Newbie cooking a pork butt

[Silverlock]

Okay, here I come to the well once again, looking for answers from you pro's.
I just put my DBS together today and seasoned it. Dying to use it so rather than do ribs (which I'm confident about as I made quite good ones on my old "chunk smoker") I decided to tackle a meat cut which I had previously avoided, due to the looooooooooooooong and OH SO TEDIOUS cooking process with said smoker.
Here's what I have: Boneless pork butt, 1.6 kg (about 3 1/5 lbs). I'll dry rub it right after I type this with.... heh heh heh... my roommate went to Austin last year so I have a couple of bottles of rub from "The Salt Lick". I'm thinking I'll cook it at about 190 - 200 F.
However, here's where I confuse myself: I've read some things which say cook it for an hour and a half per pound which is roughly 4 1/2 - 5 hours. On the other hand, should I just go with an internal temp of (I think I read on here) 190 F (I have the Maverick Smoker Therm. as recommended by you good folk). OR....... some people seem to do theirs for like 10 friggin hours! OMG!!! Help a noob out here! :p
Also, my "chunk smoker" was constantly "smoking" the meat. How long (read, how many pucks) should I plan to actually smoke the meat?

I'm counting on you guys to help me NOT MAKE pork jerky here! LOL

Cheers and beers to you,
Silver

[nodak]

Yes it will probably be at least 10 hours and allow 2-4 hours of FTC. take to 190F.  Your temp will stall out around 140-165 as fat breaks down. 

I do a 7 lb in about 12-15hrs and 4 hrs of FTC.

GOOD LUCK. 

[LilSmoker]

Hi Silverlock, just to add to what nodak said, i do my pork butts at 215f cabinet temp, you can go a little higher but i've found 215f about right for me. Place pork in the BS fat side up, smoke for 4 hours which is 12 pucks + 3 bubba pucks, if you don't have bubba pucks you'll need to load 14 pucks. At the end of the 4 hours replace the water in your water bowl, i use hot water as it helps to keep the cabinet temp up after opening the door.

After changing the water, let the BS do it's thing until meat internal temp reaches 190f, remove from the BS, FTC for 2 hours plus, and that's it ready to pull, eat etc.

Good luck with it...........LilSmoker

[Silverlock]

Thanks for the info gents. Another question: How important to the process is FTC'ing it? If the internal temp gets to 190F, could one just let the meat rest as you would normally or... ?

[Arcs_n_Sparks]

How important to the process is FTC'ing it?

Silverlock,

My FTC process is: Fill The Cup. So, it is important to refill your adult beverage container a few times before tackling the beast. In the mean time, do the foil, towel, cooler thing while you are also FTCing.  :D

Arcs_n_Sparks

[West Coast Kansan]

Pork Butt is one of those cuts that actually likes FTC. It is also a wonderful tool to help you with time management.  With a BS you are going to cook to an Internal Temperature.

The time required is all over the place with a lot of variables that will effect it (Temp., How much meat, how good you are at not peaking - which i found is still hard after chunk wood - all kind of stuff).  

So, FTC will provide the meat a time to finish cooking and really moisten re distribute through out.  PLUS it is the way to really look like you are working to a plan.  I dont use a cooler (often) just double wrap in foil and an old beach towel and set it aside for a couple of hours.  If you want to FTC longer than that to keep your food warm for guest arrival etc. a prewarmed cooler works.

My guests actually like to pull the pork and I have found it is great entertainment before dinner.  Sure sets them up for the meal!

MW, HaBS and many others here have posted on FTC and it is a great simple tool.  Allows you to start early and not worry about the time.

[coyote]

A-n-S , Good point on the FTC(fill the cup). Without that , the whole proccess could be in vain. ;D :D :)

[Wildcat]

Butt is easy in the BS.  Do not be surprised if your time cooking is less than your estimate.  You have a fairly small butt there.  I just did my first one recently and it cooked much faster than I expected.

[Arcs_n_Sparks]

... and it cooked much faster than I expected.

All the more reason to FTC so that happy hour is not impacted.

Arcs_n_Sparks

[Silverlock]

I want to thank everyone for their great info, tips, and sage wisdom. The butt turned out.... FRIGGIN GREAT! lol My roommate, who was in Austin last year, said it was better than any she had down there. *shrug* Anyhoo, here's some thoughts, points, thanks, and one final question:

• 1. Cooking time was longer than expected due to (memo to self, set oven timer for longer than you need) a cooling then reheating of the oven.   :-\
• 2. As predicted, they internal temp hit 160 and stayed.... and stayed.... and stayed.... for an hour and half I would guess.  :o
• 3. I can see why people build and install PID's. Holy temp swings!
• 4. Start cooking the night before. Didn't have dinner until 10:00 p.m.  :(
• 5. Internal temp of 188F is sufficient (see #4... couldn't wait any longer). ;D
• 6. 1 hour of FTC is sufficient (see #4... couldn't wait any longer).  8)
• 7. Use a different rub. The Salt Lick's was a touch peppery for me. Also, you don't need sauce. I find it detracts from the flavour of the meat
• 8. 6 or so of the *other* FTC's worked well. :D

Now, my final question on this project and the smoker in general. What do you guys do for clean-up? I mean, obviously scrub the grills, drip pan, etc. But, are you just taking the surface grease off the walls and parts of the smoker or are you attempting to take it ALL off, back to it's original surface. It seems to me that attempting to do that is heresy as you're removing seasoning. However, if you don't and you allow it to build, over time it would become unmanagable. I did try to clean the drip tray right down to the original surface and was about 85% successful but some areas the blackening just wouldn't come off.

Again, thanks to everyone for their support. Who needs to RTFM when there's wonderful forums you can use. :)

[icerat4]

Na da on the clean up.Just clean the burner plate remove water bowl and call it a smoke.The more ya smoke the better seasoned your machine will be ive gone a year and a half and no cleaning.Some folks do clean they will chime soon im sure.But IMO na da no cleaning except the lil black gue once in a while is just wiped off.Hope this helps .And happy smoking. ;D

[Mr Walleye]

Congratulations on your success SilverLock!

As far as cleaning goes all I do is soak the racks, Vpan, water bowl in dish water, sometimes for a couple of hours then just scrib them off. Sometimes I have cleaned the build up of the Vpan with oven cleaner when it gets bad. The other thing I do is give the puck burner a little cleaning with a small wire brush and that's it. I never clean the smoke residue in the tower itself. The only exception to this is if food gets on it, but that rarely happens and if it does I would only clean that spot.

Anyway, That's what works for me.

Mike

[LilSmoker]

Hi Silverlock, glad the pork turned out nice for you  ;)

As for cleaning, i always clean the racks, the V pan, the water bowl and the bottom tray that the water bowl sits on, clean the door seal rubber with a damp cloth and also the edge of the cabinet where the door closes.
Unscew the top vent and clean every few smokes depending on how gunked up it is. I give the puck burner plate a clean with a scrapper, and after a good few smokes i dismantle the generator and give it a thorough clean and blow it out with a compressor.

I never touch the internal walls of the cabinet, unless there's some flakey stuff which i lightly brush off, that's about it really, outside cabinet gets a wipe down with a damp cloth, and the BS is all ready for more action!  ;D ;)

[icerat4]

I agree with those 2 folks Above.. ;D

[Wildcat]

I agree with those 2 folks Above.. ;D

Me too! :)