Two Butts again

[JohnM70]

Well here I am again. My last attempt at 2 butts was in May and the temperatures were not that warm. Here is the link: http://forum.bradleysmoker.com/index.php?topic=32295.msg378954#msg378954

This time I trimmed the fat cap (per Maverick) and it looks a lot better. The Butts are bone in, the Large Butt (LB) is about 8 lbs, the Small Butt (SM) is about 6+ lbs. I put the Butts in the DBS about 14:00 7/4 after it came up to temp. This was the fastest the DBS has achieved smoking/cooking temp about 30 minutes. Of course the outside temperature was 85 F, I have only been smoking since 11/2012—it's cold here. I smoked for 4 hours.

After 9 hours the LB stalled at 160F and the SB stalled at 172F this was about 23:00 7/4. This morning   7/5 at 09:00 the temps were LB 195F and SB 203F. Being fooled the last time I probed around and found the LB to be about 180+- F and the SB about 185F. I repositioned the probes in the same place I did the test temps. As of 10:20 the temps are LB 201F and SB 194F.
I think I am a fat magnet. I am going to leave them until 12:00 then do a fork test. If all is well I will do the FTC.
The cabinet temperature bounced around from 203F to 250F. Since I want do smoke other proteins I am going to invest in a PID and a 900W element.
BTW I am using a Maverick 732 and one remote digital temp... looks like they use the same probes.

I will post more pictures later.

Fat Cap trimmed




About 23:00 7/4

[beefmann]

looking good john, keep up the good work

here is a thought for  the  900 watt element and it  works quite well,  it is extra work, and it will help balance the box temp and keep it  even top to bottom a  lot  better. I have been running it better then 6 years on the same blower and heater. well worth it in the  long  run imho . Also if you   like build your  own PID .. PID to control the heater, blower runs full time, and a timer to control the smoker duration and you  would be  set to go.

hope this information helps in some way

http://forum.bradleysmoker.com/index.php?topic=17329.msg209917#msg209917

[JohnM70]

About 12:00 on Friday we did a fork test and the butts were ready, actually more than ready. We FTC'd and removed them from the cooler after 2 hrs. I made a mistake on the weight the LB was 9lbs and the SB was 7lbs. it was very easy to pull the butts. The only issue was they were a little dry, we did add some apple juice to the FTC. The taste was great. On Saturday I warmed the pork in a crock pot and added more apple juice. The pork was still a little dry but the BBQ sauce helped. Sunday I did the same thing and added more apple juice. That helped a lot and the pork was moist and delicious. They must have liked it because there was only 4 lbs left. Over the two days we served about 50 people. I think it would have been gone if it were not for the brats and other goodies.

I think I should have FTC'd after 20 hrs as the temps in the box fluctuated so much and probably caused the butts to cook a little faster. The PID and 900W element are going to be ordered soon. The PID first to control the temps.

Thanks for the advice Beefmann I will look into your suggestions.  I have read a lot of the threads on this subject and will pull the trigger soon. I really like this forum.  ;D

SB before


SB after


LB before


LB after

[JohnM70]

OOPS I forgot to re-size the pictures. My bad.  :-[

[TedEbear]

OOPS I forgot to re-size the pictures. My bad.  :-[

You can use the "Resize" feature in the "Edit" portion of each pic on Photobucket to make them smaller if you want.

Butts look good.  Makes me want to get the one out of my freezer that's been in there since early April and smoke it.

[Redneckinthecity]

Great looking bark!