Smooth PBC pork butt cook

[phoccer]

So after attempting to turn my PBC into a rocket the other day I ended up adjusting the vent to 1/8 in the middle of the cook and temps held steady for the rest of the cook. So today's cook of two pork butts hanging has started as follows:

1. Fill up basket as full as I can with Kingsford Professional(my preferred charcoal).
2. Remove 30 and light in a small chimney, let them burn for 12 minutes(suggested by Amber at PBC), and dump them on spreading around the top when ready. I started with 30 with the last cook figuring starting with 30 might help with the PBC not taking off so hot and fast at the start.
3. Put in the rebar, hung the temp probe a little below my butts, insert meat probe, put the lid on(after spraying with cooking spray Spinaker ! ).

The temps started off at 230 and had dropped to 215 within 15 minutes. Thanks to fzxdoc's documentation I knew to crack the lid to let temps rise so I cracked the lid 1/4" and temps took about 10 minutes to rise. I put the lid back on when they hit 300, temps rose a bit to 315, then settled back into the 270-290 range for about 3 hours. They started to dip around the 4 hour mark down to 250. I'm guessing this was the shift from burning the coals right by the vent to the back section of coals. I decided it was time to take a peak.



Temps started to roll back up and rolled up to around 315. About that point it was time to wrap as the internal temp of one hit lower 160s and the other was upper 150s. They had been in for around 6 hours at that point. Wrapped, put on the grate, and just let the PBC go. Two hours later one had hit 205, about 30 minutes later the lagger came in at 205. Removed and pulled pork.






I was very happy with the flavor and now I have more than enough meat for the graduation party. Too much actually but I'm good with that problem. I definitely like how this cook went. Pretty darn easy IMO. My ideal scenario is to just hang the meat, put the lid on, and walk away but I'll always keep an eye on it because I'm just wired that way. I definitely feel like I took two steps forward today with the PBC and starting to see how it really runs. Next cook I'll either start with 40 or just leave the lid off a bit at the start to let it heat up and go from there. Fun stuff!

Hopefully this info is useful for anyone else getting started with a PBC and wanting to use Kingsford Pro. I'm at 900' elevation.

[Huskee]

Congrats! I did a PB in mine yesterday, and using KBB my temps spiked to 409 then and only went down to 340-360, even after adding the meat....a bit high. I had to fiddle with things, foiling the hole, etc. Some cooks are just more hands-on than others.

[JeffJ]

How in the world did you cook in your PBC yesterday with this biblical rain we've been having? Did you skirt just north of it?

[Huskee]

JeffJ I guess we did. We had about 4 days of heavy rain but it stopped Weds. Thurs was chilly but dry.

[phoccer]

Definitely. I was very happy with how little I had to do. Weather conditions were perfect which definitely helped.

[Notavegan]

Great looking cook!!

I'm rather pbc ignorant/ learning... is it an automatic to wrap? I see it powers through the last ~45 degrees in just a couple hours so that's nice. I wonder how an unwrapped would do, besides take longer to get to 205?

[TroyOHchatter]

My experience is that while you can power through a stall on the PBC without foil, it's not as good. I have tried naked, butcher paper, and double wrap foil. Foil is the winner.

[kmhfive]

Thanks for the details. I love seeing the learning that's going on. Even though I don't have a PBC, I can use some of your thought process as I work and learn my cookers!

[Pirate Scott]

You make it sound easy, looks delicious. I wonder if having two butts in there actually helps with temperature.

[TroyOHchatter]

I have cooked one or two using Noah Glanville's recipe to the letter. Perfect every time. No thermometers for barrel temp, no vent adjustments, no foiling here or there.

[JeffJ]

That is some seriously excellent-looking pork butt! Very well done.

[phoccer]

Notavegan As TroyOHchatter mentioned, with a little higher temps I could power through the stall on the PBC and I did with the pork butts I did on Tuesday. Those had a crunchy bark to them that were ok. Wrapping will get you through the stall and soften up the bark on them. After comparing the two, I prefer a little softer bark and getting done quicker . I've heard of people refueling the PBC and say it isn't difficult but it isn't as easy as dropping in an extra chimney into my SnS. So I'm pretty sold on wrapping now as I've done it on brisket and pork butt and I prefer the bark that way. All personal preference.

[phoccer]

Pirate Scott Good question. My mistake was I hung them horizontally, 4 hooks in each. Never occurred to me I don't have 4 hands :/ Getting them unhooked was a challenge. I just went brain dead when I was hooking them up. Next time I'll hook them to hang vertically and get some space between them. They were slow to come up to temp and I'm guessing that's because they were hanging right next to each other on the rebar.

[DWCowles]

Beautiful!

[fzxdoc]

Great looking cook!!

I'm rather pbc ignorant/ learning... is it an automatic to wrap? I see it powers through the last ~45 degrees in just a couple hours so that's nice. I wonder how an unwrapped would do, besides take longer to get to 205?

I often power through on the PBC with the PB unwrapped. I like the bark too much to wrap it, and in my PBC, the bark is seldom set well enough at 160°F when I want to move the meat to the grate for safety sake. I usually take it up to 170-180 or so anyway before wrapping and only wrap if I need to get the PB to the table sooner than later. Otherwise it rides unwrapped all the way.

If the PB has been in a stall for much more than 2 hours, I goose up the PBC temp to help push it through the stall. I've always worried that a long stall can be drying to the meat, sooner or later.

To each his/her own, though. Everyone has a method that works best for them, the flavor profiles and textures that they want, and their PBC setup.

phoccer , your cook sounds pretty doggone perfect. Enjoy eating and sharing that pork butt at the party. You're going to knock your guests' socks off with the flavor.

Kathryn

[supergas6]

My preference with pork butt is to go to 170-180 (still hanging--living on the edge!) and then wrapping. Once I did the whole thing unwrapped (all the way to 203F), but honestly, that one was a little drier than I like. I typically don't find the stall to be a big deal, but I leave plenty of time when I cook pork (I plan on two to three hours in the Cambro, knowing that if I run long, it will just be a shorter stay in there). The only real mistake I've made with pork butt is rushing it (once), so I don't do that anymore.

By the way, Kathryn, ordering my gasket today, in reference to another thread.

[phoccer]

I was planning to go to 170-180 before wrapping but I believe hanging them horizontally and right next to each other affected cook times.

[Mr. Bones]

Looks Great, neighbor!!!
Still tryin' to resist addin' a PBC to my Arsenal. I know, in my heart of hearts, that is futile...