Ask the pack... smoked Boston butt?

[expireddog]

Curious as to how you all smoke butts?

Fat cap up or down?

Smoking temp?

Wrap in foil or no?

Already got it soaking in Dales and also injected it with Dales.

 

[stateguy]

Used dales? Other things don’t matter

225, fat up for me. Don’t do aluminum foil but probably consider in future

 

[GTAdawg]

Fat goes between the heat and the meat. Butt is versatile, temp can range be from 225 to 275. Generously apply your favorite rub. Inject if you like, I think difference in minimal. Wrap if you’re crunched for time, otherwise leave out so the nice Crust maintains. Spritzing won’t help flavor, but will help from crust becoming burnt. Pull off when temp is at or exceeds 200. Again, could pull off at over 190 if crunched for time. Good luck and enjoy.

 

[mstateglfr]

Just did one today.

I use a weber charcoal smoker and run it between 190 and 290. The temp is continually changing due to the fuel and how much air I give it and it doesnt affect the final product one bit.

Fat cap up always because gravity moistens the meat as it melts(apparently?), and bone-in whenever possible.

Dry rub the day before and let it sit.

A couple cups of brown sugar, a good bit of garlic powder, a good bit of onion powder, healthy amount of cumin, some mustard powder, some chili powder, some paprika, some ground pepper, and some kosher salt.

Mix it all up and continually pat it on so its all covered and dry.

I throw apple wood chips on about 6 times thru the first 5 hours. To get plenty of smoke.

Once its up to 160 or so, I'll wrap it in foil to get over the temp stall. Its plenty smoked by then and bark has formed.

I'll undo the foil for the last 30min to harden bark again(no idea if this actually works but whatever). Pull it when its all at least 190(parts will be hotter).

Keep the juices in the foil.

Let it sit for an hour, pull and get rid of all the fat, then warm it all back up on a skillet. Warmed up again makes it better nonidea why. There will be more than enough juice grease to keep it all moist and great when warmed up.

 

[msudog4]

Interesting idea warming it up in the skillet. Never tried that.

Always cook fat up

 

[bdfan09]

https://youtu.be/7q-Njz_Zy-I

 

[Uncle Ruckus]

Don’t listen to the people saying fat cap up.
Trim the fat cap off, it doesn’t ‘melt’ or ‘dissolve’. What you end up with is pulled pork with fatty clumps all in it. Rubs and seasonings also don’t penetrate the fat cap. Trim it off.
Place it fat cap side down.
Dry brine it at least 6-8hrs before you put it on. I do a dry brine of garlic, salt, and pepper.
I then apply mustard, but you don’t have to, before I put on my dry rub.
Cook around 225. Plan for 1.5hrs per pound.
Don’t add smoke after 2 hours, it’s way, way too much smoke.
Spritz it with water, apple juice, cider vinegar, or a mixture of all every thirty minutes while you are adding wood. It doesn’t help the bark from getting burned as someone said above, but moisture attracts smoke to add flavor and it will help form your bark.
Don’t wrap. It can ruin your bark, just put it on the night before so you have enough time to power through the stall.
If everyone is ready to eat, pull it at 203. If you are done early, pull it at 195, wrap in foil and a towel. You can put it in a cooler or your oven like this.
Also, I wouldn’t inject. It just makes your meat taste like your injection.
But most importantly, don’t use the thermometer on your smoker to gauge your temperature. It’s way off. Buy a dual probed oven thermometer. One goes in the smoker for its temp and one in the meat.

 

[DesotoCountyDawg]

Fat cap down. It does no good to have it facing up.

I coat mine in yellow mustard and then add whatever rub I’m using. It helps keep the rub stuck all over it and you won’t taste the mustard.

 

[aTotal360]

Fat side up.

Brined overnite in 1 gallon of water, 2 cups salt, and 1 cup sugar. Thoroughly wash it off after the brine.

Rubbed with FRESH cracked pepper and kosher salt. Over the years, I figured out all the ******** seasonings that bbq experts and instagram influencers are selling end up burning and lead to off-flavors.

Smoke with mostly hickory and some apple wood.

Baste with a mix of cheap apple juice and a little apple cider vinegar.

I'll cook it for 6-10 hours depending on the size of the butt.

I'll wrap mine for the last 90 minutes of the cook and then finish it unwrapped for an additional 30.

Rest it for 30 minutes.

Shred.

 

[Polygonal]

I have two rules - 1) cook it for a minimum of 12 hours, no more than 18. Something happens with the flavor after 12 hours that doesn’t happen if I cook it less than 12 hours. I think 12 gives more time for that internal fat to render and add flavor. Longer than 18 and it gets too mushy and doesn’t have a good bite. 2) cover it with salt. Salt is the most important seasoning. I think osmosis causes something amazing to happen - like a mini-cure - to the meat while it’s cooking. The rest of the seasonings don’t matter as much.

I cook at 225 and wrap once it hits 145. Cook until 195-200. I usually leave the fat cap so I can render some more of that fat during reheating (200 oven for 4-5 hours) when I have leftovers.

I’ve only tried injection a couple of times. Did not enhance the flavor too much, but I’ll probably keep experimenting.

 

[Seinfeld]

This saved me the trouble of writing everything I was going to say.

Listen to this man. You don’t need the fat cap for a Boston butt. There is PLENTY of fat and marbling throughout the meat to keep the meat moist throughout cooking, and the only thing the cap does is separate seasoning from meat on that side. Trim it off, and now you’ve got another side that’ll make a great bark.

I’ll also second the advice regarding NOT wrapping with foil unless you’re flat out running out of time for a dinner party. It’ll basically dissolve the bark with steam, so it’s best to avoid altogether, but if you absolutely have to do it to cut cooking time, try to plan for at least an hour unwrapped at the end to re-form the bark.

 

[mstateglfr]

Its funny to see the differing opinions on where the fat cap should go.
I mentioned I always put it up, but thebreslly is based just on what I read to do 15 years ago and haven't bothered to change.

A few thoughts on it.

- the differing opinions show what I mwntioned before when it comes tonvarying heat- it doesn't matter because a shoulder is incredibly versatile and therefore difficult to screw up.
- when I do boneless shoulders, there is no true fat cap. I end up sorta placing the fatties side up, but it all cooks fine in the end, which further shows it doesnt seem to matter.
- I trim the fat cap a good bit. They can be 1+" sometimes and thats just excessive. Ill trim it down to 1/8- 1/4 and stop there out of sheer lack of interest to keep going.

When pulling, I separate fat chunks and blobs out, so leaving some fat on makes no difference in how much fat is in the final served product.
The idea of fat cap up is that as the fat melts, it runs down and penetrates, which helps keep the shoulder moist. Could be total bs.


What I see as the most important step is seasoning. Do you want it sweet, salty, hot, etc. Its tough to screw up the cooking process.

 

[57stratdawg]

I like doing a glaze on low and slow pork. Mix up your own. Some combination of BBQ sauces, Tiger Sauce, maybe a little jelly (apple or apricot).

Put it on about 20 minutes before you pull it off and let it set. Might be a little messy, but you’re never going to overseason a butt.

 

[hatfieldms]

Sous vide for 21 hours or so and then smoke on gril for a couple of hours to finish

 

[Uncle Ruckus]

I’m sure your stuff is good, but the fat cap melting is a total myth.
https://amazingribs.com/tested-recipes/pork-recipes/perfect-pulled-pork-recipe
This explains it all scientifically. All his recipes are backed by meat science and amazing

 

[TrueMaroonGrind]

Sous vide for 21 hours or so and then smoke on gril for a couple of hours to finish

For real or did I miss the sarcasterisks?

 

[hatfieldms]

No sarcastericks needed. The best pork butts I have ever done have been done that way. Go to the serious eats website and look it up. Comes out fantastic

 

[hatfieldms]

https://www.seriouseats.com/recipes/2016/07/sous-vide-barbecue-pulled-pork-shoulder-recipe.html

 

[Jeffreauxdawg]

My butt cooking:

I trim fat before the cook on a butt just so I don't have to deal with it later.... Weigh it before and after. It will drop half of it's weight by the time it's done because of all the marbled fat inside cooking out. The fat cap really doesn't do anything, but prevent me from getting more bark. (I cook on a Kamado Joe with heat deflectors so drying out the bottom is not a real risk.)

If you are cooking on an offset smoker where heat is higher on the bottom, fat cap down might be a good idea. I had much better luck with brisket cap down on my offset.

240-250°. Yellow mustard and a little honey before rub. Spritz with Apple Cider every few hours until done at 195-200 internal. Rest in cooler in foil and covered with towel for an hour at least.

I don't wrap with foil during the cook in the kamado at 165° like I did in the offset. It cooks different and just doesn't dry out as fast.

 

[Polygonal]

Slightly OT - A few weeks ago, someone posted about making Pork Belly Burnt Ends. I made some yesterday and they were amazing. Look online for recipes. You can’t really mess it up. The recipe I found had a cooking range of 225-250. I started at 230 And had to increase to get the fat to render properly. Next time I’ll start at 250.

 

[Seinfeld]

Yep, I did them yesterday as well, and I thought they were fantastic. I did a hybrid of a couple recipes I found so that I could crisp the skin, and I’ll post some result info this afternoon.

Did you go the skin on or off route with yours?

 

[birdawg]

Fat cap up. When finished smoking, scrape the fat cap off, pull the meat, then wring the fat cap out over the pulled meat

 

[Polygonal]

I took the skin off. The fat was about an inch thick in places and I was concerned that was too much. My wife called them “the wonderful morsels of goodness”.

I’m very interested in how it came out for you leaving the skin on.

 

[Dawgbite]

Trim the fat, up or down is irrelevant. If you wrap use pink butcher paper instead of foil, it doesn’t dissolve your bark as bad. I cook unwrapped until 205, wrap in pink butcher paper and put it in my meat cooler for at least an hour to rest. Resting really helps with the juices and tenderness. I have kept one in a cooler for six hours and it’s still hot. I cooked two 9lbers last Saturday and got a late start. I had been reading about Turbo Method and decided to try it. 320 unwrapped throughout and they were done in 5 1/2 hours with no stall. They were just as good as my normal 10-12 hours at 225. Just to be different, I chopped it with a meat cleaver instead of pulling it as normal. I though that I was a pull guy but the chopped turbo has me questioning everything in life now.

 

[Dawgbite]

Fat cap up. When finished smoking, scrape the fat cap off, pull the meat, then wring the fat cap out over the pulled meat

Mmmmm, pig gravy! Fat isn’t primarily what makes pork juicy. Fat makes beef that is cooked hot and fast juicy but pork or really anything cooked low and slow is juicy because the calogin that holds the muscle fibers together will start to break down and separate at 202-203.

 

[Jeffreauxdawg]

Trim the fat, up or down is irrelevant. If you wrap use pink butcher paper instead of foil, it doesn’t dissolve your bark as bad. I cook unwrapped until 205, wrap in pink butcher paper and put it in my meat cooler for at least an hour to rest. Resting really helps with the juices and tenderness. I have kept one in a cooler for six hours and it’s still hot. I cooked two 9lbers last Saturday and got a late start. I had been reading about Turbo Method and decided to try it. 320 unwrapped throughout and they were done in 5 1/2 hours with no stall. They were just as good as my normal 10-12 hours at 225. Just to be different, I chopped it with a meat cleaver instead of pulling it as normal. I though that I was a pull guy but the chopped turbo has me questioning everything in life now.

I'm going to give this a go. I have heard nothing but positive feedback on butts. Makes sense because of all the fat.. Thanks for sharing.

 

[TXDawg.sixpack]

All great tips here. I go with fat cap down. Rub and let sit over night before smoking. I run at 225 for about 5 hours (spritzing a couple of times while smoking), then wrap in foil to complete the cook (internal temp 195).

Biggest life changer I learned the last time I smoked one: Save the fat drippings and use to make gravy for pork chops. The smokey flavor of the gravy is out of this world!

 

[SirBarksalot]

Just be prepared to drink yourself stupid during “the stall” and try not bang your head against the wall..

 

[mstateglfr]

I’m sure your stuff is good, but the fat cap melting is a total myth.
https://amazingribs.com/tested-recipes/pork-recipes/perfect-pulled-pork-recipe
This explains it all scientifically. All his recipes are backed by meat science and amazing

I referenced that website constantly thru the first handful of years I was smoking.
Its good info- its deep dives into all things grilling and BBQ.

I'm sure the cap upnor down doesn't matter one way or another since it cN come out excellent with no cap at all too.
A lot of smoking seems to be differences in ritual more than differences that make a difference in the end.
Its art.

 

[T-TownDawgg]

You could wrap with foil to push quickly through the stall and uncover for about 30 min to crisp the bark a bit. I personally like the wrap/crutch method, seems to be juicier.

 

[Hugh's Burner Phone]

I'll coat mine in ribbon cane moleasses snd then dry rub with a mixture of brown sugar, chili powder, paprika, garlic powder, lemon pepper, and cumin. Then I put it on offside heat. Bag and a half of kingsford and 10 hours later in at 200 and pulling it off the bone to shred.

 

[MeridianDog]

It's hard to mess up a Boston Butt. I won' get into the discussion of fat up or down. I usually do a rub on my Boston Butt.

I even cook them on the rotisserie, for a crusty sliced pork sandwich. Cook at 250 to an internal temp of 185 - 190. This method gives a nice crusty exterior and makes an excellent sandwich.

If you ever had a sliced pork BBQ at Len Lew's, these photos should bring tears to your eyes.

The photo, showing the crock pot was placed by mistake and I can't figure how to get it out. About it, I will only say, you can do a pulled pork inside in the crock pot.

 

[theepicone]

It’s the easiest meat to smoke in my opinion. It’s almost impossible to 17 it up. Just use some type of rub(or don’t), cook it fat side up(or down), with foil(or without), at 200(or 275), until 180 degrees(or 200). I’ve literally tried to do something different every time and I can’t screw it up. It’s always really good. Brisket is the only meat that I have to worry about each step. That’s mainly because I use the classic Weber kettle. I could easily upgrade to a bigger grill/smoker but it’s so damn consistent and I’m brand/model loyal to a fault.

 

[Uncle Ruckus]

https://amazingribs.com/more-techni...-science/myth-melting-fat-cap-penetrates-meat
Just ran across this. May change the way all of the ‘fat cap melts and adds flavor’ make their butts from now on

 

[Wegdawg]

Bone in. Fat cap down. Rub then mustard. Inject with vinegar/apple juice/brown sugar. Low temp 175-200 for 12-15 hours. Always just pulls apart. never disappointed

 

[OneParticularHarbor]

Fat goes between the heat and the meat...Butt is versatile...Generously apply your favorite rub...Inject if you like.

And Mrs. Wormer thought cucumbers were sensual.

 

[Chris Mannix]

Fat side down
Inject with https://butcherbbq.com/product/pork-injection/

Rub with peanut oil and https://www.meadowcreekbbqsupply.com/catalog/barbecue-seasonings/jonesy-q-pig-pow/

225 for about 4 hours spritzing with Apple juice/Apple cider vinegar every hour.

Wrap in metal pan for 2 hours with butter, brown sugar, honey, and rub.

Glaze for the last 30 minutes sweet bbq sauce mixed with a ketchup based sauce.

Take to 190 to 195 and let rest for an hour in a cooler, never had one turn out bad this way.