $1/lb), so there's not much risk

[Grillin Dad]

Alright, meat got on at 9 pm and PartyQ attached and set for 230 by 9:15 (decided to lower temp to 230 attach last minute). Gonna trust the PartyQ to do the tough work and my Smoke to keep it honest (and provide backup )!!!

[bbqLuv]

Looks Good
Just a couple Butts hanging around.

[TripleB]

I think all the drippings you capture will dry out and possibly burn. You’ll have to add liquid later to hydrate the drippings. I think all the liquids you’ll capture from wrapping the butts in foil will be enough drippings for later. It’s always that way for me. Are you mopping your butts? I add some mop liquid to the foil when I wrap.

FWIW….

[Grillin Dad]

I didn’t wrap until I took them off the barrel to rest. The big benefit to cooking overnight was I didn’t have to worry about timing. Also didn’t mop. I usually find there is enough juice/fat from the butts that the end product is not dry.

[Grillin Dad]

I LIKE PORK BUTTS AND I CANNOT LIE!!! Took the butts out at 9:30, about 12.5 hours total in the barrel. Got them wrapped in foil and in the cooler until dinner ... or maybe lunch. Will report back about the smoke profile

[Grillin Dad]

One thing I love about the PBX, it's got a huge charcoal basket. I filled this guy with B&B Char-logs, ran it for 12.5 hours and there's still plenty of coals left. I'll bet I could smoke a rack of ribs with what's leftover

[HawkerXP]

How did the fluid in the pans come out?


PBX, PBX, PBX!

[Grillin Dad]

Ahh, that was a disappointment. It all burned off. I poured in a decent amount of water in pans when putting them in, but I think it just prolonged the inevitable.

[HawkerXP]

I do use drip pans when cooking butts in the Weber kettles. I do start with just enough water to cover the bottom of the pan. I usually get a good amount of juice that can be used when shredded. But these are in the indirect side of the charcoal grate.
Thanks for doing this experiment for us.

[Grillin Dad]

Alright, so recap and final thoughts. I think I like this technique. The pulled pork had some nice smoke flavor. Not nearly as strong as I get from the kettle, but nice. Now, in the kettle, I can collect the drippings from the meat and mix that back into the pulled pork. I tried doing that here, but because the drip pan is directly over the coals, the drippings burnt up in the pan. But still, I like it enough that I think I’ll add a set of screws 5 inches or so below the grate. That way I can place a second ‘drip pan grate’ so I don’t have to hang the butts (which was a real pain). Maybe if I cut the butts into smaller pieces, they’ll cook up before the drippings have enough time to burn off. Something to try next time. Until then, I’ve got 8 pounds of pulled pork portioned out, vacuum sealed, and chilling in the deep freeze.

Mission: Accomplished

[Spinaker]

I know you mentioned that you prefer the Kettle and Char-broiler flavors better. However, one thing to remember.....the PBC/PBX is designed to run without water pans. One of the important aspects of the smoker is that the drippings hit the fire, vaporize and then flavor the meat.

We typically add water pans to large smokers that are offset of the heat source and have a lot airflow. This way the water slowly evaporates and allows us to keep up with it. If a water pan is added to a smoker with direct heat, like the PBC, the heat from the fire is too intense and it all boils and evaporates away. Eventually the fats, sugars and other seasonings simply burn up in the pans. Collecting all of those drippings causes them to boil, then slowly burn and release acrid smoke into the cooking chamber. The pans have very little thermal resistance to the open fire, so the drip pans are going to burn up unless you are constantly adding water. (Tough to do on an overnight cook like this)

If you want to add some of that pork fat back to the pulled pork you can trim the fat cap off the pork butt, render it and then add it back in after it is pulled. That is a great way to do it. I will add some rub to the rendered fat and let it slowly cook on the stove or in an oven on lowish heat. (200-220) There is plenty of smoke from the cook, so it is not like you need to add "smoke flavor" to this rendered fat. You can also add other flavors to the rendering, like garlic, rosemary, chives, shallots etc. All great stuff.

If you want more hickory flavor, go with a good quality lump, like FOGO, B&B or Rockwood. Then add the hickory directly to the hot fire. The lump will have a more neutral flavor profile when compared to Kingsford and it will allow that hickory smoke to come through more. Particularly when the cook is starting out and the meat surface is cold and wet. (More on that here, if you are curious)

[Grillin Dad]

Yep, good points here. And I realize that I’m kinda trying to stick a square plug in a round hole, so to speak. You might have something with the lump, I’ve never used it before, always briquettes. Could be worth giving it a shot.