First Pork Butt

Papa Dave · June 07, 2012, 02:35:18 PM

I recently purchased a Bradley digital 4 shelf smoker. I am planning on smoking a 7 lb boneless pork butt tommorrow using Jeff's rub and molasses. I plan on smoking for 4 hours and then moving to the oven at 225 until IT reaches approx. 195. I notice that it has a rather thick fat cap on the one side. Should I remove this to avoid a fire. Is there any difference between cooking a boneless vs a bone in butt? Any difference in cooking time? Thanks for the help.

Wildcat · June 07, 2012, 03:42:41 PM

I recommend taking off most, if not all, of the fat cap. The butt should have enough fat within it to keep it moist. This way you will have more salvagable bark. I like the bone in butt best. Cooking time will probably be about the same.

muebe · June 07, 2012, 04:43:13 PM

You can trim most of the cap off if you like. It allows the rub to penetrate better and more bark coverage.

Or you can score it with a knife. The belief is that it will self baste the butt as it smokes and looks cool when finished if placed fat cap up.

Or fat cap down. The other belief is that it wil insulate the butt from the direct heat below and when removing the butt the fat will stick to the rack and not the meat.

mikecorn.1 · June 07, 2012, 05:57:32 PM

I also trim the fat. I've never done one fat side down. But makes sense that it should protect the butt from a bad sunburn ;D. But also makes sense fat side up where it should baste as it cooks :o. Solution try both and see what you like :) ;)

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Kahunas · June 08, 2012, 06:13:57 AM

I like to leave it on and score it deep so the rub gets down inside. I also like to put some garlic cloves and sometimes onion slivers down in the scores and cook it fat up.

Tenpoint5 · June 08, 2012, 06:18:19 AM

I like to score the butt and cook fat side up. Finish in the Bradley

Papa Dave · June 08, 2012, 07:11:25 AM

Thank you for the input! This forum is very helpful for newbies like me. Wildcat mentioned that he prefers bone in butt. Last night when I was was trimming fat and putting on rub I noticed that a butt with the bone removed feels real loose and kind of sloppy to handle. I tied it with kitchen twine the best I could. Hopefully it works out ok. Next time I plan on buying a bone in butt. I had planned on using molasses on it, but last night I changed my mind and used cym. Do you get a heavier bark with molasses?

TedEbear · June 08, 2012, 07:47:40 AM

Quote from: Papa Dave on June 08, 2012, 07:11:25 AMDo you get a heavier bark with molasses?

Molasses Slathered Butts

viper125 · June 10, 2012, 11:52:29 AM

I do as Ten Point. Except I remove all but 1/4 inch or 1/8 inch. Score and cook fat side up. Done them with just a Jan's rub coating and their very good. I also use mustard or molasses as a glue and which ever rub. Bone in bone out don't make a difference with us. Really couldn't taste the difference. Bone out has to be tied or netted. Nice thing with a butt or a big piece of any thing you cant mess up bad. I csmke mine at 225 degrees from 4-6 hours with hickory usually. Save all the droppings and put in refrigerator to cool. Scrape the grease off the top and mix into the pulled pork. And if no ones looking I sprinkle more rub in. We usually serve in a roaster with enough water about 1 cup to keep meat from burning on bottom. Add as needed. I prefer to use apple cider to water. Hope this helps

rcger · June 10, 2012, 12:04:52 PM

When it comes to butt, I prefer the KISS method...CYM & rub, Smoke at 220 for 3-4 hours, after you roll smoke, bring into a 220 oven until you reach an IT of 195. Follow up with FTC. And in case you were wondering, KISS=Keep It Simple Stupid!"

viper125 · June 10, 2012, 03:16:18 PM

Im going to try some thing new. Put the butt in the oven at 225 or 250 to take the chill off then into the smoker to smoke, when smokes done back in the oven to finish. This should prevent the long time for temp to climb. After all its the cold meat that causes it to rise so slowly. Just thinking out loud.

Papa Dave · June 10, 2012, 08:47:55 PM

Just a quick update on my first port butt smoke. I put it in my Bradley digital smoker at 4:00 in the afternoon on Friday. My wife forgot to take it out of the refrigerator ahead of time to bring to room temp so I put it in the oven warming drawer for awhile and got it raised to about 50 degrees. My original intent was to move from the smoker to the oven after 4 hours of smoke. Friday happened to be one of those perfect days here in North Dakota (No wind!) and everything was working so well, the temp on the smoker fluctuated between 210 to 240 whle set on 220, so I left it in the Bradley for the entire time. It reached 195 IT at 4:30 in the morning. The results were outstanding! After 3 hours of ftc, I pulled the meet and was surprised how easily it came apart. My family loved the pulled pork and I am already planning for the next smoke. I know some leave the fat cap on while others remove it. Wildcat mention that removing it results in less waste of the bark. I could see that as I pulled it. Based on another post I read, (can't remember whose as I have read so many) I collected all of the bark and chopped it and mixed it back into the meat. Awesome flavor. One other observation about the boneless butt: because the butt has been cut open to remove the bone, there is an oppurtunity to remove some of the thicker fat on the inside, resulting in less fat in the finished product. I know some may want to leave as much as possible for flavor but it didn't seem to lose anything to me. Again, thanks for the comments and I will try and post some pictures of the finished product.

mikecorn.1 · June 11, 2012, 09:05:54 AM

Nice. If ya dont mind, we like pics round here ;D.

Papa Dave · June 11, 2012, 07:16:11 PM

How do I post pictures to this site?

TedEbear · June 11, 2012, 08:26:21 PM

Quote from: Papa Dave on June 11, 2012, 07:16:11 PM
How do I post pictures to this site?

Upload your pics to a free host site like Photobucket. It's a good idea to create different folders in Photobucket if you think you'll be uploading lots of pics related to different topics (cars, food, etc.). You don't have to do this step, it just makes things more organized and easier to find something after you have hundreds of pics uploaded to your Photobucket account.

Anyway, after you upload your pics click on one of the boxes that says "IMG code" directly below the pic you want to post on here. Then just paste the contents into a message. Click on the Preview button if you want to see that it worked before posting your message.