To wrap or not to wrap

[Loren]

Agree completely! Butts don't need wrapping! 😎

[Rod]

+1

[Troutman]

Lately I've gone back to the way I used to do it in comp cooks in another lifetime. I get to about 175-180ish then throw it in an aluminum pan and cover it and shove it back in the cooker and crank the heat. It essentially steams and lightly braises in it's own liquid. It's ready for the cambro when prob tender and it has it's own serving tray for pulling. The plus is all those juices mix right in with the meat. The minus is a little loss of bark texture. Since moisture is paramount for me in pork, I'll take the former and somewhat sacrifice the latter.

[fzxdoc]

I've done many, many pork butts on my WSCGC. Never once have I needed to wrap. As jfmorris says, if you need to speed up the cook, you can always increase the temp to 250 or 280. I've done that on occasion. The WSCGC is so responsive to temperature tweaks that you can almost dial in your desired cooker temp.

Enjoy the cook!

Kathryn

[fzxdoc]

Great advice. Follow it, JTW84 , and you'll have some delicious pulled pork at the end of the cook.

Kathryn

[klflowers]

I have only wrapped once because of time constraints. I had to finish it in the oven. So the bark was compromised, but the purge I collected and added while I was pulling the pork was divine (wow, I used divine. this isolation thing is having strange effects on me). So now I try to remember to add a drip pan to catch that stuff.

[RonB]

Welcome to The Pit.

We had some people a while back for some Q and one of the ladies asked for some without the burnt parts. There was a guy standing there, (we we talkin'), and we both said "Great - more bark for me!" at the same time. She asked for a piece with bark to try and her eyes lit up and she wanted bark. Me and my big mouth...

[RonB]

smokenoob - at least not in public.

[RonB]

Nuthin' left to say...

[smokenoob]

not touchin' that one.....

[LA Pork Butt]

I wrap after the cook and let it rest for a couple hours in the ice chest with old towels. The only other time I wrap is if I am pressed for time. The Boston Butt is a very forgiving piece of meat, so pretty much no matter what you do it will be right.

[JTW84]

This it great. Thanks for the welcome and the info, very helpful.

[Hulagn1971]

Me no wrap butts. Unwrapping on the other hand
I too cook at 275.

[Skip]

Welcome from Minnesota. Enjoy this wonderful site. I usually wrap because a lot of the people I feed are older and if they saw good bark they'd say that Skip burned this "again"!! My Wife and I like bark.

[PBCDad]

I agree as well for the WSCG, but I'd add if you use a different cooker in the future with more airflow, wrapping can help with more than just the timing. When I use my stickburner, if I don't wrap the bark can be so hard it is almost inedible. I've found that wrapping after the stall gives it the perfect balance.