8lb Pork Butt need some help from gurus

[bozer]

I figured I'd make a new thread for this as I want to get this 100 percent. Here is my plan.

Tonight (Friday night), I'm going to trim whatever fat is on the outside  off this butt. Then I'm going to cover this butt with carolina treat, then rub it with "butt rub", then wrap it with saran wrap and put it back in the fridge.

Saturday night, (not sure what time yet), I'm going to take it out, get it up to room temp, then put it into the OBS once the temp gets as high as possible. Once the meat is in I want the temps to be at 220 I believe, for 4 hours of smoke.

After that 4 hours of smoke, I'm going to take this out and hope it will fit into my crock pot. I will put an apple cider beer and some BBQ sauce into the crock pot, leave it on low and go to bed.

The next day I will wake up, check it out, and then at some point Saturday, hopefully around lunch or dinner time it will be ready.

Questions: What time Saturday night do you think I should begin?
Do I need to add more beer and sauce when I wake up in the morning?
Do I need to FTC out of the crock pot? I kind of don't want to and think it will be just fine not doing that. If I do need to, when should I and how do you guys know when its done if its inside a cooler like that?
What in your opinion is the right temp to pull it out of crock pot without FTC?

Any other tips? I will be monitoring this thread and I will take pics of my entire journey for you guys.

[coolsmoker]

Here is what I would do.

Rub up the butt on Friday night or Saturday morning and put it in the fridge.  Pull it out of the fridge at 9pm saturday night.  At about 9:40PM,  fire up your Bradley, load it with 4 hrs of pucks and then your bubba pucks, advance the pucks, open the vent to 3/4 of the way open and wait for the smoke to roll.  At 10PM, dust the butt with a fresh coating of rub and load your butt into your bradley, set the temp control slider to MAX, finish your beer and then go to bed.  Wake up the next morning,  insert your meat probes and start to monitor temps.  Aim for 195F.    9 times out of 10, the butt is done by 10AM, FTC it for an hour or two, pull it and your ready for lunch.


/not a fan of crock pot pork.
//huge fan of bubba pucks and wireless maverick.

[KyNola]

Bozer,
I would play it safe.  If you want to be able to eat that for Sunday lunch, I would start that boy at noon on Saturday.  If you want to finish it in the house rather than the Bradley I would opt to finish it in your house oven set at 225.  My preference for finishing in the house oven would be to place it on a rack in a dry roasting pan.  If you are wanting a bark on the butt, placing it covered in a crock pot with liquid in the pot may "steam" the butt to the point that a bark is not going to form very well if at all.  This is just the way I would go.  Smarter folks will come along with a better opinion.

If the butt finishes early you can FTC it and it will hold very very warm until you are ready to pull.

[ghost9mm]

What Larry said.....

[bozer]

Hmmm - So leaving it in the OBS on max tempature is a safe thing to do? I'm just worried I will go to sleep and the temp will be too high. Don't I need to worry that the temp will go way past 220? I really wish the OBS would just go to the temp I want and stay there. I do have the Maverick probe. Why do you say to not use the probe until morning?

I'm so afraid Im going to screw this up. If I put it in an oven over night in a roasting pan, do I use liquid?

[bozer]

Also - I may have failed already...

This is all the wood I have. Which should I choose? Didn't realize I was out of hickory =(

Special Blend, Cherry, Alder, apple, and only 2 maple left.

[squirtthecat]

Cherry + Apple will make some good smoke..   Put the maple ones in last.

Put the Special Blend..........   Nevermind.

No worries!  You can't hurt a butt.

[Wildcat]

I agree with KyNOLA.

I doubt if your OBS will get any higher temp than 230 during the cook and then only towards the end. I normally do mine at 210 and that size butt takes 18 to 24 hours in my unit. You should be safe cooking at 200 to 240 with a butt.

I would not recommend trimming ALL the fat off.

[bozer]

Thank you for clarifying!

That makes this much easier. I will keep it in the OBS all night long.

I just found 6 hickory pucks in my drawer. Do you think 6 hickorys would be the smart thing to do for the 4 hours of smoke? thinking 6 hickorys with the 2 maples.

I'm going to put this into the OBS around 6PM. As long as I can eat this around dinner time on Sunday that would be perfect. I just dont want to end up eating it at 11PM Sunday.

[squirtthecat]

Sounds like a plan.  If you need to 'hurry it along' you can transfer to the house oven later in the afternoon.

Make sure that water pan is clean & full (refill with hot water) before you go to sleep..    I replaced mine with a foil cake pan from Wally Mart.

[bozer]

Thanks guys. I just covered it with treat and rub and put it in the fridge. I figure I may as well have it wrapped up like that for as long as possible. I did not trim the fat either. I took pictures too.

I'm going to fill a huge pan with water when I do this.

[KyNola]

Make sure that water pan is clean & full (refill with hot water) before you go to sleep..    I replaced mine with a foil cake pan from Wally Mart.

Squirt beat me to it.  After the smoke section, dump the pan and totally refill with hot water.  As for those 6 hickory pucks you found, use 'em buddy!

Your timing will work.  If it hits 195 early, FTC the boy.  You can't screw this up.  You won't screw it up.  The hardest thing about a butt is patience on the part of the the guy watching it.  If you decide to finish in your house oven, no liquid in the roasting pan.  Relax and pop a top or two. ;)

[coolsmoker]

Hmmm - So leaving it in the OBS on max tempature is a safe thing to do? I'm just worried I will go to sleep and the temp will be too high. Don't I need to worry that the temp will go way past 220? I really wish the OBS would just go to the temp I want and stay there. I do have the Maverick probe. Why do you say to not use the probe until morning?

I'm so afraid Im going to screw this up. If I put it in an oven over night in a roasting pan, do I use liquid?

Butts are one of the most forgiving pcs of meat there is in the BBQ world.  It's hard to mess up a butt.   I used to worry about trying to get my Bradley to hold a constant (low) temp, but after years of use, I found it is usually fine just to turn the temp to MAX and let it do it's thing.   This goes for big pcs of meat like briskets, butts, etc...     

As far as not using the probe till morning, I was talking about the meat probe, not the smoker box temp probe.  I put my box temp probes in right from the start, but don't usually put in my meat probes until things are closer to being done.   For overnight smokes I usually set a high and low alarm on my maverick for the box probe.  That way if anything goes really wrong, then I have an alarm to wake me up.   

Also, as far as temps going up way past 230F-240F, it isn't going to happen with a stock single element Bradley.  Unless of course, you have a fire.  But I'll assume you won't have a fire.   ;)   Keep in mind you are essentially cooking with a 100W incandescent light bulb.  It has it's limits as far as heat output.   With a big cut of meat inside, my Bradley on MAX rarely goes much above 240.  As the temp of the meat gradually rises,  so do the temps of the box.   Later on during the smoke, after the meat has heated up, then your Bradley will attain higher temps, but by that time you'll be keeping a closer eye on things as it finishes up. 

Trust me, you won't screw it up.  Not only is a butt very forgiving, smoking one in a Bradley is even more forgiving.

As others have mentioned, you'll want to toss the tiny original Bradley water bowl in favor of something bigger.  The small bowl will go dry on you pretty quick.  I use a large disposable foil drip pan that pretty much takes up the whole bottom of my Bradley.   The large mass of water help maintain temps and help temps recover quicker when you open the door.  It also helps for long, overnight smokes.  Fill it up before you go to bed and it will be fine till morning. 

[squirtthecat]

Get a good night's sleep - and whatever you do, don't run out and keep opening the door to check on it!

[coolsmoker]

Squirts right. 

"If you're lookin' it aint cookin', if your peakin' smokes a leakin'. "

:P