Cooking Small Butts

Matt · July 2007

All --[p]I am bringing barbecue to my wife's grandmother's house tomorrow for a family lunch. We will need to leave our house no later than 11 AM tomorrow to get there on time. My plan was to smoke one 6-8 lb butt overnight tonight, get up in the morning, put it in a cooler and head over the river and through the woods.[p]Well, my wife went to the pork outlet (mmmmm, pork outlet) today and the only butts they had were 3.5 lb., so she got two. I haven't seen them yet, but can only assume that, at that size, they are boneless. Now, my problem is how am I going to cook these things and still get some decent sleep? If I figure 1.5-2 hours per pound, that's 5-7 hours, meaning that to have it done by 11 AM, it needs to go on at 4-6 AM (and this leaves no wiggle room). If I do it tonight and want to be in bed by, say, midnight, I've got to leave work early to get it on the cooker.[p]Suggestions? If I cook it tonight, should I just go ahead and chop it and put a little sauce on it and reheat in the oven tomorrow?[p]Thanks.[p]Matt

thirdeye · July 2007

Matt,[p]Well, if you are looking for a good reason to leave work early, Friday the 13th and barbecue are two of the best reasons I can think of.[p]But if that will not work, how about putting them on around midnight? They should be done by 8 or so, you can even ramp down your pit temp to stretch the finish time out to 9 or 10. Then foil, wrap in towels and put in your holding cooler. When you get to Grandma's, pull or chop them there. It's great to show off in front of a crowd anyway.[p]~thirdeye~

Matt · July 2007

thirdeye,[p]That's not a bad idea....assuming I can stay sober enough until 11 PM to start the fire....[p]You really think they will take 8 hours? I was figuring that with no bone the cooking time would be closer to 1.5 hr/lb than 2 hr/lb -- but, I've never done a boneless butt before, either.[p]Matt

thirdeye · July 2007

Matt,[p]I prefer the bone-in ones myself, and you are correct that boneless ones do cook faster. It's funny about rules of thumb, they are not as accurate when dealing with small pieces of meat. I mean a 1 pound piece of pork will not be pullable in 2 hours.....[p]8 hours is an outside guess and that is why I mentioned ramping down your pit temp toward the end of your cook if necessary. [p]Not being sure of your Eggspierence level, I am the first one to recommend not trying overnight cooks at really low temps until you get the hang of them. I think I would get a dome temp around 260°-275° and start them there. By 5 or 6 am you should have an idea where you are at. If the color is where you want it, foil them to preserve it and to lock in juices. Finish cooking by either ramping the pit temp down or move inside to the oven at 200° to 225°. Your cushion is going to be 2 or 3 hours of cooler time if needed. [p]~thirdeye~

Matt · July 2007

thirdeye,[p]I tried my first unattended overnighter (whole shoulder) for July 4th. The cook didn't go quite as smoothly as I would have liked -- 225-250 dome corresponded to 265-290 grate, so the timing was a bit off -- but the barbecue was excellent. I'm anxious to try another....[p]You make an excellent point about the cooking time not being directly scalable for small cuts.[p]Matt

thirdeye · July 2007

Matt,[p]Your dome temp was less than your grate temp?? That is different.[p]Traditionally speaking (with the exception of ribs), barbecue is generally big cuts of fattier meats cooked long and low. Whenever smaller pieces come into the picture (or something goes wrong during your cook) there is nothing wrong with using foil or your oven to your advantage in order to produce a good product. It has been done many times.[p]~thirdeye~

Matt · July 2007

thirdeye,[p]I agree that grate > dome is contrary to what others typically see. I still have no explanation (despite a couple of lengthy thread discussions) for why or how this occurred. The BGE dome thermometer was calibrated immediately before the cook and the Polder (both probes) had been checked before my previous cook (just a couple of days prior). Everything was between 211-213 for boiling water.[p]I wonder if it is how I build my fires, but I'm just not sure. I use the TNW site as a guide and have asked multiple questions about fire starting, vent settings, etc. In general, everything I've done on the Egg has been eggceptional, but I attribute that to the fact that I was a log burner for about 15 years before moving to the Egg. Nonetheless, all the food turns out great, but my times and temperatures never seem to match those reported by the board -- and the food isn't as smoky as it was with my old log burner.[p]Live and learn, I suppose.[p]Matt[p]Matt

Matt · July 2007

OK, here's another question about small butts -- I typically do not inject large butts or whole shoulders. Should I inject small boneless butts to keep them moist?[p]Thanks again.[p]Matt

Judy Mayberry · July 2007

Matt,
A few days ago I made the same comment about the dome temp being 200¼ +/_ while the grate temp was 225¼ throughout the cook. I was using a GURU for the first time, and I sat there for hours in fascination. The butt was 4 lbs. and I cut away about 1/3 lb. of fat before cooking it. It had a very small bone in it.[p]I foiled it at 170¼ (someone advised) and pulled it off at 190¼ (another person's advice). I didn't let it rest very log 'cuz we were HUNGRY! It was sensational. It was a 6-hour cook on the Small Egg. [p]To address my question about the low dome temp, tjv said these could be factors:[p]1. Placement of the platesetter legs, directly under the BGE or Guru thermometer;
2. How close you set the guru thermometer to the meat; or how close the bge thermometer is the to meat if raised grid and small egg;
3. How the lump burned in location to the thermometers;
4. Theory of vertical temperature gradients in the egg: grid vs. dome temp thing.[p]THIS IS THE VARIABLE I'LL TRY NEXT TIME. BBQ Bob Trudnak said: If you have too much liquid in the drip pan, (apple juice and water as you described) the heat from the fire will steam the liquid and cool down the dome temp. There is no real need to place liquid in the drip pan. Cooking at a low temp in the Egg and pulling the pork off at the right temp will produce moist meat every time.[p]Try wrapping the pork in foil when it hits 160° F internal and take it to 200° F wrapped.[p]

Cooking Small Butts

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