PBX Pork Butt - Wrap it? Foil or Butcher Paper?

[jergles]

Hey everyone, gonna do my first pork butt on the PBX. The PBX is newish, and it will be done alongside two turkeys, so I'll be aiming for higher temps. I typically don't wrap my pork butts, since I do appreciate crunchy bits of bark, but my girlfriend doesn't share this opinion - that begs the question, foil or butcher paper?

[RickyBobby]

My vote is butcher paper. Honestly, that’s what I use almost exclusively when I do wrap, which isn’t often. That said, in your case, I feel like the butcher paper would be a good compromise for you and your girlfriend’s tastes. Butcher paper will still cause your bark to soften, but in my experience, not quite as much as foil.

[jergles]

Yeah, that's sort of the direction I was leaning also.

[Jerod Broussard]

New girlfriend not an option??

[HawkerXP]

When do you plan on wrapping? I usually wait until out of the stall. You'll have a nice bark, and wrapping should soften it up.

[jergles]

I've never wrapped a butt, but whenever I'd wrap a brisket I'd do it just before the stall to help it push through. Wrapping after the stall is interesting, do you do it to soften up the bark also?

[HawkerXP]

Yes and no. Usually to just push it a long.

[RonB]

Is the butt big enough to cut in half? If you do that, you can wrap one piece and leave the other one naked.

[Duanessmokedmeats]

Yes, a naked butt...😂

[RonB]

Duanessmokedmeats - I'm happy somebody got it.

[DaveD]

If anyone was gonna get it...

[jfmorris]

I will jump in and say a couple things here, not that anyone asked.... since I don't own a PBX!

If you are cooking turkey at the same time as the Boston butt, you definitely want to be running the PBX hot - like 325 to 350 if you can get it to be that high. You want those temps for the turkey, to crisp skin. Your butt will cook very quickly with NO STALL at temps above 300. It will likely not have the bark you are used to anyway, but will probably take longer than the turkeys regardless. I would let it run unwrapped until it hits 160-170, THEN wrap. I don't bother with butcher paper here - just heavy duty foil, as it is more readily available. I've done hot and fast butts in 6 to 8 hours at 300F cooker temps, by wrapping in foil around the time they got to 160-170, and folks always seem to like it. Not the bark I am used to, but a little bark. And they seem to come out more moist, which is what most folks want for their meat.

[Spinaker]

I always wrap in foil. Then you get to save the juices. Restaurants use butcher paper because it is way cheaper than foil. I get it, butcher paper looks cool, but IMHO, foil is far superior.

I will say......butcher paper does have a slight edge when it come to bark preservation. Foil tends to soften that bark a little bit more than butcher paper.

For this cook, I would not even worry about it until you get the color you like. I have cooked pork butts at 400F in the PBC with ZERO issues. It still stalls. but the stall is much shorter. And you get fantastic bark and color on that beast when you cook them hot. Pork shoulders have TONS of fat, so they lend themselves to the "Hot and Fast" method quite well.

I would go foil for sure either way. (Butcher paper does look cooler tho) .

[TripleB]

To me, It’s all about the bark on pulled pork.

[bbqLuv]

The following YouTube has useful information on Foil vs paper.
Enjoy.

Butcher Paper vs Foil (Smoking Pork butt/shoulder) Extended Version

There are numerous videos on this subject.

[TripleB]

Butcher paper. I never use foil on any bbq’d meat anymore. Butcher paper breathes and preserves the bark better on pulled pork…..IMHO.

[Spinaker]

Yep. This is a fact. No way around it.

[DaveD]

You can also consider using the foil boat method, which has become my go-to. I put it in the boat after it's been well stalled, typically. That way you get the best of both worlds IMO, lots of juicy, baste-y pork but plenty of good bark too. I use it for all pork butt cooks nowadays, worth checking out. Here's some shots from my most recent butt:







After the meal on the day, I mix up all that juice with the pulled pig, even it out in the pan, and cover with saran and put in the fridge overnight. Next day, when it's all cold and congealed, I cut it up into portions that I then vac seal for freezing, and keep us stocked with pulled pork on the regular. Yum!!