Urgent Butt Help Needed...

[danresqman]

Hi All,
  Thanks again for all your support as i learn the craft. I very new to OBS smoking, I am huge grilling fan with minor smoking experience (at least from the cooks side of the table). I bought a used OBS. then after ruining ribs, bought and built a Temp Switch (TS) (thanks for all the great help on that...worked great, pics will be up in accessories sunday.).
  Here's the story...
  So last night i take this beauty of a 6 lbs butt and after a nice brine and rub and rest, set it in the smoker with 4hours of smoke using apple and hickory. then the TS held the box at 210 and very nicely cooked it to an IT of 170 after 4-5 more hours, then i squirted it with honey and AJ then FTC x 4 hours. I went to work and called my wife to find out how delicious it was after FTC....she says...it is great..moist, great flavor...but it won't pull...it is like brisket!

I was perplexed...needless to say when i arrived home tonight i found that it was done, but not at all fall off the bone, melt in your hand pulled pork...in fact i have to use a chef's knife to cut it up...

What did i do wrong? It comes out better than this when i just put it in the slow cooker for 8 hours????

it is not dried out, but i was thinking...should i make the OBS more of a water smoker? was the heat to high? too low?

Why did the meat not break down? not enough time? i figure something has to make that connective tissue let looose...please help?

I am having a big picnic sunday, and have a 12 lb shoulder waiting in the ice box... please help!!!

Dan

[SKSmoker]

You need to cook pulled pork to a min of 185 IT. Some here pull the butts early and slice them but personally 195F -210F for "pulled" pork is where it needs to be. I used to cook my butts to 185, and the diff between 185 and 195 is night and day. Truly melty soft is the pork when you pull it, and it almost disintegrates when you pull it at those high temps.

I have two butts on the smoker right now as a matter of fact for tomorrow nights party. When I do even 1 butt, it takes me 18-24hrs for just one. The last time I did two, one took 24hrs and the other took 26. I cook at 250F, but turn it down to 210F for the night so it just hangs out. The best thing about butt is you cannot over cook it.  My butts regulary hang out at 156F on the nose for the plateau for a min of 4hrs, but the last ones I did sat there for 8hrs.  Measure your box temp without anything in it to get an idea of what you are cooking at for a heat. Low and slow is the key here.

Here is a link to my pork butt. I don't typically like to reference back to my own posts, but it is very detailed and it saves me from retyping alot of info :) I hope it helps.
http://forum.bradleysmoker.com/index.php?topic=5068.15

[kiyotei]

I find it interesting that you say "My butts regulary hang out at 156F on the nose for the plateau".  What would cause the meat to plateau at a fixed temp for so long with the oven temp set to 200+ degrees.  Do you havean explanation for this?

[NorthernSmoke]

Dan, the same thing happened to me on my first butt. The thing did a plateau at 157F after 6 hrs. (only a 4 lber),  so I panicked, wrapped it up and tossed in the oven at 250F and forced it up to 185F. It tasted good, but I had to cut it with a knife. On the next one I'm planning for much more time and will be taking it up the 195F as SKS is suggesting.

Good luck!

IRT Kiyotei:

The plateau, as it has been explained to me here a while ago, is like water changing states from ice to liquid. If you have a glass of ice water with a thermometer in it, and proceed to heat it to melt the ice, you will notice that the temperature remains steady at 32F (0C) until all the ice is melted. The heat is not used to raise the temperature during the melting process, it is used to melt the ice. Once the ice is gone, the temperature begins to rise. The plateau in the meat temperature during the slow cook is similar. The heat is being used to break down the connective tissues in the meat. Once this is finished at some stage or part of the process, the temperature will begin to rise again. Or something like that.... that's my story and I'm sticking to it  :D

[SKSmoker]

NorthernSmoke is right on the money for the plateau. The connective tissue and fat break down during this process.. so the meat stays at a certain temp <for me it is 156F> for many hours on end, then it will go up again. Now, after that you think you are in the clear, but somewhere around 170 it will quite moving again for a few more hours, then start going again. You don't want to rush the plateau at all. For a 6lbs butt, i don't think you need 24hrs, but for that 12lbs shoulder, I would deft start, much, much, much earlier than anticipated, and FTC it when you are ready to yank it. My butts alone will stay in a cooler at 195F for 6hrs with no problems. FTC is your friend!

[Consiglieri]

The plateau is like your junior high science experiment where you monitor temperatures while melting a solid piece of ice and then continue to heat past the boiling point. The temps plateau at those two "points."  I don't know the reason for the second plateau and confess that I haven't noticed it before.  However, at the 156ish plateau, the "magic" is beginning that leads to the fall apart goodness of pulled pork.

At the 170 IT you mention, your meat is done and is probably still sufficiently intact for slicing or chopping.  For fall apart meat, I aim for 195 IT.

There are a couple of really good books out that are great resources for on the spot information.  This site, of course, is the bomb too.  Here are the books I like, FWIW:

[kiyotei]

That's great info about the plateau.  I've seen this in all of the meats I've worked with and never understood it.  At first I thought my digital thermometer must be broken.  I still struggle with keeping meat moist when its in the smoker for such a long period of time.  I spray the meat with water or juice at least once an hour and keep water in the bowl.  Am I missing something?  I'm more concerned about ribs, pork and brisket drying out.

[CLAREGO]

paul kirk a great guy i have been using his saran wrap method for awhile. 195 seems to be the perfect number for pulling the pork. now chuck roll is different it pulled but not like pork i may try a higher temp next time.

[SKSmoker]

FTC is your friend. I did two butts for a party on saturday. FTC'd them for 4 hours each, and they were incredible. I also cooked them to 195-200, so that probably helped, but I cannot stress the FTC enough!

[Habanero Smoker]

With meats with a lot of connective tissue; I generally see a plateau at 160°F when I use a cabinet temperature of 200°F; and a plateau of 170°F-175°F when smoking at 210°F and higher.