First Butt coming up this weekend.Few typical first-timer questions.(Now w/pics)

[TTNuge]

Been going through pages and pages of posts trying to read up all I can on a smoking butt and pulled pork.  I think I got the handle on the steps and temps, etc.  I plan on injecting and slathering with CT, as well as mopping it once or twice during it's time in the Bradley.  I also understand that it could take anywhere from 12-24 hours depending on weather, pig, acts of god, etc.  We're planning on eating at 11am on Sunday, big game starts at noon so the last thing I want to be doing at kickoff is tending to my butt.

So I feel my options are to either shoot for about a 6am finish time on Sunday morning or plan on having it done late in the evening on Saturday.  My main questions surround the FTC process, when to pull, and how to reheat.  So based on my two options:

Option A:Shoot to have it done at 6am or so on Sunday.  Hopefully it doesn't go too long, but it is a risk.  If it is done around my target time I imagine a nice long FTC until closer to 11 is no problem, pull the pork then and serve.  Should still be nice and warm/hot and shouldn't need any reheating as long as it's not pulled too early.  Correct?  Considerations?

Option 2:Shoot to have it done late in the evening on Saturday.  FTC overnight?  Any issues with that?  Pull it in the morning?  If it's done at about 10pm on Saturday evening, let it FTC overnight, pull it then, what can I expect for a temp in the morning?  Will it need to be reheated?  Reheat before pulling or after?  Best process for reheating once it's pulled if that's the idea way?  Any considerations I'm not thinking of?

Obviously I'd rather have it done too soon rather than too late but this is going to be my first "public" smoke where friends and family are going to be invited so I Want to knock their socks off.  I just don't want my pulled pork to taste reheated or dry out.   Thanks in advance for any advice!

Trent

[squirtthecat]

I'd start it 6-8PM Friday night, then you have all day Saturday for it to finish (anywhere from mid morning to late afternoon).   Let it rest foiled for a while, then pull apart the individual muscles - but don't shred. 

Into the fridge.

Sunday morning, fire up the crock pot, chop up the bark and mix it all together and warm it up slowly.

It will be better leftover..

PS.  Sauce on the side!

[FLBentRider]

I would go with option A.

You didn't mention how big a load you will be putting in the smoker. the more butts the longer it will take.

When I do 4 butts (all the OBS will hold) I've never gone 24 hours, but then I live in Florida, so cold weather is (usually) not an issue.

I would put them in around 2 or 3 in the afternoon on Saturday, you could start as early as noon.

As far as option 2 goes, the longest I've ever FTC'd is about 8 hours. That was in a 3-day cooler with 4 butts keeping each other warm.

If you FTC four hours in a decent pre-warmed (put on a tea kettle and rinse it out with really hot water first) cooler they should come out plenty hot.

Come to think of it, a couple of foil-wrapped bricks pre-heated in an oven and tossed in there wouldn't be bad either.

I would not shred it when you pull it if you are planning on re-heating. I would just pull it apart, put the fat aside (for cooking other stuff in later - yum!) and keep the meat in large chunks.

If you need to re-heat, foil-wrap and into a 300F oven does it for me.

[KyNola]

I think STC has you covered for an early finish time.  I wouldn't go with option 2 where you are considering an overnight FTC.

I frankly like option A but you do have somewhat of a timing risk associated with that plan and FLBR has given you some good advice for that option.

KyNola

[ArnieM]

I'd also go with Option A.  I've done a roast beef and had it in FTC for over 5 hours and it was still hot enough for dinner.

If you have an electric heating pad you could put it into the cooler on low.  They also have these 'wraps' that are put into the microwave and then used on sore joints and muscles.  You could heat one of those up and throw it into the cooler.  If you use preheated bricks, don't get 'em hot enough to melt the cooler.

[Caneyscud]

Actually kinda hard to help, without a little more info - #'s of butt, weather, etc...

With that having been said, I would opt to finish early Sunday morning.  I think your guests would be more impressed seeing you shred the pork that you just finished.   The 24 hour cooks, if you notice, are usually cooks where the temperature is set to the low range.  Butt is very forgiving on the temperature range, so there is no reason why you can't set at say 230 or 235 and not take as long - but still plenty long for the slow cook to work it's magic.  If you can maintain a constant 225, then you should be 1.5 to 2 hours per pound, probably on the 1.5 hour side of the range.  If you can't then closer to 2 hours per pound or slightly longer.  

If you don't think your guests would be more impressed with the shredding of the meat from the smoker, then the reheat as STC described could be a good move.  Definitely less stress!   One of the reasons, I don't do many butts is that it is such a thick chunk of meat that it skews what I call "The Smoke to Meat Ratio".  All said and done most of the smoke flavor is on the surface of the meat.  With a thick chunk like a butt, there is less surface area to volume of meat.  i.e. if you slice up a brisket flat, you will likely get a bit of bark (smoked surface) along with your interior meat in every bite.  With something as thick as a butt, there would be lots of bites that would not include the bark and the bite could just as well have been a roast cooked in the oven.  By treating it like a leftover, you have a greater time for the smoke flavor to permeate throughout all the meat.   But you do risk drying it out, but in a closed heating system like a crock pot, a roasting bag or a sealed foil pan, that is minimized.  

I've done the C of FTC for as long a 8 hours also, but that was with 7 briskets in a 5 day cooler when a few started finishing well before I expected.  With one butt, I'd not try any longer than say 4 hours or so, - the temperature could get low enough where you are inviting the nasties to grow. 

[TTNuge]

Thanks guys.  I'm leaning towards getting it done a day early and using the crock pot.  Seems like a win win situation.  I still have to pick up the butt so I'm not sure on the size at this point, I do understand I would have to compensate for the size and the bigger they get the harder it will be to estimate.  Most roasts we see around here are actually the whole shoulder roast and usually run around 10-15#'s which would make for a real long smoke/cook.  I'll definitely have left overs to freeze, nothing wrong with that!

[Habanero Smoker]

With the bark, the best thing to do is to shave it off, if possible discard any remaining fat. Then chop the bark into small pieces and mix it well with the pulled meat. That will distribute the smoke and other seasonings through out the meat quickly. But I'm like STC, I smoke my butts ahead of time, chop the bark and pull them, mix it right away add a vaunted vinegar sauce. That let the flavors blend together better.

As a side note, I trim the fat to 1/4" to 1/8". If there is too much fat left you loose a lot of the bark.

[KyNola]

TTN, you just changed my earlier answer.  I thought you were doing like an 8 pound butt.  If you're going to do the whole shoulder I would definitely opt to get that done early and use the crockpot reheating method.  I haven't seen too many folks do a whole shoulder in the Bradley.  I'm not saying it hasn't and can't be done.  Just saying most on here are doing the butt portion of the shoulder.

Good luck my friend!
KyNola

[classicrockgriller]

When you do it take a pic of that bad boy! 15 lbs of pig love, sweet!

I can see you have studied what you need to do and have narrowed it down to two great choices.

I too like the idea of the early smoke, less stress and extra time for a stubborn Butt!

Just remember low and slow. Don't jack the temp up when it hits a stall (usually around 170 to 180). Just let it work it majic!

Habs vaunted vinegar sauce is on the recipe site and it is good. I don't mix it when I pull it, but I do

like a splash poured over the pork on my sandwich.

Good luck and keep us posted!

[seemore]

Good luck, TT!
Can't wait to see the pictures!
seemore

[TTNuge]

Thanks everyone, picked up my pork yesterday and as I suspected, all they had were whole pork shoulders and the one I was able to get came in exactly at 15 pounds... and it's boneless.  That's a serious amount of pig!.  I'm toying with the idea of cutting it in half and freezing half but part of me wants to smoke the whole dang thing and freeze it after it's pulled.  The earliest I can get it in the smoker would be about 5pm on Friday and I'm thinking it more than likely would be Sunday morning until it's done  or maybe real late on Saturday night.  Either way I'm sure I'll have to rely heavily on my ET-73 to wake me.

Maybe I should cut it in half, it's very long and wide, almost looks like it would fill one tray completely.  I'm almost inclined to slice it in half so it's half as thick, that way the smoke would have more surface area and it may cook faster not being so thick.  But on the other hand I feel if I do split it up I should do it along a muscle line and keep the roasts more or less whole.

Guess I'll have to start taking pics tonight and documenting the process.  My big jugs of Carolina Treet came yesterday so I'm ready to inject and baste.

[KyNola]

Trent, I have never even SEEN a boneless whole pork shoulder.  That is amazing.  When you go to place it on the rack, make sure it's not touching the side or back walls.  The last thing you want is for that pork fat to start melting and find it's way on to the heating element.

Can't wait to see your pics.

KyNola

[Tenpoint5]

Sounds like a fun project.

[Caneyscud]

  I'm almost inclined to slice it in half so it's half as thick, that way the smoke would have more surface area and it may cook faster not being so thick.  But on the other hand I feel if I do split it up I should do it along a muscle line and keep the roasts more or less whole.

Yes, that can be done, and is especially successful on meats that are already tender.  However, the pork shoulder is not necessarily the most tender of meats.  It will still have to go through the low-n-slow magic.  That collagen still has to break down/melt, that fat has to melt out to produce that succulent, tender goodness you are aiming for.   It might be better to cut in half rather than thinner.

Sometime during the cook you will hit the plateau.  I've hit it anywhere between 145 to 165 IT.  The plateau is a good thing!  It's your friend and you should hope it stays around as long as it can.  While it is with you, great things are happening to your meat.  When you first put meat in your smoker, it gradually, but steadily increases in temperature.  But something else happens at about 140 deg.  At that point the collagen (the tough stuff) starts to breakdown and the fat starts to melt (render).  That is a good thing - a really good thing!  But it doesn't magically do that good stuff instantly when the IT reaches 140 - it takes a while and depends on amount of collage, amount of fat, and how much moisture is within the meat.  Ideally, for pull apart meat, you want most of the collagen broken down.  So the longer the plateau, the more collagen is broken down, the tenderer your meat.  But you don't want all of the fat to melt until you reached your planned "done" temperature - keeps the meat moist.  Why the plateau?  The plateauing is caused by a phase change; the collagen and fat in the meat are changing phase from a solid to a liquid. You must supply heat to accomplish this phase change. While the fat and collagen are absorbing the energy (heat) from the smoker to melt, none is available to raise the temperature of the meat.  It is similar to ice melting. When ice and water are in a glass, the water will remain at 32F (0C) until all the ice is melted, then the temperature will increase. The heat goes into melting the ice, not raising the temperature of the water.  You can decrease the amount of time of the plateau by increasing the CT, but you run the risk of adding enough heat that the fat and collagen cannot use any more and it throws off the extra to the meat.  The meat then gets done (gets to your target temperature) before all the collagen is changed and you have tough meat.