I thought I would share the written notes on a cook I did yesterday. I was cooking pork butts and chicken for some friends at church and as usual I did not get started early enough and had to transition some items (all of them) to the oven to finish. It all worked out in the end but I wish I had not ruined the bark on the pork butts. Anyway, I know Meathead recommends keeping a log of each cook and I have started keeping notes in a dropbox folder so that I can review my wins and losses and lessons learned for the next cook.
Pork Butts on 12/5/16
Cooked 2 butts, 9Lbs each, on PBC. Tied and hung. Rubbed with mustard and MMD. Started at 6AM in garage because of wind and cool temps. Pit temp about 265 on average. Pulled at 170 at 3PM, crutched and placed in oven at 250 to get it to 203 in 2 more hours. Very moist and tender. Bark completely RUINED! And then could not get temp up to cook 3 split chickens because PBC was fouled with too much ash and could not get over 250 despite addition of new vent on lid. Chicken stalled at 145… You never want chicken to stall. Finished chickens in oven at 360. They were excellent. Skin was great.
Lessons learned:
Start Pork butt late at night and let it cook LONGER (through the night) so that you don’t have to crutch.
Clear ash from PBC before a chicken cook so that temps can reach 325
Sorry I did not take pics of the finished product or of the chickens. If this post helps just one person save the bark it will have been worth the effort. SAVE THE BARK!
Pork Butts on 12/5/16
Cooked 2 butts, 9Lbs each, on PBC. Tied and hung. Rubbed with mustard and MMD. Started at 6AM in garage because of wind and cool temps. Pit temp about 265 on average. Pulled at 170 at 3PM, crutched and placed in oven at 250 to get it to 203 in 2 more hours. Very moist and tender. Bark completely RUINED! And then could not get temp up to cook 3 split chickens because PBC was fouled with too much ash and could not get over 250 despite addition of new vent on lid. Chicken stalled at 145… You never want chicken to stall. Finished chickens in oven at 360. They were excellent. Skin was great.
Lessons learned:
Start Pork butt late at night and let it cook LONGER (through the night) so that you don’t have to crutch.
Clear ash from PBC before a chicken cook so that temps can reach 325
Sorry I did not take pics of the finished product or of the chickens. If this post helps just one person save the bark it will have been worth the effort. SAVE THE BARK!
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