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My first pork butt

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bdub60
bdub60 Posts: 31
edited June 2012 in EggHead Forum

Decided to finally take the plunge and try my hand at a pork butt.  Picked up a 9 lber on the way home from work yesterday and put it on at 8:30 last night.  My hope was to have it done around lunch time but it's looking like it will be a lot later.  I had my grill temp sitting at 221 (and it had risen a couple degrees or so about every 30 min so I anticipated it raising a little more during the night) when I went to bed around 12:00am.  I woke up around 7:00am to find my thermo receiver reading 155 degrees!  I've left briskets cooking while at work and come home to find my temp within 10 degrees of where I left it so I was really surprised to see it had fallen so much.  I was afraid my fire had gone our completely but after opening the bottom vent some and lifting the lid a little to blow some air into the coal it started rising back up.  So now my butt is at 168 up from 140 at 7:00am this morning.  I guess everything's alright since my BGE only got down to 155.  I'll just practice patience this afternoon.  Still trying to wrap my head around why my fire went down that low.  I cleaned the egg out very well even using my shopvac on it.  Made sure I had nice big pieces of lump in the bottom to keep the grate somewhat clear and lit my fire in three different spots.

I've got a grill temp of 240 right now but when this thing hits 175 or so I think I'm gonna crank things up.  Would that be okay?

Guns Up! Roll Tide!
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  • lousubcap
    lousubcap Posts: 32,393
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    You can crank it up to 300*F or more to punch it home it home if needed.  You can foil now as well, (search Texas crutch) to help move it along.  I generally cook butts at around 260*F +/- on the dome and plan for 2 hours/# for future reference.  If finished early then you can FTC (foil, towels and into a cooler) where it will hold temp for 4-5 hours easily.  Butt is very forgiving-just make sure it is ready to pull before you take it off the BGE.
    Louisville; Rolling smoke in the neighbourhood. # 38 for the win.  Life is too short for light/lite beer!  Seems I'm livin in a transitional period.
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  • bdub60
    bdub60 Posts: 31
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    Thanks for the advice.  It's starting to bump up some now. 

    I've foiled briskets before but never using a probe.  Maybe it's a dumb question but...Do you just foil around the probe or pull it, then foil then stick the probe through the foil or do you have to just leave it out? 

    Guns Up! Roll Tide!
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  • lousubcap
    lousubcap Posts: 32,393
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    You can pull the remote probe, then foil then insert the probe and foil around it.  Less foil than trying to foil around the probe. 
    Louisville; Rolling smoke in the neighbourhood. # 38 for the win.  Life is too short for light/lite beer!  Seems I'm livin in a transitional period.
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  • bdub60
    bdub60 Posts: 31
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    Thanks!  I had forgotten I put the probe in after putting the butt in a rack so I had to pull the probe anyway to get the butt out.  I got it foiled and my egge is up a little over 300.  It looked and smelled amazing when I pulled it to wrap but the probe was a little tough pulling out at first so I know it's not ready.  Makes the waiting harder though! 

    :((   :))
    Guns Up! Roll Tide!
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  • lousubcap
    lousubcap Posts: 32,393
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    I'm gettin hungry-just don't try to pull til done-somewhere in the 190-205 range, when the bone pulls clean or a probe meets no resistance.  And no need to rest if you need to pull right off the BGE-but it will be quite hot :)
    Louisville; Rolling smoke in the neighbourhood. # 38 for the win.  Life is too short for light/lite beer!  Seems I'm livin in a transitional period.
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  • bdub60
    bdub60 Posts: 31
    edited June 2012
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    Wow, that was amazing.

    It took about another hour after foiling and it was ready.  It's funny how these big hunks of meat act.  It was just inching up a degree at a time and then one second it was 189 and the next it was 197.  So tender and juicy.  It will be hard to cook another brisket, that pulled pork is so dang good.  Made one of the sauces from Elder Ward's recipe and the wife put together some slaw.  Love this BGE.  Tons of leftovers, my coworkers will be very happy campers on Monday.

    I also made kind of a BBQ soup/stew to eat with the sammiches.  I'd been wanting to experiment with different pinto bean recipe ideas so today I threw something together.

    About 1/2 lb of pinto beans

    2 jalapeno cheese smoked sausages diced up (from Kreuz Market in Lockhart)

    4 pieces of bacon diced up

    2 diced onions

    2 diced jalapenos (one with seeds, one without)

    Can of Rotel drained

    1 tbsp chili powder

    2 tbsp granulated garlic

    About 1/4 to 1/2 cup BBQ sauce

    Water to cover everything and add along the way as needed.

    I cooked the bacon to get it going then sauted the onion/japs/sausage for a couple minutes to get the flavors going.  Then dumped in the beans/rotel/water and seasonings and simmered stirring every half hour or so.  I didn't have time to soak the beans much so I simmered for about three hours and the beans were just a little firm.  This could be a meal all on its own really, especially with a pan of homeade cornbread.  Next time I'd use a whole pound of beans also to get the ratio better with the sausage.  I added a couple tbsp of Kreuz seasoning which is very heavy on salt and it turned out too salty so I left that off the above ingredients.  Salt to taste.

    Guns Up! Roll Tide!
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  • Phoenix824
    Phoenix824 Posts: 243
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    Looks great.   Almost makes me hungry even though I just ate.
    Steve Van Wert, Ohio XL BGE
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  • lousubcap
    lousubcap Posts: 32,393
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    Nicely done-and I'm gonna have to try your bean recipe. Anything with jalas and I'm in.

    Louisville; Rolling smoke in the neighbourhood. # 38 for the win.  Life is too short for light/lite beer!  Seems I'm livin in a transitional period.
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