Pork Butt Help

[matwell]

Hello All,

I am smoking a 6 1/2 pound boneless pork butt tonight overnight. I plan on smoking for 4hrs with hickory at a temp of 200-225f. My goal is to finish the but in the Bradley and not use my oven. I slathered with yellow mustard, iceman's rub and placed it in the fridge for 24 hrs. After the 4 hours of smoke when should I begin spritzing with apple juice to keep the butt moist and how often. Should I use apple juice only or a mixture of apple juice and maple syrup. I am going to ftc when the butt reaches an internal temp of 190. Oh and of course how should I use Iceman's sauce? Do I mix it with the pork or does it go on the side for dipping? Any words of wisdom will be greatly appreciated. If my initial plan is flawed please let me know. Thanks

[Smoking Duck]

Hi Matwell,

Relatively a newbie here myself.  My first smoke was a pork butt and I did not do any spritzing....but came out nice and moist.  When I FTC'd mine, I put 3/4 cup of apple juice in with it and it turned out great.

As far as the Ice Sauce is concerned, I'm still awaiting mine but from what I can gather, that's more of a personal decision but I don't think you can go wrong either way.

However, there are many more knowledgeable folks that I here who should be around soon to help further.

Marc

[Wildcat]

Your plan sounds fine.  I normally use apple pucks and smoke/cook at an average Box temp of 205.  Takes a while but the results are fantastic.  Avoid rushing it during the stall.  If you are going to pull the meat, then take the internal meat temp to 190 - 195.  After that heavily spritz with apple juice and FTC for 3 -4 hours.  I like to rub with olive oil and then apply Iceman's rub.  Best to serve sauce on the side in case someone does not want sauce.  It is easy to blend sauce into pork at the table.

[Consiglieri]

Welcome!  Plan looks good.  Only thought is that I hope you have a remote thermometer with an alarm in case your meat hits target while you sleep (or there's some huge drop in box temp that requires your attention).

Also, after about 4 hours, your rub should have set up on the meat.  Generally, that's when I'll start spraying apple juice.  At that mark, you'll also want to dum the water and spent pucks out of the bowl and replace with fresh water. 

As for pucks, I like apple, maple, pecan and hickory (or any combo of these) on pulled pork. 

One other aspect: it's bad luck to smoke food without a glass in hand.   ;)

[matwell]

Hello,

Thank you guys for your advice. I have taken a little piece from all of you. I placed the pork butt in last night at about 115Am and it is now currently 1055am. My internal temp as we speak is about 184, so we are getting close. My next question is about ftc. If I was dumb enough to not get a cooler ready what is my alternative? Can I just wrap it in foil and towel and skip the cooler.

Smoking Duck you mentioned something about 3/4 cup apple juice is that tightly wrapped in foil or is that in an aluminum tray with foil on top? Still a little unclear as to the foil part. I have heard peolple mention about wrapping it tight and something called boating.

Thank You to anyone that can help me!

[Tiny Tim]

Foil and towel alone will be good, but the more you can insulate around the meat, the more heat it will retain, and be that much better.  You can even shove it into the microwave (if it'd fit kinda tight and nobody's gonna use it).

[iceman]

You don't need the cooler. Just wrap an extra layer of towel around it and put it in the oven (turned off of course). It will act just like the cooler would have.
Just spritz the butt with apple juice or not. It's up to you. Either way the butt will be just fine. Spritz, wrap in a couple layers of foil, wrap in towels, put in oven and shred whenever your ready to eat. Oh and eat an extra helping for me!!! ;)

[matwell]

You both have good ideas with the microwave and oven. I was concerned because I wasn't sure how important the cooler was. I am waiting for it to hit 190-195 before i pull it from the smoker. I have a brookstone remote thermometer similar to the maverick and it was working fine but towards the end it was starting to drop in temp. I started to use my old school meat thermometer and I am still around 185. I hope my brookstone is not shorting out on me, it is pretty new. I will be ordering a maverick very very soon. Thanks again I will keep you posted.

[Smoking Duck]

Hi Matwell,

I hope all is still going well.  I put the apple juice on the butt when I was wrapping up the butt for FTC.  Obviously, you want the foil pulled up around the butt before putting the apple juice on the butt.

Let us know how it turned out.......pics are really nice if ya got em.

[Habanero Smoker]

It is not uncommon for the internal temperature to drop a few degrees during the plateau.

[matwell]

The pork butt was a complete success. I had about 12 relatives over from out of town for a Christmas type dinner that my mother in law prepared. I brought out the pulled pork as a supplement dish and I told my guests they need to be honest and tell me if it stinks. Anyway, not one complaint and I have no left overs for work tomorrow. I want to thank all of you for your advice and iceman for his rub and sauce. I really am starting to enjoy my DBS. I will learn how to post pictures for my next smoke so I can share with you guys.

Iceman, have you received my money order yet. 

[Wildcat]

Way to go!  ;)

[KyNola]

Mat,
Nice going.  Don't you love it when a plan comes together?  Hope your mother-in-law didn't mind being upstaged!

KyNola

[matwell]

Kynola,

Even the mother-in-law was impressed. Like I said I have no left over pulled pork but I do have the in law's chicken cordon blue and stuffed mushrooms for work today. Not as good as my pulled pork but at least I wont starve. I am glad the company enjoyed it and I definitely noticed guests going back for seconds. Good Stuff!!!!

[iceman]

Way to go matwell!!! ;D
Glad to hear the success story ;)
BTW I did receive the money order for the sauce.
Mucho appreciado amigo.