hey guys, trying to figure something out. Smoked 2 Boston butts today. They were Smithfield 8 lb. I have a Pitts and spitts offset backyard size smoker. Rubbed them with Memphis dust the night before, smoked for 13 hours over oak. They got to 190 but couldn't wait anymore. They didn't shred all that great at all and just didn't taste good. I've smoked a lot of butts in the past with my old smoker and they tasted great. These were drier and bland, didn't have the fatty salty smoky taste. Trying to figure out if it was the wood (western brand oak bought at academy, kiln dried), the pork or the technique. Any ideas?
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Need more info. Have you used Smithfield butts in the past? What else changed? -
My old smoker was a Pitts and spitts as well but it had the firebox below the chamber, my new one is offset. I used to get my pork from Sams but these were from HEB. My old wood came from a live oak we took out of my backyard, this new wood I buy from academy. Kept it between 210-275. I used to have a water pan beneath the entire chamber but now I'm using a loaf sized aluminum pan placed below the cooking grate. also I used to wrap my finished butts in foil and towels in a cooler for an hour plus. These were just foiled on the counter for 15-30 min. My older Butts shredded so much easier than these todayComment
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Was this the first cook on the smoker? You noted the use of your old smoker, that's why I asked.Comment
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First for pork butts, I've done ribs three times and thought the product was good.Comment
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I like wrapping my PB when it reach IT of 175/180 then let it go to It of 200/203 before wrapping in towels and placing in cooler for 2 hrs.Comment
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You mention the internal temperature at which you took it out. My first thought is every piece of meat is a little different and the tenderness of the meat should be the deciding factor, rather than the internal temp. There's a lot of variables involved here. I would get back to the way you used to do it, to the extent possible, until the cooker is the only thing different. Then it's just a matter of learning the new cooker and what works with it, one variable at a time.
That holding time in the faux cambro can make a big difference as well.Comment
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I really have a hunch that it was just not completely ready when I pulled it. And I didn't let it rest for long enough to redistribute moisture. It's still seems crazy that 13 hours wasn't enough to get either of these doneComment
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Don't go by internal temperature... go by probe softness. I plan my pork butt cooks so they get at least 2 hours in the faux Cambro.Originally posted by camws99 View Post
Probe softness... use the probe of your Thermapen, or any digital thermometer, to poke your meat in the fattest section and when it goes in and out like it's buttah soft, it's done. Start checking Pork Butts at about 200°. Pork Butts usually get buttah soft somewhere between 200° and 210°.Comment
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This may be a dumb question but you said you used Memphis dust the night before. Did you salt it first? Remember, md had the salt removed from the receipe. To me salt is a flavor enhancer along with being a tenderizer.Comment
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As Breadhead said, it seems like Probe Tender is a more reliable indicator of proper doneness for a Butt to be ready to shred easily.
I don't think I saw, but do you have a Maverick or similar probe at grate level in addition to the temp gauge on your offset? New temp gauges can be off. My TelTru is off by 30 degrees, apparently, on my Vault.
If you are not getting the right smokey flavor, my first go to is always Fire Management. How clean was the fire? How often did you have smoldering logs that didn't give you that beautiful, tasty, blueish smoke? Some logs don't burn well, even if kiln dried. Of if you have a modest size cooker and huge splits, and you want to stay at that 225 ish range, it can be hard to keep a clean, small first with big logs.Comment
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You have some good advice from the Pit. Unless it was probe tender at 190 it would for me be a premature pull. Also, I don't exactly know what the cambro does, but whenever I have gone from smoker to pulling they have been disappointing. I target 2 hours in the cambro. I don't know much about cooking on an offset, but you may need more moisture in your cooker and the meat may have been too close to the heat source.Comment
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I agree with what everyone has said. Something you mentioned in the beginning also piqued my interest. You indicated that it was a new smoker. I don't own a Pitts and Spitts nor do I know anyone who does. I do, however, have experience with new smokers. I have found that cooking on a new apparatus has both a learning curve and a seasoning curve. Outcomes can often times be different - some temporary and some permanent. It's why the Pit is so good as a resource for solving problems. You may find that over time you can cook butts the exact same way in your new cooker and come up with the same results you used to (Method A = Result A). You may also find that Method A does not work well with this smoker and you have to go to Method B to get result A. Only time and experience with it will tell. I think that this time it was due to an early pull. A butt is a really good thing to test out on your new smoker. Keep playing around with the BBQ and keep reporting back what you find.Comment
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how often did you peek at your meat? if you made a graph of your heat within your cooking area, would it be closer to a flat line? or more like a hillside drive? that could help diagnose why after so much time you were running into 190 meat temp. Wrapping would have helped you climb to tender faster...once your bark is set.Comment
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