We celebrated the first day of Fall by smoking a 7 pound pork butt. 7 hours before the crutch and then another 90 minutes or so. It turned out great and we have leftovers. My question: Has anyone cooked pork butt in their PBC and just let her run without the crutch? Interested in cooke times, if you had to add coals, and how did you add them, if needed.
If not cooking outdoors, I am cooking on the stovetop with my 14" carbon steel wok, 12" CI skillet, or in the oven with my two Lodge CI pizza pans, or two dutch ovens. I've also got a nifty Lodge carbon steel grill pan that rocks for veggies outdoors.
I run an offset stickburner, and never crutch my butts. I may wrap them late, once they have enough color, but that’s not often. They take anywhere from 12-16 hours (most commonly ~14) and come out amazing. Beautiful bark, great smoke flavor, and moist as all get out!
Thomassen i did 2 8ish# bone in butts on my PBC a couple weekends ago. Didn’t crutch. At about 170 degrees I moved them to the grate. Took 10 hours. Never had to reload coals. Even put on a 4# top round after I pulled the butts off and cooked that for 3 hours. So about 13 hours on 1 full basket of KBB. It was running around 240-250 degrees
I’m 175’ or so above sea level and it’s super humid here in MD. I fill the basket, take 40 out and put in the PBC chimney, ball up 4 1/4s of newspaper and drizzle vegetable oil on them, and let that go for about 8-10 mins max and dump them in. I put the rebar in and lid on while I go retrieve my meat and put it right in. If I use other methods my PBC runs too hot.
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I don’t crutch .... cook ‘em on the WSM at 240, give or take ... usually runs 10-12 hours. I buy the boneless butts at costco, weigh 7-8 lbs usually.
Smoked a 5.8 pound pork butt in the PBC yesterday. Used KBB and some chunks of apple wood. Cooked it on the grate (traumatized by one falling into the coals a couple months ago!). PBC cranked up to almost 325, and then quickly settled down and ran at about 260, nice and steady for hour after hour. The meat stalled at about 160 after a few hours, but i just let it ride. No crutch. SLOWLY began to climb up. Got to 203 after 8.5 hours. Wish I had some photos to share, but the hungry crowd demolished the meat! Bark was great.
I have now done 3 pork butts on the PBC without using a crutch. Takes a little longer, but the PBC runs so solid on a set it and forget it basis that it's the only way to go!
It turns into edible gold is what happens! Once it is completely done on the smoker, I do wrap it and toss it in a cambro for a couple hours before I pull it. Perhaps this step will allow the bark to slightly soften up a bit with all the heat and steam trapped in there?
John "JR"
Minnesota/ United States of America
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It turns into edible gold is what happens! Once it is completely done on the smoker, I do wrap it and toss it in a cambro for a couple hours before I pull it. Perhaps this step will allow the bark to slightly soften up a bit with all the heat and steam trapped in there?
Yep, it will soften the bark a bit, but it will still be intact, for the most part. I almost never wrap either, unless I am running short on time. I love that thick bark that develops when you don't wrap during the cool. I find that it also helps during the hold period to make sure the bark survives.
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