Smoking Pulled Pork

[deerminator]

I've got 3 five pound butts I want to smoke for the 4th. I've slow cooked butts on the Weber before but now that I have my kamodo style grill/smoker, I am going to try smoking them. Thoughts on how long this might take at just over 200 degrees. I was figuring about 9-10 hours, maybe less for these 5 pounders and then a couple hours wrapped to rest before pulling them for samiches.

This will likely be an overnight deal since we want to eat around Noon. And I bought a dual wireless thermometer so I can check easily in the middle of the night. But do some smoke the day before and reheat the day of? Any input would be appreciated. Thanks!

[hockeybc69]

I smoked 4 - 7lb butts last Friday....

Smoker at 225.... started at 9am, and by about midnight(yes, 15 hrs later) I was stalled at 180 degrees and cranked it up to 350... I pulled them off at 2am, rewrapped in foil and wrapped in towels for another hour and a half before pulling them apart ...

I was doing some rearranging on the smoker a few times through the day to ensure even temps in the meat. Also was spraying with apple juice several times early in the process.... so I had interuptions in the heat.

I sure didnt expect it to take that long.

they turned out simply awesome. I had some leftovers tonight that I made a bbq pulled pork pizza with and it was outstanding as well!

[OnAFly]

I did a couple last week for work. Here's my process:

Rub

Let it come to room temp

Smoke at 225F

Feed chips for 6hours or so

Remove at 198F

Foil and put into cooler (just to stay warm until lunch)

Pull just before serving

Add a bit of rub and cider vinegar

It took 14.25hours to do two 9lb butts. I don't open my smoker at all during the process and let it run mostly at night. I put it in at 6PM and removed at 8:15AM. It turned out awesome.

[nofishfisherman]

Cook time will vary on pork butts. I think the general rule is about 1 1/2 per pound but I don't think I've had one live up to that, they usually take longer.

9-10 hours probably isn't a terrible guess but it could end up taking a couple hours longer. I had one 5 pounder take 12-13 hours a month or two ago, and a 4-5 pounder take 8-9 hours last week.

I would plan on it taking several hours longer than it should just to be safe. When its done just pull them out, wrap them in foil, then wrap them in a towel or two and stick them in a cooler. It will stay warm like that for hours while it rests. I usually try to time it so that they are up to temp before I go to bed and then I let them rest in the cooler overnight and pull right away in the morning.

[thirdeye]

I've got 3 five pound butts I want to smoke for the 4th. I've slow cooked butts on the Weber before but now that I have my kamodo style grill/smoker, I am going to try smoking them. Thoughts on how long this might take at just over 200 degrees. I was figuring about 9-10 hours, maybe less for these 5 pounders and then a couple hours wrapped to rest before pulling them for samiches.

This will likely be an overnight deal since we want to eat around Noon. And I bought a dual wireless thermometer so I can check easily in the middle of the night. But do some smoke the day before and reheat the day of? Any input would be appreciated. Thanks!

I generally select 7 to 9 pound butts and I allow 14 to 16 hours when smoking at 225 to 240 pit temp. Just a word of warning, 200° is pretty hard to maintain,... and your finish temp will be around 200° internal, this means your pit temp to final meat temp is a 1:1 ratio. Here are two butts in the 7 pound range on my Big Green Egg. Notice where my probe is located.

Good call on using a remote thermometer, but make sure you place it near the grate to get accurate temp readings. Too close to the meat can give you a false reading. Your dome thermometer will not usually correlate with the actual temp at the grate. You should be able to fit 3-five pound roasts on your grate, even if you have to stand them up. Just keep some distance between them.

Like tho others mentioned, a long rest in a cooler is a good idea. I now inject all my butts, but that is only a tool not a rule. I've cooked hundreds of butts without injection.

You lost me when you said "smoke the day before and reheat". Did you mean you are going to partially cook?

[Big Bobber]

What do you inject into the pork? Is this for additional flavor, moistness, or both?

Thanks

[thirdeye]

What do you inject into the pork? Is this for additional flavor, moistness, or both?

Thanks

Both flavor and moistness.

My current favorite pork injection is 60% pork broth and 40% CocaCola, and I buy Coke made in Mexico because it made with cane sugar instead of high-fructose corn syrup. My WalMart sells MexiCoke for about $1.50 a bottle, and it is clearly marked. I also add a couple of teaspoons of seasoned salt to taste, (Tony C's is a good one). The flavor of the injection is "porky", "sweet" and slightly "salty".

I generally mix the broth, Coke, and salt and simmer a couple of minutes to allow the salt to dissolve. Next I divide my injection into two containers and chill them.... I use cold injection to inject a raw butt with 4 or 5 ounces of liquid, then discard the remainder. When my butt reaches an internal of 170° I heat up the second container of injection and inject again with several ounces, then I reserve the remaining injection to add to the foil when I wrap for finishing or resting.

The juices that accumulate in the foil during the rest can be used to sprinkle into the pulled meat to insure flavor and moistness.

[hockeybc69]

I injected the ones I made last week too.

I used an injection recipe from one of the guys thats always on TV in the national BBQ contests. First time I had used that one. Quite happy with the results to say the least.

4 cups apple juice

1/8 cup tenderquick

1/4 cup worchestire

[deerminator]

Thanks guys. All good tips that I will utilize! Thirdeye, I meant, cooking the pork today and then reheating it tomorrow. But I am not doing that. I may cheat, though and smoke them for six hours or so and then when I head to bed, slide them into a 200 degree oven for the remainder of the evening/cook. And then wrap them for holding in the morning. We'll see though, I'll probably tough it out in the smoker all night if this thermometer works and can warn me about drastic temp changes. Its being delivered via UPS this afternoon! Nothing like the last minute.

[nofishfisherman]

I've done the split cooking between the smoker and oven and it has worked out just fine for me. If its getting late or starts to rain I don't want to be going out every 2 hours to reload charcoal so I'll move it to the oven. I make sure it gets at least 4-6 hours on the smoker first though.

[thirdeye]

Thanks guys. All good tips that I will utilize! Thirdeye, I meant, cooking the pork today and then reheating it tomorrow. But I am not doing that. I may cheat, though and smoke them for six hours or so and then when I head to bed, slide them into a 200 degree oven for the remainder of the evening/cook. And then wrap them for holding in the morning. We'll see though, I'll probably tough it out in the smoker all night if this thermometer works and can warn me about drastic temp changes. Its being delivered via UPS this afternoon! Nothing like the last minute.

Okay thanks for clearing that up.

nofishfisherman is right about smoking and oven finish. You would be surprised the number of restaurants that do just that. The timeline I've used before is to build a fire at 11:00 pm, let it establish itself... then put the butts on at Midnight. At 6:00 am I do my second injection on them and double wrap in foil and put in the oven, setting the timer to turn off in 4 hrs. Then I head home from work at 10am or so and check them, usually moving the foiled butts into a cooler and take back to work to serve at lunch.

[deerminator]

Thanks! Got the kamodo going now and its up to 207 according to my thermometer. It has a clip so the BBQ probe is just less than an inch from the grill. I built a fire with lump charcoal and some pieces of apple wood interspersed. I saw this video on youtube where the guy got it going and quickly shut the grill up and closed the vents to a degree where you're working toward just over 200. I used an aluminum pizza pan as a diffuser over the fire.

One question, if you have a lot of juices in the pan if you put them in the oven, do you save the juice typically and mix with it when you pull it later after letting it rest? I saw another site where a guy swears you should smoke it for half the time and then put it in a pan and wrap foil over it the second half so you retain the juices. He says "this is what the competition smokers do."

Thanks again. Good stuff!

[leechlake]

I'd save the juices. When it's done and in the pan the juice will be on the bottom and if people want the meat with juice they can grab that and for those that don't want the juice they can pick off of the top of the pile of meat. Win/win for everyone. Remember to have the cheapest white buns available, that's the best kind for pulled pork (a few Hawaiin rolls are great too).

[thirdeye]

I think we're talking two kinds of juices here. Drip pan juices and foil juices.

Drip pan juices are fat, water and some of the spices that run off, they usually cook down and darken (sometimes even burning)... I would not use drip pan juices for anything. Just look in your drip pan the next day after the cooker has cooled down and you will see what I mean.

Foil juices are produced in two ways. First if you smoke your butt until it's 150-160 internal, then foil and return to the cooker or the oven to finish cooking... natural juices will accumulate in the foil. These juices have some fat in them and they pick-up flavors from whatever rub you have on the butt. If you add some additional liquid before closing the foil, like apple juice, white grape juice, pork broth, etc.) you will have more flavorful foil juices and they will be less fatty than just the natural juices. Here are some foil juices that were produced when I did a foil finish on this butt, I added additional broth and a little Stubbe pork marinade.

The second kind of foil juices are produced when you smoke your butt completely, then wrap in foil and rest a couple of three hours. You add any of the liquids above and while resting a small amount of natural juices come out and mix with the liquids you added. this is the least fatty juices of all. Here are some foil juices.

The reference to competition methods is closer to my first foil example, these guys finish off meats in foil pans, and have some interesting liquids they add. Some use fruit juices, but others use marinades and other juices as well. One thing to consider is that they might only use 2 pounds (or less) of meat from a 9 pound butt to go in the turn-in box, and judges will give them only one bite... so they try to concentrate the flavors.

[Kidd]

Something I read and will try the next time I smoke a butt is to take the foil juice, pour into ice cube trays and freeze. Then, when I'm making beans I will put the juice cubes in for extra flavor.

Anyone try this?

[thirdeye]

Something I read and will try the next time I smoke a butt is to take the foil juice, pour into ice cube trays and freeze. Then, when I'm making beans I will put the juice cubes in for extra flavor.

Anyone try this?

Not yet.... I will try, to try this next Tuesday. I'm helping my buddy with his annual BBQ and we're smoking 10 butts, briskets and lamb. I think the amount (a cube or 3) would be great in beans, or as an adder for BBQ sauce. The little bit of fat is no big deal, and I bet the flavor is great.

[deerminator]

Thanks Thirdeye for the additional insight. Things turned out great. I ended up putting the butts in the kamodo at around 11 pm. You were right, it was hard to maintain that 200+ temp. I had to monkey with it a bit to get it to just over 200. The thermometer helped a lot in doing that. At around 3 am, the alarm went off letting me know the temp had dropped below 200 degrees. I think I had closed the vents too much. So after four hours of good smoke, I took them off and put them into the oven in aluminum cake pans covered with foil. Then I let them cook at 215 until about 10. Then shut the oven off. I pulled about 2 1/2 hours later and they were piping hot with lots of pan juice, the good kind of juice I think you are talking about. So I pulled, tossed in the juice, added a light dash of seasoning and a splash of cider vinegar and mixed some more. Good stuff.

Everyone kept asking what kind of new seasoning I had used and I replied "smoke." lol. I usually just slow cook them in the oven from the start. I should have taken pics but forgot. Will have to do so next time. Thanks again! And hope everyone had a Happy Fourth!

[deerminator]

I guess I did take one pic when I put them on at 11! Not quite the pretty picture of a fully cooked butt, however shows the set up.

[Kidd]

I will try, to try this next Tuesday.

If it's not to much trouble I would appreciate your opinion on the results.

Thanks