Behold My Butt! (2003–2006)

[jeniac42]

Last Saturday I did the inaugural pork butt, both for myself and my Weber (purchased about two weeks ago). I had lots of hand-holding from snowangel, whose directions to light the fire were perfect; maintenance was not terribly difficult.

I kept the temperature around 220F the whole time, with a few drops below that. The bottom vents... well, they varied in position. I actually felt quite miserable so I didn't take as many notes as I should have done. There will be more pork butt in the near future, though.

All told it took about 14 hours of smoking. I'd be happy to share details although I can't think what's been covered to death here already. I did use a chimney starter, which I love forever, because it's great.

You can sort of see the smoke-stained oven thermometer here (from the butt and the ribs done earlier in the week), along with the drip pan (aka a foil cake pan "borrowed" from my friend).

The finished butt, resting in a Pyrex dish:

Partially pulled - you can see there is a smoke ring there.

And the resulting mess o'pork:

Sadly I don't have any photos of the sandwiches, but I'll post some later in the week. Everyone should do this. It's amazing.

eta: It was raining most of the day, but I have a balcony! with high brick side walls and so I am lucky that I can use the Weber whenever I want.

Edited June 27, 2006 by jeniac42 (log)

[snowangel]

Beautiful, jen! It just warms the cockles of my maternal heart to see another enveloped in the butt fold.

Good work. Very good work. Oh, and the tongs make a nice scraper fro the face of the oven thermometer. I keep meaning to get a more high tech thermometer, but the trusty old oven thermometer, a trusty old fashioned meat thermometer and that trusty old Weber keep producing for me, so I just figure what I save I can spend on butts.

[tino27]

Moby, in the oven, I'd do it at 250.  I still think you're looking at 190 regardless of whether you smoke it or roast it to get the pull apart factor.  Not that I'm an expert or anything.

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I, too, am without a smoker and will need to use the oven for my butts this weekend.

Three questions:

1) Should I attempt to elevate the butt on a rack so that it doesn't sit in the rendered fat while it cooks in the oven? Any suggestions for this?

2) I'm cooking for potentially 35 people and am planning on doing burgers as well -- would 3 8-9 lb bone-in butts be enough to feed this many people? I saw an estimate earlier that an 8-9 lb bone-in would yield about 5-6 lbs of finished pork. I realize that this is only 1/2 lb of pork per person, should I add a fourth butt?

3) Do I need to rotate the butts in the oven (top to bottom, front to back, etc.) to ensure an even cooking?

I know I won't get the awesome smoke flavor, but I still think it'll be a darn fine tasty piece of meat.

Thanks for any advice!

[Daddy-A]

1) Should I attempt to elevate the butt on a rack so that it doesn't sit in the rendered fat while it cooks in the oven? Any suggestions for this?

I wouldn't worry about that, although others may disagree. The fat is only going to add flavour anyway.

2) I'm cooking for potentially 35 people and am planning on doing burgers as well -- would 3 8-9 lb bone-in butts be enough to feed this many people? I saw an estimate earlier that an 8-9 lb bone-in would yield about 5-6 lbs of finished pork. I realize that this is only 1/2 lb of pork per person, should I add a fourth butt?

If you're doing burgers as well, this should be plenty. I did 2 x 10lb butts for 40 people, but had roast suckling pig, and others food as well. I ended up with about 2lbs of leftover meat.

3) Do I need to rotate the butts in the oven (top to bottom, front to back, etc.) to ensure an even cooking?

I rotate simply to have the juices (fat, etc.) distribute evenly throughout the meat. I know many others don't turn their butts, so take that for what it's worth.

Low and slow. It's all good.

A.

[rooftop1000]

Dont worry about sitting fat .... it likes fat. I actually did a crock o' butt yesterday to make up for a huge BBQ we missed friday night.

They had nice teeny chucks of skin on bone in butt when we went to the market around 10 am yesterday...it was slipping off the bone by 5...really teeny about 6-7 sandwiches worth

yummy

Edited June 27, 2006 by rooftop1000 (log)

[Toliver]

I, too, am without a smoker and will need to use the oven for my butts this weekend.

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Dude, since you're not smoking it, make Carnitas. It's a crowd pleaser.

[snowangel]

I, too, am without a smoker and will need to use the oven for my butts this weekend.

You can can do it in the oven, and I'm sure that many will give you advice, but my advice is that you get out and get a Weber Kettle, the one touch, with a hinged grate. It will give you more satisfaction than you can possibly imagine. Oh, get a chimney, too. My Kettle is over 20 years old, and going strong, and had made more people more happy than you can possibly imagine. (Just call me Kettle Queen)

[CaliPoutine]

Is it possible to do a butt on a gas grill with a smoker box?

Are the times and temps still the same. Would I have to keep refilling the smoker box?

[phatj]

Is it possible to do a butt on a gas grill with a smoker box?

Are the times and temps still the same.  Would I have to keep refilling the smoker box?

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I intend to do that this weekend, although based on previous gas grill smoking experience, instead of a smoker box, I'm probably going to use disposable aluminum bread pans set directly on top of the burner baffle.

One question about this, for anyone with an opinion -- when I've done this in the past, the pans have partially burned away. How worried should I be about toxic fumes from burning aluminum?

[tino27]

Thanks for the advice all. I really appreciate it. I agree, if I am to get serious about this, I do need to get a good smoker. Unfortunately, for this weekend, the menu is set and I have to live with the limitation of using an oven.

Is it safe to assume that my butts in the oven will go through a similar cooking process (without the smoke ring, of course) as if it was done on a smoker ... i.e., the pause at 160-170, done at 190-195 (or when the bone wiggles out of the meat easily), wrap in foil and let it rest for 30-45 minutes before pulling, etc.?

Also, I plan on brining the butts for 12-16 hours before putting them in the oven. Would it be better to do a dry spice rub or do them naked and then use the cider/maple syrup/bourbon spray that I saw earlier? I didn't know if oven-based butts lent themselves towards one flavor methodology or the other.

Again, thanks all for the tips -- this thread has been IMMENSELY helpful in teaching a pork butt newbie.

[Daddy-A]

Is it safe to assume that my butts in the oven will go through a similar cooking process (without the smoke ring, of course) as if it was done on a smoker ... i.e., the pause at 160-170, done at 190-195 (or when the bone wiggles out of the meat easily), wrap in foil and let it rest for 30-45 minutes before pulling, etc.?

I don't see why not. In fact, when faced with a butt that's stalled longer than my guests can wait, I've been known to finish it in the oven.

Also, I plan on brining the butts for 12-16 hours before putting them in the oven. Would it be better to do a dry spice rub or do them naked and then use the cider/maple syrup/bourbon spray that I saw earlier? I didn't know if oven-based butts lent themselves towards one flavor methodology or the other.

That would be a matter of preference I think. However, since you're not going to have the added flavour of the smoke, I'd be inclined to brine the butt, then finish it with the spray (for colour as well as taste).

Let us know how it works out.

A.

[lcdm]

Thanks for the advice all. I really appreciate it. I agree, if I am to get serious about this, I do need to get a good smoker. Unfortunately, for this weekend, the menu is set and I have to live with the limitation of using an oven.

Is it safe to assume that my butts in the oven will go through a similar cooking process (without the smoke ring, of course) as if it was done on a smoker ... i.e., the pause at 160-170, done at 190-195 (or when the bone wiggles out of the meat easily), wrap in foil and let it rest for 30-45 minutes before pulling, etc.?

Also, I plan on brining the butts for 12-16 hours before putting them in the oven. Would it be better to do a dry spice rub or do them naked and then use the cider/maple syrup/bourbon spray that I saw earlier? I didn't know if oven-based butts lent themselves towards one flavor methodology or the other.

Again, thanks all for the tips -- this thread has been IMMENSELY helpful in teaching a pork butt newbie.

←

When I don't have time to smoke a butt (or shoulder), I use the oven method found here: http://www.foodnetwork.com/food/recipes/re...6_27406,00.html

Not as good as smoked but a nice substitute.

[the g-man]

Butts in the oven can be a practical solution if you don't have 12 plus hours to spare. While I almost feel like it is bringing dishonour to the barbecue karma, smoking it for a few hours in a kettle or water smoker and then finishing it the oven for a few hours, wrapped in foil, is a much faster process. The America's Test Kitchen people who do various experiments to find the best recipe recommend this approach in their barbecue cookbook.

And if you don't have a smoker and have to do the whole thing in the oven, so be it. You have to make use of what you have. The barbecue gods will forgive us.

This weekend I am smoking a "heritage" pork butt. I was recently at a cooking class given by a chef known for local and organic ingredients, and he made a terrine out of pulled pork that had been slow roasted in the oven. He called it "heritage pork". I asked him what it was, and he said that it was natural, locally-raised, better quality pork. I tracked one of these bad boys down and will be smoking his shoulder this weekend. I will take some photos and report back.

[phatj]

In my Pork Orgy thread, I mentioned I would be doing a pork butt today. This was my first-ever attempt. Well, it's complete, and it was awesome.

I bought a 7-lb Boston Butt from the Lansdale Meats and Deli (also known as Colonial Meat Market) here in Lansdale, PA. It went into a brine last night, and I took it out this morning at about 7:30 after I set some hickory & mesquite wood chips soaking in water. By about 8:30, the beast was on the grill:

Note the black stripes on top of the butt. That's because I initially put it on the bottom rack, but when I closed the lid, the dirty bottom of the top rack pressed down on it. I brushed it off as well as I could and moved it to the top. Here's the whole setup:

As you can see, this is a gas grill. Yesterday, I barbequed spare ribs on this, and was a little disappointed with their lack of smokiness. So today, I added a second loaf pan of wood chips. Also, note the pans under the butt. When I preheated the grill today, there was the most amazing flareup from leftover rib fat, accompanied by nasty black grease dripping from the bottom of the grill. So today, I decided that a drip pan was in order. Lacking a single disposable pan of appropriate size, I crimped together two of the loaf pans and mashed them over the burner.

At this point, I went back to bed for a couple hours. When I got back up, I put some whole chicken legs on the bottom rack of the grill, hopefully to catch some porky goodness dripping from above. Here's the butt after about two hours, with the raw chicken visible below:

I never really had any trouble regulating the temperature. The weather here was pleasant, topping out at about 85, and my deck is covered so the grill wasn't in direct sun at the hottest part of the day. Interestingly, the second pan of wood chips didn't do anything. The pan on the left burned well, but the pan on the right hardly even got charred. Nevertheless, it worked better than the rib smoking last night, when four hours of "smoking" didn't even burn up the chips I put in initially.

Several hours later, with the butt in a stall at about 177, I tossed some corn-on-the-cob and a sliced onion on the grill for accompaniments to tonight's dinner:

A bit later, after I took the corn and onion off the grill, the butt was past the stall and nearly done. This thing was BEE-YOO-TI-FULL. Deep smoky red. This photo doesn't do it justice, but here it is, bathed in evening sun glory, about 10 hours after starting it's journey:

And a few minutes later, resting in the kitchen:

After it had cooled a bit, I pulled out the bone and pulled off a chunk. Here's the inside:

I mixed up a batch of what was supposed to be =Mark's famous Carolina-style barbeque sauce, but I'm afraid I botched the proportions. In copying it from screen to paper, I wrote a capital "T" for both tablespoon and teaspoon, so I wound up with much more Worcestershire sauce and especially salt than called for. I didn't find it too salty, though. In fact, it was quite tasty.

Anyway, I mixed some of said sauce with some of the pulled butt, and put it on a soft Kaiser roll topped with sliced smoked onion. I know this is non-traditional, but I'm OK with that. I made a coleslaw by marinating cabbage and some thinly sliced onions with vinegar and salt for a while, then (after rinsing) tossing with a dressing consisting of vinegar, canola oil, mayonnaise, mustard, garlic, black & cayenne pepper and celery seed. I served the slaw on the side, along with corn brushed with fat from last night's spice-rubbed ribs (in lieu of butter, my usual corn-on-the-cob condiment).

Here's dinner:

Everything was great. The pork was exceptionally tender, but not so much as to be mushy. It was rich and juicy with a great smoky flavor. The corn was very good, with a hint of smokiness (Which I'm not sure came primarily from the smoking, or from the rib fat). I think next time I'll try smoking the corn longer. The slaw was pretty salty, but crisp and tangy, not too creamy and not sweet.

[tino27]

RESULTS!!

So, I had 3 9 pound bone-in butts. I brined them in a 1 cup kosher salt to 1 gallon of water solution for about 12 hours, turning them half-way through the process. I then decided to do a dry rub consisting of (which I doubled the recipe to make enough)

1 tbsp salt

2 tbsp sugar

2 tbsp brown sugar

2 tbsp ground cumin

2 tbsp chile powder (I used ancho chile powder)

2 tbsp ground black pepper

1 tbsp cayenne pepper

1/4 cup paprika

I then proceeded to put the butts in a 250 deg F oven on Friday night at 8 PM. The internal probe thermometer read 55 deg F (I had let them sit out for about an hour since smoking the meat wasn't a factor). I figured with 27 pounds of meat, I would allot 18 hours to cook. Nope. Not even close. It only took 10 hours for it to be a perfect 195 deg F. Also note that I rotated the pans in my oven (top to bottom) after about 4 hours of cooking. I pulled the pork out of the oven at 6 AM, covered it and let it rest for an hour and then pulled it. It shredded beautifully. It turns out that 27 pounds of bone-in pork is just the perfect amount to fill two crockpots. I also added a bit of the pan drippings to each crockpot to give it some extra flavor and moisture.

I was afraid that even with the extra moisture from the drippings, sitting in the crockpot for an additional 9 hours would be bad -- nope, it was as lovely at service time as it would have been eaten straight away. As for consumption, we had slightly fewer guests than had RSVP'd (isn't that always the way?? ), but between dinner, doggie bags, and a late night snack for my roommate and myself, we managed to finish one of the crocks of pork. The other one I divided into gallon zip bags and am going to freeze two of them. I'm thinking carnitas might be in our future for dinner later in the week.

Thanks to everybody who gave me advice. I've already started looking into smokers for the next time.

Edited July 2, 2006 by tino27 (log)

[the g-man]

Canada Day Pulled Pork:

8 a.m.: Here is a 6 pound butt, rubbed and ready for the smoker (you can see the barbecue in the background of the photo).

after 6 hours of smokey smokerson:

After 9 hours of heavy smoking and an hour of rest:

nice:

[CaliPoutine]

phatj,

how long was your butt on the grill? What temp did you cook the pork?

[phatj]

phatj,

how long was your butt on the grill?  What temp did you cook the pork?

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It was on the grill for 10 hours. It was at 190F when I took it off.

EDIT: I should have mentioned in my previous post, the temp in the "smoking chamber" according to the grill's built-in thermometer varied between about 225F and 250F.

Edited July 3, 2006 by phatj (log)

[JohnnyH]

Gman -- it looks like you got a good result (and I'm sure the pork was delicious), but you might want to look for a butt that isn't so well trimmed next time you decide to give this a go. Your first pic looks as though almost all the fat has been cut away by the butcher...

[snowangel]

I lust after all of these bodacious butts! One is in my future, and soon. I did a deep dig-through of the deep freezer today, and it is buttless, which is a cause for a cry of sadness in this household.

[carpetbagger, esq.]

warning: this post is very long with lots of pics!!!!

well, i guess it's time for everyone to check out my bbq.

things started easily enough - i volunteered to prepare the main item for the 4th of july g2g that my gf's family was having. what did i pick? bbq! why? well, it seemed like a good excuse to smoke my first shoulder, and with about 17 people showing up, i figured i could really experiment.

so, my first thought was a whole shoulder and a couple of sauces to go with it. after some research, i decided to go with pork butts, as they were more forgiving. on monday, the order went in to houston's meat & produce (a small meat market in mt juliet, tn). on friday, i picked them up. the size was perfect, weighing in at about 15 lbs. unfortunately, they were not the same size. i already started thinking about how one would be done before the other, but we'll get to that later.

once i had them home, the next issue was going to be prep work. rub or no rub? what about a brine? long story short, i skipped brining due to some unforseen cooler issues and went with a rub. since i was experimenting and had two butts, why not make two rubs? the first rub, which went on the smaller butt, is a western nc style rub.

the larger butt got a west tn/memphis style rub, as i figured the fam would be more interested in tn style bbq. that went off fairly well, although my gf thought it was a tad spicy. i chalked that up to her having a concentrated blast of rub flavor, and that the sammiches wouldn't be as strong.

once the rubs were done, i applied them to the butts, wrapped them up in plastic wrap and set them in the fridge overnight.

next up, sauces. with 15+ people coming, i wasn't sure what everyone preferred, so i figured i would give them a choice. going with the carolina and tn theme, i made three sauces. the first was an eastern nc sauce.

after that, a south carolina mustard sauce. yes, it's the recipegullet offering from mark. i figured it would be fairly adventurous for them as i don't believe they've had that kind of sauce before.

finally, a nashville sauce. it's not really indicative of nashville imho, but the guy who is credited with it is from here. this is a very very sweet sauce, with molasses, brown sugar and ketchup base.

at this point, it was 2:30am, and time to hit the sack.

7:30am came damn early. too early!

hickory wood chunks went in my silky o'sullivan's diver bucket for soaking while i got the chimney lit and made my injection.

since i've been all over the bbq map so far, it was time to add in another region - alabama! i found a recipe by chris lilly (of big bob gibson bbq fame), as it was pretty simple - apple juice, water, sugar, salt, worcestershire sauce.

once the chimney was lit, the butts went on at 8:15am. the larger butt went on the top rack, as i figured it would take longer and with hot air rising, it could benefit from a slightly higher temp. i was hoping to use the minion method, but as i found out, it was not to be. the smoker hit 225* nicely, and then when i checked on it 30 minutes later, it was at 400*!! after a few f-bombs and other assorted exclamations of pure joy </sarcasm>, i removed the canister to see that all of the charcoal had basically been lit, and turning grey. fan-fricking-tastic. i removed a bunch of charcoal, enough to overflow my chimney, and it came down to 300. after about an hour or so of fidgeting with the temperature, i got it around 250* and resigned myself to sitting and basically staring at the new thermometer I added.

the temp seems to hold okay with this smoker. it doesn't really spike too much, and it doesn't take many coals to keep it between 225* and 250*. i was a little concerned when the internal temp had jumped to 112* by the end of hour 1, and was 142* by the end of hour 2. it seemed too early to be that warm. after some additional fire adjustments, i was able to get it to slow down, and then the stall came in the upper 150s.

the stall lasted a few hours, probably close to 4 total, and then broke into the 160s. when the smaller butt hit 170*, i took the temp of the big one, and it was about 158* or so. i guess that seems about right. i wasnt' expecthing them to be the same temp. based on the weight difference, i didn't think 10* would be a big deal. for those keeping track at home, i hit 170* in the small one right at 8 hours.

at 12.5 hours, the small one hit 196, so it went in the cooler to finish up. as for the larger one, it was a royal pita. it hung at 183 for-effing-ever. and i left to go check on something, come back, and the fire is lower as is the temp. great! so this is easily going to be a 16hr butt. good thing i started as early as i did.

after an hour, it was time to pull...

fear my smoke ring!

after leaving it in the fridge overnight and reheating it in the oven this morning, it was ready to serve. most people seemed to gravitate towards either the nc vinegar or nashville sweet sauce. the south carolina sauce was neglected, and it very well may have been my favorite (the nashville sweet is damn good). everyone seemed to really enjoy it, and they all took home a ziploc bag full of meat. i guess in the end, that makes up for the long day and "frantic wtf do i do?" now moments.

oh, and in case anyone was wondering, this was the full layout this afternoon:

sweet and unsweet tea

homemade lemonade

both kinds of pulled pork (nc and memphis)

3 sauces (eastern nc, south carolina, nashville)

potato salad

cream corn

deviled eggs

green pea salad (think 7-layer salad minus lettuce)

baked beans

mac and cheese

fresh-sliced cucumber

cherry fluff

chess pie

pea pickin' cake

chocolate cake

banana pudding

peach cobbler

[lancastermike]

It is 10AM and I am reading this at work. My mouth is watering. So much beautiful butt! Great job everyone!

Susan, my freezer is also devoid of butt. That urge is coming to me again. A Fourth of July butt? Maybe, oh maybe.

[Lori in PA]

Oh my! You made me hungry for the real thing, guys! One of these days I'm going to overcome my fear of the grill and come here, butt in hand, begging for you all to walk me through the process.

[ronnie_suburban]

Folks, those are some very nice pieces of . . . butt Great work. I'm so envious. This is the first 4th of July I can remember on which we haven't hosted an event -- and the event usually includes pork butt -- which I'm only going to see pictures of this holiday.

=R=

[the g-man]

Gman -- it looks like you got a good result (and I'm sure the pork was delicious), but you might want to look for a butt that isn't so well trimmed next time you decide to give this a go. Your first pic looks as though almost all the fat has been cut away by the butcher...

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Now that you mention it, the fat cap was a little on the lean side. The pork was good, but a little drier than normal. I was the only one who noticed though, as everyone else was too busy scarfing down pulled pork sandwiches.