RodneyWright wrote:
I guess I should change the title to Butt on the charcoal smoker.....
Well ladies and gents, I can use your help one more time. While I'm old, I've never been much for experimenting on the grill. Time to change that.
The lovely wife has purchased a pork butt and it's going on the smoker side of the grill this Saturday. I've been reviewing Meatheads info over on
http://www.amazingribs.com and man, I was messing up so much in regard to just having the smoker setup properly. It's funny, instead of modding the bullitt this Friday, I'm modding my smoker for more kick!
The butt I have is ~8lbs, so I'm thinking 4-6 hours to smoke. I did break down and buy an decent digital thermometer so I can get to the magical 203 degrees that the site recommends. I'll be using charcoal this time around. So I have a few questions for those of you that are practiced at the art of butt to BBQ.
> what "rub" do you put on your "butt" and how long before you cook do you apply it?
> what kind of time frame should I expect to cook a 8lb butt? I'm guessing at 4-6 hours
> the website says to cook at a temp of 225-250. Is that where you cook at temp wise?
> how often do you add charcoal and how much?
Any guidance you can give to a rookie is appreciated... =)
let me also ask a more fundamental question. I've got one of each of these, the chargriller gas grill and charcoal combo unit that you see at Lowes and I've got a weber bullet smoker.
I've used the bullet smoker a few times and grill smoker a few times. I think I like the grill smoker better for a larger surface area and it's easier to add charcoal to the firebox. Which do you like?
You sure you wanna go down this rabbit hole? It's quite addicting and when you get it right, you become the default cook for any gathering.
I think you will find that asking about cooking methods is much like talking about the best street tires. Everyone has their favorite and setup is different but you generally end up with the same result.
You CAN cook a butt in 4-6 hours but you are going have to run run the pit hotter than 225°, probably more like 275°-300°. This is called "hot n fast". Some swear by "hot n fast" the other camp is "low n slow", that's generally cooking at 225°, its going to take a minimum of 45mins to 1 hour per lb at 225°
Rubs- Surprisingly, Lowes has my current off the shelf favorite pork rub, Rufus Teague's meat rub. It has just the right amount of kick on the back end for me. Stick with the off the shelf rubs at first, IMHO, keep it simple.
Beyond that, it is important to get the butt over 190° at a minimum, I take mine to 195° to 200°. Don't freak out when it seems like it's stuck at 150-160° that's the stall, once you punch thru the stall, it will be @ 200 before you know it.
Finally, if you do only one thing that I have typed here, let the butt rest for 1-2 hours wrapped in foil, wrapped in towels, put in an insulated cooler. It just helps with the tenderness.
Of course, I have to share some meat pr0n
8lb butt that I cooked for around 6 hours at ~275° on my Ugly Drum Smoker. I let that one rest for 5 hours and it was still too hot to touch as I shredded it.
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