cooking a butt direct

fishlessman

cooked one direct this weekend just to see what would happen, also went fishing to see if fish could be caught during hurricane hannah . these were both great ideas, the storm really brought the fish up and it was a blast, sorry i didnt take a fish pic as the water was just too warm to take the time for a pic and release them unharmed. anyways heres the cook, used less lump than usual, could have used a third less and the egg easily burned at 225 for16 hours (very little lump gets used during a direct low and slow compaired to the same cook direct.


8 pound boneless butt with very little fat, next time i will use a fattier piece as the fat dripping into the hot lump posed NO problems at these temps
[img][/img]

hurricane hannah, or what was left of here, my legs are feeling the pain of a rocking boat this morning



butts been basted with a vinegar hot pepper and lemon baste with thai and cayenne pepper added as well as some firewalk, thank you azrp for the baste recipe i did kick this up with some heat though, not bad


i took a pic of the leftover lump to show how little was used for this cook, thats 16 hours at 225 degree dome


off the egg for an hour in the cooler


i big chunck of cherry and a hanful of mesquite chips and it was good, next time i find a butt with thwe bone

Ike Witt

Thanks for posting. Did you by any chance check the grate temp during the cook...just curious.

thanks
allen

BENTE

i may have to try that!!!


loooks good

fishlessman

pretty much no difference between dome and grill for temps. the dome seemed cooler in the beginning but that was because of the cold meat throwng the gage reading off.

AZRP

How was the flavor on the bark? -RP

fishlessman

i liked the flavor, with all the pepper i added to your recipe, i think it could have used a little more sweet flavor, maybe a glaze at the end next time made from the baste. i added 1 tbls cayenne, 1 tablespoon firwalk, and 4 thai peppers to your recipe. i wasnt sure what you used for a vinegar and went 50/50 white/cider. i drizzled some of the baste into the pull as well

tjv

Nice looking cook.
Wonder how basting, opening egg, affected grid temp. That is wild on how little lump was used....

T

fishlessman

once during the whole cook the temp spiked up to just under 250 at the grid. i wonder if i could get 3 or 4 overnighters done with an 11 pound bag of weekend warrior. it was the first time using this lump for me, very dense, harder to light than the comp blend im used to, maybe it was just the bag i had, clinking the pieces together and it almost sounded metallic. i dont think the temps were effected too much, but it did take longer than i would have expected, i was thinking it would have taken 10 to 12 hours verse the 14 i get from a similar inderect setup.

AZRP

I used to mix some of the leftover mop with the pulled product too, good stuff. -RP

Mickey

man that looks good

Canugghead

fishlessman said:

... very little lump gets used during a direct low and slow compaired to the same cook direct.

Impressive, I think you meant compared to indirect 
Do you remember how was the texture of the bottom? I'm thinking the slow dripping fat was used up as fuel and provided 'pork vapour', what a bonus!

fishlessman

Canugghead said:

fishlessman said:

... very little lump gets used during a direct low and slow compaired to the same cook direct.

Impressive, I think you meant compared to indirect 
Do you remember how was the texture of the bottom? I'm thinking the slow dripping fat was used up as fuel and provided 'pork vapour', what a bonus!

dont remember much difference top to bottom, what was different was it was the first time using a baste and mop and the bark never developed like im used too which i was still surprised since being a direct cook. this is the way i do ribs now, not much lump and raised grid direct and 225 seems to be the magic number as to not burn them

Canugghead

Thanks, I may try that some day.

NPHuskerFL

Pretty impressive it didn't become a charred hot mess. Great color. 

Carolina Q

Ya know, this...
looks REALLY good! I always pull mine into much smaller pieces or chop it, NC style. Next time, I think I'll leave it in huge chunks like this.

As for direct cooking, except for the distance to the coals, that's how an open pit works...

fishlessman

Carolina Q said:

Ya know, this...
looks REALLY good! I always pull mine into much smaller pieces or chop it, NC style. Next time, I think I'll leave it in huge chunks like this.

As for direct cooking, except for the distance to the coals, that's how an open pit works...

thats the reason i went with a minimum amount of lump, too get the most distance between meat in fire possible in an egg.  thats actually pulled more than i like, i like bigger pieces to dip in sauce with plenty of bark with a little chew. did not grow up eating pull pork sandwiches and the over shredded stuff just reminds me of the store bought excessively sauced tupperware pork.  the one place i ever remember buying bbq pork  was up in ski country and they chop it, better than finely shredded hair like pork pieces