Help with my first Butt

[Dudley]

Hello. I am going to do my first butt in the BOS no mods yet. I have read here to heat up to 200 or so that would be nice and slow cook, fine with me. Now when I put the butt in the temp will go down. Do I want to turn heat up to get it back to 200 of just leave it?

[Saber 4]

I set mine at 220 and leave it there for butts, just set your temp and leave it. You can put hot water in the puck bowl and that will help with heat retention some will wrap bricks in foil and put down by the bowl to help also. After the smoke time is up you can replace the puck bowl with a 9x13 disposable cake pan full of hot water. Remember to leave your vent open to allow the moisture to escape and read up about the stall you will experience about 150-160 IT (internal temp measured with a probe thermometer). Others will be along with their methods and other tips I missed. Pick a method that makes sense to you and you will do fine, take lot's of pictures as we like to see what everyone is doing.

[KyNola]

Preheat your smoker as high as you can go.  Put the butt in and start rolling smoke.  The temp in the tower is going to drop like a stone.  Leave the temp set high and as the tower temp comes up to your cooking temp target(I would say 225) reset the oven temp to 225 or whatever your target oven temp is and let it go.

I'll yield to the others folks who are much more knowledgeable than me on how to season the butt, how long to FTC the butt, what  internal temp you want to take the butt in order to pull the butt, etc.

[beefmann]

agrees with box temp of 220 - 225 f, roll with  smoke for 3 to 4 hours, internal temp of 145 - 150 med  rare... if you want to do  pulled  pork 190 - 195 to pull, and a good  rub your  good  to go

[Habanero Smoker]

Hi Dudley;

Welcome to the forum.

If you want to cook at 200°F, and can keep that temperature at 200°F the entire cook, then the butt will be ready to pull at around 175°F internal temperature. If you use this method, you want to trim the fat to about 1/8" thick, and remove any deep veins of fat. When you pull the butt, there also may be some fat pockets you will need to discard. When it gets to your target temperature of 175°F, start using the fork test; which you insert a fork and if it inserts easily and you can twist it easily your butt is ready. If it doesn't twist easy continue to cook and test again every couple of degrees.

My approach to cooking butts, if you are going to take the butt to 190°F or higher, you can cook that butt at the 250°F and obtain the same results if you cook at 225°F.

[TedEbear]

After the smoke time is up you can replace the puck bowl with a 9x13 disposable cake pan full of hot water.

Why wait until the smoke session is done?  I put the 9x13 pan filled with water in it when I first start warming up the Bradley.  It holds a lot more pucks than the little bowl it came with.  After the smoking part is finished I dump the pucks and refill it with fresh water.

[Wildcat]

Hi Dudley;

Welcome to the forum.

If you want to cook at 200°F, and can keep that temperature at 200°F the entire cook, then the butt will be ready to pull at around 175°F internal temperature. If you use this method, you want to trim the fat to about 1/8" thick, and remove any deep veins of fat. When you pull the butt, there also may be some fat pockets you will need to discard. When it gets to your target temperature of 175°F, start using the fork test; which you insert a fork and if it inserts easily and you can twist it easily your butt is ready. If it doesn't twist easy continue to cook and test again every couple of degrees.

My approach to cooking butts, if you are going to take the butt to 190°F or higher, you can cook that butt at the 250°F and obtain the same results if you cook at 225°F.

Ditto

[Saber 4]

After the smoke time is up you can replace the puck bowl with a 9x13 disposable cake pan full of hot water.

Why wait until the smoke session is done?  I put the 9x13 pan filled with water in it when I first start warming up the Bradley.  It holds a lot more pucks than the little bowl it came with.  After the smoking part is finished I dump the pucks and refill it with fresh water.

I just find it easier to pull the bowl full of pucks with a pair of channel locks and add the pan after, it just takes me to long to dump the cheap pan and then refill it so it's more about open door time for me.