Question about pork butt temperatures on WSM

[Anton32828]

This weekend was interesting. Great baby-back ribs, but really mediocre pulled pork. I think I could use some advice.

I was pretty happy with how I was able to keep my WSM steady between 225 and 250 this weekend. I made baby back ribs Saturday in about four hours with great results. On Sunday I cooked a 5 lb bone-in pork butt for 9.5 hours at 225 and the hottest it got was 185 before I had to remove it from the smoker for dinner. At this temperature it had a nice bark, but it didn't pull apart very well. It was tasty enough, but I know it could have been better.

Both were cooked using Meathead's recipes on the main page.

So...searching through prior posts, it seems opinions vary on the "correct" smoker temperature for pork butt. There were also some comments about how important it is to rest the butt in a cambro. Meathead's recipe talks about the cambro as optional, so I'm a bit confused.

Should I crank up the temperature at some point during the cook? Always plan on an hour wrapped in a beer-cooler cambro? Any advice is appreciated!

[Jerod Broussard]

No best smoker temp. I've cooked them from 225 to 375. Get it to probe tender, if the bark develops well enough before it gets to probe tender, wrap.

Typically a 195 - 203 internal gets you good pulled pork.

[Anton32828]

Thanks Jerod. What's the trade-off to starting hotter? Say 275 - 300 (sugar in the rub burns at 340ish).

[texastweeter]

I take pork to be pulled to 208° and rest as long as possible in a cooler. You can take the out and drop one in a hotel pan, and they will pretty much pull themselve.

[Larry Grover]

There are stubborn butts out there. I remember one guy here said he was stuck in the stall for 24hrs! The advice given to him was dont be afraid to jack up the temps to power through the stall - butts can take the abuse.

[Anton32828]

I'm definitely going to try something different the next time. 24 hrs is crazy! I'm not trying to win a competition, just get better at backyard BBQ.

[texastweeter]

butts can take the abuse...

[Steve R.]

With butts, I don't think I have ever gotten to my target IT just cruising along at 225. I think either a wrap or a bump in temperature is going to be needed if you want to have any kind of realistic idea of when it will be ready. Really, you can only be stuck in a long stall if you allow it to continue.

Regardless, congratulations on nailing the ribs and having the pulled pork be the "mediocre" meat. Pulled pork is kind of a high floor/low ceiling kind of meat, in my opinion, and the average person who doesn't cook their own probably wouldn't even notice the difference.

[Dewesq55]

I agree with Steve R Huskee taught me the way to get butts done reliably in a reasonable time frame:

1. Cut 'em in half: - added advantage of getting more bark.
2. Wrap 'em when the bark is set and leave 'em wrapped until they're done.

[Mudkat]

You may have hit a second stall. Crank up the heat or wrap once you get your bark if you're running out of time.

[Anton32828]

"Second stall" sounds like what I saw on the temperature indicator, but I never imagined such a thing. Wow.

[JeffJ]

Wrapping will speed things along. Just make sure you have good bark before wrapping. Running at higher temps also helps. Pork butt cooks perfectly well at 295 in the cooker. So, just open your vents a bit more and you should be good.

[RonB]

And don't forget that you can cut butts in half to get them to cook faster. Butts do cook slow for me, so I start them the night before. That allows 12 to 14 hours plus time to cambro for an hour or three.

[HungryDawg]

Cutting half is fine also, but the real key is you got to wrap those suckers when temp reaches 150-160F internal. I use pink butcher paper and wrap real tight and use pink "paper" tape to seal them. I can bumped my pellet cooker to 300F, more coals and knock off ash for you. You got to get thru the stall, which takes time. Internal temp to 203F. Leave wrapped in a CAMBRO type mine in a cooler for least an hour. Never had a bad one!

[jfmorris]

There is no correct smoker temp - anything from 225F to 275F brings similar results for me with Boston butts. The thing is, at 185 IT, you are still in "slicing" and not yet in "pulling" temperature range. You are better served cranking the temp up to get it to 195 to 205F, to get probe tender pork, than keeping it low and slow at a steady 225F the entire cook.

Example - on my two most recent pork butts, done on a kettle+SNS+PartyQ, I ran the cook for maybe 8 hours or overnight at 250F. The meat was up to around 170F internal temp at that point, so I went ahead and cranked the heat on up to 300F with the PartyQ, and got it done and to probe tender (203F for me) in the next 2 hours, for a total cook time of 10 hours or so. Contrast that to my usual cooks at 225F all the way, where a butt takes 16 hours to reach the same temperature. I was more interested in getting the butt done in time for dinner (or in time to leave for church and have the butt in cambro), than in a specific cooking temperature.

Butts have so much fat in them, that they can handle the heat. I am not suggesting doing the entire cook at 300+ degrees, but I have done the entire cook at 275F before, with good results.

[Anton32828]

Thanks all. This was really helpful!

[smokin fool]

Lots of great advise here, picked up a few pointer myself like butchers paper, its on our shopping list now.
I try to smoke pork butts in the 275-300 range if the Keg will co-operate.
Try to start them at 10am or so for 6pm feeding.
Last one I smoked I wrapped in foil after it seemed to stall at about 170 that day to get it up to 203 internal temp, which I just learned about also.
No two pieces of butt are going to smoke the same anyway....unless you get the left and right cheek from the same hog....

[smokin fool]

One thing I did not have when I did my last butt was the diffuser, will be interesting to see how this affects the smoke.

[Greygoose]

No best smoker temp. I've cooked them from 225 to 375. Get it to probe tender, if the bark develops well enough before it gets to probe tender, wrap.

Typically a 195 - 203 internal gets you good pulled pork.

This ^

[klflowers]

I have done butt cooks that lasted 14-15 hours, unwrapped. I always do them overnight and wrap and cambro after I pull them off the wsm - I have cambroed up to 4 hours before I pulled one. I have also finished in the oven a time or two. I take them up to at leat 195 or so, 203 if I can get them there.