First pork butt - tips?

Cheesehead64

Trying my first butt. Thought I'd keep it simple with a dry rub and some apple and hickory chips. Keep 'er at about 230 with the platesetter. Was thinking about doing it over night.

About how often should I get my butt out of bed to check the butt?

How much chips? About a handful?

BajaTom

For my first butt I checked it about every 2 hours to make sure the fire didn't get to hot or go out. I'm a big believer in foiling the butt after you pull it off the egg. It needs to rest in a cooler with towels over it for a couple hours to let the juices redistribute. Good luck to you, Tom

MeatosBanditos

Cheesehead64:

First off, go Vikings! Had to get that out of the way.


I just did my first pork butts last weekend and I cooked them again last night into this morning. I did something similar to what you're thinking. I put dry rub on the butts, then sprinkled and rubbed in some brown sugar then sprinkled but didn't rub in another coating of dry rub. They tasted great too.

I aimed for the 230 degree mark the whole time as well and had mild success with that. It seemed to fluctuate a little bit (200-250) but stayed reasonable. Over night I would get up every 2 hours probably to check it. My main piece of advice is to make sure your alarm clock will wake you up! Last night I had mine set to wake me up at 1AM, well I woke up at 3:30AM on my own. Thankfully there was no issues though.

For wood I put in a couple hickory chunks and apple chips, nothing exciting. Also, I personally never open the egg the whole time. I've read it's okay to peak at it after 10 hours.

Both of my past two cook's I've smoked two butts. Each time it was around 15lbs. The first time it took 15 hours 42 minutes. Last night it took 12 hours 30 minutes. Definitely varied a little bit for similar sized meat.

When its done I put it in a foil pan and cover it with foil for at least an hour and then I'll pull it. I haven't put mine in the cooler yet, I just stick it in the oven (oven's turned off). Then pull it out and pull or slice, which ever you prefer. I usually sprinkle some dry rub over the pulled pork and then mix in some sauce too, but not a ton of sauce.

Thats it. Have fun and enjoy it. Also, save some bark to eat later--that's the best part.


John
Rochester, MN

Sun Devil Brett

did my third butt last weekend, turned out great. 225 -250 you should be good, and plan on at least a twelve hour gig, most likely more. The butt temp. will hold for quite a long time between 170 -190, don't panic, it's supposed to do that. When internal hits 200 pull it, double wrap in foil, then a towel and stick it in a cooler until your ready to pull.I've given that a couple of hours also. Go to the naked whiz.com ,there's a good pork butt step by step plan of what to do and expect. I don't know how to send you the link. I followed for my first and have stuck pretty muck to it since. Good luck

civil eggineer

Spread some wood chunks within the lump. Fill lump to top of fire ring for medium and above fire box for large eggs. I would cook at 250 dome temp and definitely check on it through out night. Every three hours should be sufficient (just to be different). Pull at 195 internal temp, wrap in foil and place in cooler with towels for a couple of hours. All that work will be handsomely rewarded when you bite into your pulled pork sandwich.

Atonewiththeegg

I'm a transplant cheesehead, now in the mountains of Wyoming. I have my first butt on right now, I have some short ribs on to wet my guests palet until the butt is ready. Everyones comments are well needed, but they all forget about lubercating the o-rings during the butts eggsperiance. I'm on my second bottle of Le Creama now...

Cheesehead64

I grew up in Minnesota so I'm a huge Vikings fan! But I've lived in Milwaukee about ten years, hence the Cheesehead moniker.

Thanks all!