My Virgin Pork Smoke

[tbill87]

Alright, here is my update from this past weekend.

This is what I purchased



It was a little over 15 lbs, so I cut in into 3 portions. 2 butt ends and 2 strips. It wasn't 1 whole piece, but 2 individual pieces so when I cut down, it basically left me with what looked like 2 strips.

Here are the seasonings that I used



This is what everything looked like before hitting the smoker



Overall time to smoke for the butt ends was 10.5 hours. The strips were about 6 hours, but probably could have stayed in a little longer.

I set the temp on the smoker for 250 and I used a combination of Apple & Mesquite for the Bradley bisquettes I used. I only applied the smoke for the 1st 3 hours. I followed LA Pork Butts recommendation to wrap the meat in foil after reaching an internal temp of 160. It seemed like it took forever to get from 150 to 160. It took about 7.5 hours to get to the 160 internal temp. After wrapping I put back into the smoker until reaching an internal temp of 200. It took 3 hours to get from the 160 internal temp to the 200 after wrapping. Does that seem right?

As I said, I only applied smoke for the 1st 3 hours. Do you think I would have had better results if I had applied smoke longer?

Here are the butts after resting for 1 hour after pulling out of the smoker.



I thought the flavor was very good. I'm happy with the way my 1st attempt turned out. All 3 had somewhat different levels of shreddiness. The picture on the left almost melted as I attempted to shred it. The one in the middle seemed a little more chucky during the shredding process. Any thoughts on what might cause that difference?

Thank you again for everyone's replies to my initial post. I appreciate the interest in my success!

I think my next attempt will be a chuck roast if anyone has any tips / recommendations they would like to share with that cut of meat.

Thank you all!

[mrichie1229]

Congrats on a successful cook! And welcome to the Pit!

[Steve R.]

For your chuck roast attempt, use the same basic approach that you did with the butt. But be prepared to do a lot more cooking to get it tender enough to shred. I wrap in foil when the bark is formed (a covered foil pan would work just as well), take the IT to ~210° and keep cooking for another hour, then at least an hour of holding in a warm oven or cooler.

[Santamarina]

Butt was my first smoke. I studied Meatheads recipe on the free site and have followed it for the last 9-10 years. That recipe is solid and I’ve cooked no doubt over 100 butts since then.