What have I done? (Boston Butt related)

[smokenoob]

I hope Winn Dixie has a sale on butts tomorrow!!!

[jfmorris]

Yeah, I'm pricing them now. Right now Sam's has the best deal if I buy a case of 8. I would do that and freeze the ones I don't smoke for future use.

[jfmorris]

I've not seen a Winn Dixie in this neck of the woods in 20 years...

[Steve R.]

Another thought: does everyone actually need a full ~8 lb. butt? Could maybe get by with a half for at least some of them.

[jfmorris]

I think she has promised them a butt, to feed them all week. My kids are in for the idea of me feeding them Monday - Thursday for sure.

[jfmorris]

Ok, after messing with the offset to burn off mold, and seeing that I need to paint and do some repair work on it, along with some gasket work, I will likely do this on the SNSK and the Performer. Attjack has given me an idea of tetrising 5 butts into the SNSK by standing them on their ends, and using some skewers through them to hold them in that position. It's intriguing and I want to try it just to see if I can make it work. Or I just do 3 on the SNSK and 2 on the Performer.

Either way, I don't think I have time to mess with the offset all day long. I am inspired to bust it out more this year, but right now I have a front shelf with failing supports, and some paint work needed for the non-stainless parts, and I want to seal the main chamber lid with some high temp gasket I bought for that purpose 2-3 years ago. Just gonna have to sand and use some solvent to prep the surface to take the gasket.

[STEbbq]

Yeah, I was going to say I saw a picture of standing six butts on their ends and cooking them on a kamado. It sounds like Attjack probably saw the same and figured it out.

[ofelles]

Time for the LSG large insulated cabinet! Could handle twice as many butts easily and witha controller and fan it's mostly set and forget!

[texastweeter]

Stickburner FTW

[jfmorris]

Well, I thought I would update this thread on what is going on today.

I had the cook up to 6 butts, then the daughter who is on a road trip to Texas (Houston for a Sunday wedding) told me she would not be back until Tuesday night, so her butt is delayed a day or two, dropping today's cook back to 5. So, I decided to run the cook on both the SNS Kamado and the Performer.

I setup both cookers in SNS mode with a basket of charcoal and wood chunks, so that at 6am this morning, I could just go light a fire starter (the Tumbleweed ones) that was nestled down at one end of the SNS. Got smoke rolling quickly, put the lids on about 10-15 minutes later, and put the meat on about 7am, when the grills were both hitting 225ish. I used the PartyQ to manage the Performer, and just monitored the SNS Kamado with the Smoke.

I started with 2 butts on the main grate of the SNS Kamado, thinking I would try the third one on the lower grate next to the SNS, so I just left it on the DNG roasting rack, and clipped a temp probe to that grate too. Unfortunately, after monitoring the cook until about 9am, I never saw the lower grate exceed 170, running about 100F cooler than the main cooking grate. I am sure the TOP of that butt was exposed to the higher temps, but the bottom sure wasn't, and it was not barking up as desired.

So, about 9am, I got the Tillman welding gloves out, and a couple of pans. I pulled the top 2 butts, pulled the cooking grate, pulled the butt from the DNG, and put all 3 butts on the main grate, on their sides. To get them to hold that position and not just fall into each other, I used 3 metal skewers, keeping an inch or so between them. So I think - this is good, I can do this.

I then proceeded to STRUGGLE MIGHTILY to get the cooker back to the desired 275 to 300 cooking grate temp. Finally checked - almost out of charcoal, so I added more. The B&B lump bag I opened for this cook has a lot of insanely huge peices, so I ended up supplemented with some B&B briquettes to fill in things.

Meantime the Dot monitoring one of the butts on the Performer is showing things proceeding, and its rock steady at its set point that was at that time 300F.

At noon the 2 butts on the Performer hit 170F, and I wrapped in foil, and dialed things down to 275. In the meantime, the Kamado is all over the place. 225. 250. 190. I just can't get it dialed in. I finally grab the welding gloves AGAIN around 12:30, and pull everything including the SNS full of burning charcoal out of the SNS Kamado, and reset it into kamado cooking mode. Thank goodness for the welding gloves! Dumped the SNS into the bottom, poured more lump in, grate on, deflector on, 3 butts arranged over the deflector. And things are FINALLY stable, around 250F or so.

About 2pm (now) the two butts on the Performer hit 203 to 205, and I pulled them, put a second wrap of foil on them, and they are in cambro. These 2 will get pulled at 4pm for the wife to take to folks she promised meals to. I also took this opportunity to move the lowest temp butt (The one that started down low) over to the Performer, to give things more space on the kamado.

So far today, several lessons have been learned:

1. Don't bother cooking on the lower cooking grate level of the SNS Kamado or the Performer (on the Drip 'N Griddle).

That is, unless you are ok with the temp down there being almost 100F lower than the main grate. I question even getting beans done down there unless you run the main grate at 300F or higher, to get the lower grate above the boiling point.

2. Kamado mode seems easier to manage and maintain temperature on the SNS Kamado.

Now, I have in fact used the SNS successfully in that cooker, but it was for hotter cooks where I was running things wide open (chicken, reverse seared steaks, etc). I also might have been ok in SNS mode if I had a temp controller to manage the fire, which I would have if it was not tied up on the Performer. I've done low and slow (225) on the SNSK with the SNS, but it was with the PartyQ. So far though, most of my low and slow cooks on the SNS Kamado were likely in kamado mode, and the vent settings documented in the manual seem to work well for that mode, but not for the SNS mode.

3. Don't overload the cooker.

In retrospect, the amount of fussing I had to do today with the SNS Kamado and the 3 butts on it negated any time I might have spend managing the fire on the offset. If I had known the issues I would have, I would have just thrown all this on the offset, even if the front shelf is falling off at an angle currently and needs repair - that is the biggest reason I did not use it. No where to set stuff. Watching the main grate temp from my desk with the Smoke would have told me when to add wood or charcoal or whatever to the offset.

Anyway, lessons learned, and hopefully the pork all turns out after a cambro and being pulled.

[jfmorris]

texastweeter one time I smoked 84 butts on two trailer smokers for a highschool cheerleading fundraiser when my daughter was a cheerleader. I spent the better part of 24 hour manning those smokers, at the school in a gravel area that had drains that I could rinse them off at afterwards. Talk about a grease fog. My hair was encrusted with grease and standing up, and took a half bottle of shampoo to get out. I didn't smoke a butt for several years after that...

[jfmorris]

tbob4 yes the SNS Kamado works very well for a 22" kettle sized kamado. And normally the SNS mode works well, and barks things up good, but I think I just lost control of things today.

[texastweeter]

jfmorris either dawn dish soap, or lava hand soap will get the grease out of your hair. I don't have much left on top of my head, but my handlebar mustache and beard get slicked down pretty good.

[Bruceski44]

When the going gets tough, the tough start smoking!

Your family and church family will be blessed by your efforts.

[LA Pork Butt]

I am late to post, but I once did 40# of Boston using two levels of my 18’ BGE. They took 22 hours, because it was like smoking 1 butt that was 8” thick.

[jfmorris]

I once did 672# in one cook, for a fundraiser, using my little smoker and two rented trailer reverse flow smokers. It was loaded down with little air space until shrinkage occured. I was so traumatized by the experience that I don't think I smoked a butt for myself for several years after.

[texastweeter]

To quote my old coach, "Its not HOW you win that matters, its THAT YOU WIN that does." Good job brother.

[jfmorris]

Well, all in all, hot and fast, got 5 butts done in a total of about 8 hours of cooking, so issues aside, it worked out well. Pork done hot and fast doesn't really have the bark I like, due to the wrap I do the last 2 hours to get it done, but its more moist than the ones I spend 14-16 hours with at 225.

I was gorged and sick after snacking as I pulled 5 butts for about 30-45 minutes straight... and I ended up with a nice pile of gristle and fat that the dogs will get as treats for the next week...

I'll have to find a picture my wife took tomorrow. She's already snoozing in front of the TV with her phone in her hand, so I won't bother her for it tonight...

[jfmorris]

Here's a couple pics.

Morning started calm with my cup of coffee, checking on the cookers...



After that a lot of headaches ensued, mostly with the SNS Kamado in SNS mode. The Performer plugged away at a steady 300F with the PartyQ, and the SNSK got there once I shifted to kamado mode. What matters is the results...



I ended up with 5 full pans of extremely juicy pulled pork, along with a 6th pan that was half full of scrap material like gristle and fat, for the dogs. I kept having to shoo my wife and my son who came by from eating from the dog scraps, but they kept finding stuff they liked in that pile too, haha...

[Sweaty Paul]

Wowser, while you had a time of it for a bit your product looks spectacular!

[Clawbear57]

Congratulating on cook. I get worked up over one butt, much less 5. I'm a newbie so i like hearing from the pros.

[Texas Larry]

That’s what you get for being such a good dad and all around generous guy🤣! I’m in with the offset vote, but you’re in for big day of smoking. Pretty sure I could get six on my KJ Big Joe with my expansion rack, but not in a hurry to try.

[DTro]

Looks really good. Nice cook! Just curious which cooker got three butts?

[jfmorris]

The SNS Kamado got 3, the Weber Performer got 2. If I had to do it over again, I would likely have used the offset, and lived with using a lot more fuel.

[DTro]

@jfmorrisI I don't have an offset but would love to cook on one (not buy) sometime. Burning those two cookers side-by-side probably gave you a greater understanding of their strengths and weaknesses and a greater appreciation for your offset.