First Smoke: Pork Butt on a Kettle

[bhleigh]

This past Sunday I did my first smoke! I started with my Weber Kettle (read more about my set up here) and spent the better part of two weeks learning how to manage the temps (more of that here). Needless to say, this forum has been extremely helpful and informative.

It was a chilly 48^o with a strong wind all day. I moved my smoker to the side of the shed to block the wind out. I started at 7:15am by lighting 15 briquettes in the chimney. While they were getting ready, I wrapped half of the grate in tinfoil and cleaned out the ash catcher.

The pork butt was bought from Costco, boneless, and came as a full shoulder, so included the picnic ham. On Saturday night, I trimmed the pork butt to 5.1 lbs. and salted it with sea salt. I wrapped it in plastic wrap to dry brine overnight in the fridge. The picnic ham is wrapped in my freezer. In the morning while the chimney is going, I rubbed 3 oz. of MMD all over the butt and let it sit on the counter until the grill was ready.

It took me almost an hour or so to get the temp up to 225^o. Still learning the process and what to do. Taking the advice of others, I loaded the 15 into the SnS and covered them with a chimney full of unlit briquettes. I used approximately 3 1/2 ounces of apple wood for the smoke flavor. I inserted my probes and put the lid on. Oh, and I put 3 cups of warm water in the reservoir.

Right off the bat, I realized that I will need to drill holes for the probes because too much smoke was leaking out under the rim. Second, the thermometer that comes with the grill also leaks. Third, controlling the temps is a lot more difficult than I imagined. For most of the day I had the bottom vent at 1/8 open and the top vent just a crack - 1/8 open. I could not keep the temps steady, and fluctuated between 219^o-243^o. There was a 10 minute period where the temps rose to 260^o, so I shut the top vent completely until the temps came back down. I hit the stall (155^o-165^o) about 4 hours into the smoke, and it stayed there for the next 5 hours...

At 5:45pm, I hit a second stall of 172^o and it stayed there for an hour. At 6:45pm, with dinner time approaching, I increased the heat to 255^o and wrapped the pork butt in heavy foil. Long story short, at 8:30pm, 12 hours 41 minutes 47 seconds after I lit the chimney, I ate dinner. The final temp was 194^o and the bark was amaze balls.

I took the extras into work and everyone became my new best friend... Thanks to all who helped educate me and make this possible!

A few takeaways for me:
1) Use a drip pan! I forgot to place one under the pork butt, so my ash catcher is a big pot of grease fat right now.
2) Close/open the vents sooner because the temps keep changing for about 10 degrees after you adjust them.
3) Getting a tough piece of meat on my first try...ehh...still was worth the 13 hours!

(pictures will be uploaded tonight)

[HC in SC]

Great work and nice write up! Dry brining is the way to go and MH MD is a great rub for pork.

One thing that I was pushed to do and will advise anyone to do is do not wrap butts if you can help it - granted time was a factor for you and you gotta do what you gotta do when hungry people are waiting.

Get the temps high enough (275-300) on your cooker to push it right thru the stall - not sure that can be achieved with the SNS since I have never used one. The bark on the meat will be 1000 time better than if you wrap it. Pork butts are a very resilient piece of meat and can take big dips and spikes in temps and still be a jam-up finished product.

Another piece of advice would be to coat the butt with cheap yellow mustard before putting the rub on it. It will keep all of that rub stuck to the meat and make the bark even better with all of that melted sugar and rendered fat and spices. Mustard is essentially just water, vinegar and dry mustard powder, so it really doesn't give the meat a "mustardy" flavor at all. It would be like adding a tsp of dry mustard powder to the MH MD - maybe even less.

PS - As much as I like MH MD, for all things pork I recommend Huskee's Rib Rub. I like the MH MD on poultry personally.

Thanks for sharing and congrats!

[bhleigh]

I did rub the pork butt lightly with olive oil before adding the rub. I didn't have enough mustard handy. Thanks for advice!

[HC in SC]

There was a thread a while ago that was all about mustard slathering vs oil. Everything from vinegar activation from the vinegar in mustard to the price point was discussed. Huskee even did a "Pepsi Challenge" and made one of each preparing them the same way except for the oil and mustard.

If I remember correctly, mustard slathering won on taste. (Absolutely not gloating - lol).

Hey, give yourself a reason to do another cook and do 1 of each and decide for yourself.

As a devout mustard-slatherer myself, I'm confident you'll be too once you try it - no matter the rub you use.

[Jon Solberg]

I'll second HC. Great write up! Thx and congrats on the cook!

[richinlbrg]

My $0.02.

I too use the cheap yellow mustard, but after a 24 hour dry brine I add the mustard for another 24 hrs, then add the rub just before grilling. The mustard is supposed to help break down the fat and collagen.

Also, I thread the probes through the air intake. I do not like the thought of crimping the wires. ALSO, if the wires are run under the lid, you'll have a hard time controlling air flow (and therefore the temps). David Parrish taught me to put 4 binder clips on the lid of my Weber. This pretty much shut down the leakage under the lid and improved my control greatly.

Great write up, and CONGRATS on a successful first cook!!

[bhleigh]

Thanks for the advice. I will try running the wires through the intake or drill a hole.

[JeffJ]

Congrats on your first smoke. Don't worry about temperature fluctuations especially with something as forgiving as pork butt. If you are in the 215-275 range for the entire cook the temps are where they need to be. I like to be in the 240-250 range for butts and usually can be in that neighborhood without much difficulty with a kettle. With the SnS the temps will spike a bit once the water evaporates.

[CeramicChef]

Congrats! Very nicely done for your first outing with a new kettle. Kudos to you!

A few observations may help you the next time.

1) Don't chase temps by fiddling with your vents. There is absolutely nothing magical about 225°F! Somewhere in the neighborhood, i.e. 210-250 will do just fine, especially with butts. That is a cut of pork that is simply impossible to screw up.

2) I never cook to a specific temp. In my world 194° is not really done unless it proves so tender it fells like warm butter. That feeling is somewhere north of 200. I generally find that my butts probe tender about 205 and they still remain quite juicy.

3) As you have found out, a drip pan is an absolute necessity of low-n-slow cooks else you're cleaning grease out of the bottom of your cooker for weeks and that's no fun!

4) A water pan/drip pan may help you stabilize temps, add moisture to the cook, and catch drippings. you might also load some firebrick in your kettle to increase the thermal mass. Water, firebrick, etc. will add thermal mass to your system and really help you stabilize your temps. This means you won't have to keep messing with vents settings

5) Use your bottom vent for gross temp adjustments and use the top vent to fine tune your temps.

Just a few thoughts you might want to consider.

Again, congrats on your new rig, congrats on that first successful cook, and have fun!

[bhleigh]

Thanks! I will see if I can find some firebrick or ceramic bricks to help with the mass. the SnS has a water reservoir which kept a good moisture level the entire time. I only had to fill it up once.

[David Parrish]

No to the bricks! You don't need any additional thermal mass. The SnS is already 5 lbs of Stainless Steel and works magnificently right our of the box. CeramicChef means well but some of this advice is off as he's not experienced with the SnS. In regards to his point 4 above, the SnS has a built in water reservoir. A drip pan is GREAT but it doesn't need any liquid in it. Bricks are completely unnecessary. In regard to point 5... the SnS makes kettles work differently. They become much more efficient. I actually feel the top vent is more important for temp control when using the SnS. Also, your vents will likely need to be 1/3 open, or less, to maintain 225F. 100% of my customers tell me they have had to tighten their vent settings after they started using the SnS over other techniques or products.

[Ernest]

LOL! Leave the vents alone if you're hovering between 210 -243. And 260 is normal as well. Remember that this is a charcoal cooker (and still brand new), temps will be all over the place. If you're heading towards 280 degrees then you could be slightly concerned.

[David Parrish]

That sounds like really good temp control for a first attempt. I consider myself at the top of my game when I'm keeping temps 225 to 235, and you're range isn't much more than that. Fluctuations are normal, but they will lessen as you get a feel for how to tweak your vents. Make sure you read all of our instructions on our website, too! www.abcbarbecue.com

Definitely get yourself some binder clips. They work wonders. And feed the wires through the top vent, bottom vent, or drill a small hole.

[richinlbrg]

bhleigh , I have been threading my probes through the bottom for some time. Slightly awkward, but it works well. David Parrish knows of what he speaks, and my experiences are consistent with what he said.

[bhleigh]

richinlbrg I did try threading the probe wires through the intake when I smoked my Thanksgiving turkey. Without 6' long wires, its a pain in the tookuss. I have a lid hinge to attach anyways so I will probably just drill the probe holes then as well.

[richinlbrg]

@bleigh , it is a bit of a pain, but I've always been afraid to punch a whole into my kettle.

I am looking REALLY hard at the new "Meater" thermometer, but it is not shipping until March.
Looks like it has REAL possibilities, but no clue on reliability. High risk, but IF it works, it'll be great.

[bhleigh]

[David Parrish]

Looking good! Now go cook somethin else

[Huskee]

Not sure if this has been mentioned above, but try placing your foil layer/drip catcher tight to all walls so that it covers 100% of that indirect side. This not only offers better drip protection from your ash pan beneath but also direct incoming air to the coals theoretically keeping a warmer, more steady and more efficient cooking environment inside.

But congrats on what looks like a win!

[JeffJ]

I've always kind of scoffed at mustard for a slather yet I see it getting props on this thread. Coincidentally, I am smoking 2 chuck roasts on Friday - they will be cut up and will go into a big pot of chili for the Michigan/Ohio State tailgate - I will slather one with vegetable oil as I normally do and I'll slather one with mustard and will report my findings as well as post pics.

[richinlbrg]

I look forward to your report.

I always try to slather my pork, but somehow forget it when I do a chuck.

Going to do a chuckie Friday or Sat and will also try to remember to slather and will also report back!

Happy smoking and eating!

[richinlbrg]

JeffJ , I didn't do a side by side, but I did remember to put mustard on my chuckie this past weekend. It was as good as I have done!

[David Parrish]

JeffJ I haven't tried it myself but from what I've read from other members here one of the key aspects of the mustard slather is that you have to do it a couple of days in advance. The slather is a little bit of a different technique than just the "apply oil/mustard then your rub" technique we commonly talk about around here.

[Huskee]

JeffJ If I'm prepping pork butts that are par-frozen I'll use mustard as a binder to help the rub stick- that's all. However, I did a side by side test (and I know HC in SC did the same thing maybe a year ago) where I took 2 pork butts and did a mustard slather for 2 days on one, and the other with an immediately-before-smoking mustard slather. The 2-day one was notably more tender and juicy. HC noticed the same thing if I recall correctly. The mustard's ingredients, in what becomes a 2-day marinade essentially, does help the meat IMO.

Like Pit Boss, I'm not thinking there'll be any difference in your testing, especially if added to chili (yum though!) but I await your findings.

[HC in SC]

I think it is better to slather with mustard without the marinade aspect vs oil. Harris Teeters in our area had a .99 cents per pound on pork butt sale about a month ago and the wife got 4. It was only hen she got home and realized there was no room in the freezer because it had 3 turkeys already in there for Thanksgiving. I ended up doing a 2 day back to back cook on the PBC 2 butts each cook.

For those since I was under a time crunch I dry brined with your (old recipe) rib rub over night. I drained the excess myoglobin and water from the pan the next morning, slathered with mustard (mustid in my best NY accent - lol) and applied more rib rub. Repeated same process next day. Results were awesome (as usual). The bark is this awesomeness of melted sugar, rendered fat and fabulous spices.

If I have time, I'll definitely marinate with mustard, but if I can't I still won't use oil.

[JeffJ]

Interesting. I may have to apply the slather tonight then.

[Huskee]

Also bhleigh, when doing a long low & slow cook like this, use a full quart of water and make sure it's HOT when you add it, not just warm. You don't want the water absorbing your charcoal's heat, which it will do- it has enough work to do in heating up the grill's components. This will speed up preheat time and will suffice as your thermal mass, by design.

[bhleigh]

Huskee I will remember to use hot water next time instead of warm. I didn't realize it was that big of a deal between warm and hot. Also, I will make a foil bowl to go on the charcoal grate for next time as well.

David Parrish I used your binder clips when I smoked my Thanksgiving turkey. They did help wonders. Any ideas on how to remove the gunk from my top vent so I can turn it easily? It sticks like crazy!

Thank you all for the advice.

[Huskee]

Very welcome, we love to see you get the best out of your equipment!

[David Parrish]

Strange you have gunk causing the vent to be sticky. I've never had someone mention that. You might just have an overly tight vent. Scrape the gunk off and if it's still sticking it likely was too tight to begin with.

[bhleigh]

David Parrish thanks. I'll take a look at the vent and see. It worked perfectly fine before smoking the pork butt.

[LA Pork Butt]

Sounds like a good cook to me. Boston butt is really forgiving. If you keep your temperature between 225 and 275 you will have a great. I've gotten good cooks with temperature spikes over 300. I cooked one yesterday on a 26" kettle using the snake method targeting 275 and had spikes over 300. Guests gave it good reviews. Think about this. While the spikes won't be as great even you kitchen oven temp varies each time it drops below the target and then heats up again. Your home heating unit is designed with two degree swings on each side of the target. When it comes to Boston butt don't sweat the fluctuations.