I/T for Sliced vs Pulled??

A good rule of thumb for chopped/sliced is around 170-175°.  I chop and slice the majority of the time as that's what I'm used to.  

fishlessman said:

chopping or pulling i just wait for the probe to easily slide in. either way i want it somewhat rendered, too low a temp its to fatty. chopped or pulled 195 to 200.  you see people at tv comps slice some and pull some right off the same butt

At those temps, chopped will be mush.  

This butt was pulled around 175° if I remember correctly.  

https://youtu.be/gTbpzRgFz7M

I do butts to no resistance probing temp (usually 2-205°) regardless of whether I plan to pull or chop. They always turn out like the ones in the Chris Lilly vid, pull apart by hand, or chop if you prefer that texture. I've never sliced a pork butt so I don't know.

And when chopped at that temp, it's not mush at all. Unless you don't know when to quit choppin'.

fishlessman said:

tarheelmatt said:

fishlessman said:

chopping or pulling i just wait for the probe to easily slide in. either way i want it somewhat rendered, too low a temp its to fatty. chopped or pulled 195 to 200.  you see people at tv comps slice some and pull some right off the same butt

At those temps, chopped will be mush.  

This butt was pulled around 175° if I remember correctly.  

https://youtu.be/gTbpzRgFz7M

i pull and chop way bigger, more like finger food. 3 strands of pull is a big sandwich. crunchy bark, soft delicate pull, hand dredged thru sauce, rarely makes it into a sandwich

Ahh.. Gotcha.  I call that "the cooks treat"!  

At the 175° mark, there will still be some outside that one can pull, but the rest would need to be chopped.  

SmokeyPitt said:

I have never done it so I would say split the difference and go to 180.  

I found this article and he cooks to 172, but then allows the butt to cool in the refrigerator before slicing. 
http://howtobbqright.com/blog/?p=1679

I'm not sure if refrigerating the butt is necessary, but I would think you may want to let it rest out of the FTC for a while before slicing. 

Great info.  It really depends on the person and how they want to serve.  At 175° you'll get some of the meat where it'll pull some for you, then some you cannot.  I don't think 180° would be that bad either.  

The guys in Lexington pull around 170-175°.  Most times they go by feel more than a Thermapen, but that's the mark.  Also, they do whole shoulders, which you get some that nice lean from the picnic plus the dark (and some from the money muscle lean from the butt), which helps.  I like a little of both on my chopped plate personally.  

I still stand by what I said if you chop, like NC chop at pull temps (200°+), the consistency will not be the best.  

fishlessman said:

tarheelmatt said:

fishlessman said:

tarheelmatt said:

fishlessman said:

chopping or pulling i just wait for the probe to easily slide in. either way i want it somewhat rendered, too low a temp its to fatty. chopped or pulled 195 to 200.  you see people at tv comps slice some and pull some right off the same butt

At those temps, chopped will be mush.  

This butt was pulled around 175° if I remember correctly.  

https://youtu.be/gTbpzRgFz7M

i pull and chop way bigger, more like finger food. 3 strands of pull is a big sandwich. crunchy bark, soft delicate pull, hand dredged thru sauce, rarely makes it into a sandwich

Ahh.. Gotcha.  I call that "the cooks treat"!  

At the 175° mark, there will still be some outside that one can pull, but the rest would need to be chopped.  

cooks treat sounds better than pull i find most will just eat the pull with sauce or sauce and beans up here, if i set it out not many rolls get eaten, different crowd here. theres an older bbq place up north that slices only, doesnt chop, but its cooked too pulled temps. i prefer chopped or pulled, that place slices the whole butt 1/8 thick slices, texture for me isnt right, would like to see the machine that slices it though, have never seen butt sliced like that, looks like a deck of cards

Not my picture, but from a place down the road from me.  It's just sliced with a cleaver in our area.  

I chopped some the other day at 195 and it wasn't mush. Was good stuff. 

Surely that's not pork. I've never seen pork sliced like that. Looks like a sliced chicken breast. And I thought you guys had red slaw. No?

JohnH12 said:

Maybe I should have been a little more clear.
I think there's a difference between sliced with a knife, chopped with a clever, and pulled with hands or a fork.
I may be asking the impossible trying to get a great, juicy sliced with a knife piece and want some bark also.
I've been told elsewhere that the bark doesn't form until something like 180+ but the mid-cook pics I see posted look like better bark than I've been getting with taking the meat off the egg at 180 to 185.

I don't know the temp. Some places around here make amazing sliced pork.

Regarding your bark, you are not using a water pan are you? That will greatly effect your bark formation in my experience. Meaning I didn't get much of a bark using a water pan. 

tarheelmatt said:

Carolina Q said:

Surely that's not pork. I've never seen pork sliced like that. Looks like a sliced chicken breast. And I thought you guys had red slaw. No?

Some places offer both, like this joint, Lexington Style Trimmings.  

thats how the place near me has it perfectly sliced but even thinner. yankee smokehouse bbq,  maybe a yankee moved to lexington and started the whole thing theirs is cooked to a higher temp though, i can still see the graine in that meat, more loiny looking if that can be a word