Runaway Temps in the PBC - Pork Butt - How Did it Turn Out?

[JeffJ]

I left work early today to smoke up some pork butt for the Michigan vs Penn State tailgate tomorrow. I started with a 10 pound butt that was closer to 8 pounds after being trimmed and removing the fat cap. I then decided i wanted to halve it only to find out that it had 2 bones in it that made subdividing it very difficult. I was ultimately able (with some work) to take 2 quarters of it and smoke alongside the other half. Per usual I followed Kathryn's lighting instructions and it worked as well as it always has. On the bottom of the basket I placed a small log of lump (it really was a small log of lump out of a bag of Western lump) and filled the rest of the basket to the absolute brim with unlit KBB. I lit 40 or so KBB briquettes and layered them on top - added a couple of wood chunks and after they were nice and lit I added the meat and probed 2 of the 3 hunks through one of the rebar holes. Both rebars were in and I was cooking the meat on the grate. I was NOT measuring cooking chamber temps - the PBC runs at whatever temp it feels like running. After a half hour I peeked in and it seemed that by threading the probes through one of the rebar holes the wires were choking airflow, so I removed 1 rebar and repositioned the other one diagonally. Well, the meat cooked really fast. After 3 hours I probed the 2 smaller butts with the Thermo-pen just to make sure my placement of the probe thermometer was about in the middle - it was. So I pulled the meat probe and dangled it just below the grate. To my shock it was reading 430 and it stayed there for the duration of the larger, 4 pound butt. I just finished pulling the 2 small butts and I have to say they turned out really well. I took a couple of pics and will follow up with some more pics once the entire batch is complete (hopefully tomorrow - provided I'm sober enough to post in the evening - not likely if Michigan has a big game!)

Anyhow, here are the preliminary results after 3 hours in the PBC and 1 hour resting in a faux cambro:

[RonB]

They look mighty tasty to me.

[fzxdoc]

Hot 'n fast looks like it worked well with those pork butt chunks you had, sure enough, JeffJ . Pulling one rebar and placing the other at the diagonal kicks up the PBC temp like nobody's business. 430°F barrel temp does not sound unusual for that situation. Looks like a great PB cook on the ol' PBC. I wanted to reach through my monitor and grab one of those hunks of pork!

Congrats on a great cook!

Kathryn

[Donw]

Good looking pork. Nothing wrong about what came out, high temp and all.

[shify]

Go Blue!

[Henrik]

Great looking butts!

[jecucolo]

Yep pbc can get to another gear with just a little more oxygen. Your pork butts looked great!

[JeffJ]

The only difference was they had just a tad more pull to them, a tad more chew than slower cooked butts but it was still more tender than a pork tenderloin cooked to medium. Honestly, this turned out as good as any other pork butt I've ever cooked.

Now I'm looking forward to Thanksgiving turkey in the PBC, although I'm sure I'll find a reason to cook in it before then.

[Spinaker]

Nothing wrong with hot and fast on a pork butt! Great grub for the tailgate!