Mom, Dad meet the egg...and my butt. (TimM please read)

Stuart

My parents are in town for Christmas this year and will get to sample BGE cooking for the first time. We'll fire the large up this evening for pizzas and then throttle her back for a 20 hour cook of a 7.5 lb butt destined for Xmas eve dinner of pulled pork on tortillas served with tamales and black beans. I have only prepared butt once before with less than stellar results. I'm sure it was too short a cook combined with a really poor cut of meat. [p]This time I'm giving it the time it needs. I have noticed some advice on wrapping the butt in foil to speed things up. Why is this so? How much will this shorten the cook and at what point would I need to decide on this. When TimM and others speak of a 20 hour 7# butt does that include the "rest" given the meat after it has been removed from the egg? Given a 7:30 dinner time tomorrow night I figure a start of 10:30 pm tonight to allow 20 hour cook and 1 hour rest.[p]TimM if you are reading this, am I understanding your home page directions correctly? You show a photo of two butts covered with mustard and sitting in the egg. The adjoining text describes the butts as marinating. Do you marinate your meat in the egg before firing it up??? Is that Food Safe?[p]Thanks,[p]Merry Christmas ya'll[p]Stuart

Washog

stuart, here's my two cents on the cook. I'm no Tim M but here goes. You need to make sure your dome them and meat thermometer are calibrated. Then if you haven't done so, go through the Elder Ward process of loading the Egg with your lumps. Then maintain a temp around 220 degrees. I try and plan it where 3 1/2 hours before it's time to eat I want the internal meat temp to be at or near 170. If it's nearinng 190, I leave it alone. If it is around the 170 level, I raise the egg temp to around 300 degrees. I'm shooting for an eternal temp of 200 approximately an hour before we eat. I like to take the Butt off and wrap in in foil for 45 minutes and let it rest. I do not wrap it in foil while it's cooking. But that is just me. Hope this helps.

JSlot

stuart,[p]The low and slow butt methods such as Elder's and Tim's produce a great product. However, cooking indirect at higher temps (275°-300°) cuts the cooking time way down and there is virtually no difference in the finished product. This isn't just my opinion. I have cooked two shoulders (one each way) on three different occasions with three different groups of people as guinea pigs. None of them could tell the difference in the BBQ (with no sauce added). So, why cook for 20 hours when you can get the same results in 12? I used to enjoy staying up all night tending a pit, but unless you have a nice bonfire and some good fellowship, the Egg isn't that interesting to watch for 20 hours. Sort of set it and forget it. LOL. This is not a "right or wrong" topic, I'm just curious about everyone's prefered method, especially if you have tried both.[p]Jim

Mac in NC

stuart, I just took a Boston butt off of the grill this morning. First time experiment with great results. It weighed 6.37 lbs at the start. Put it in the Egg straight from the fridge. 12, yep, 12 hrs. later, it hit 200 degrees and I removed from the grill and wrapped in foil for 30 min. (Don't know what this does, just followed Elder's essay to the T from start to finish. )
Shredded like butter and tasted just as good as any I've purchased in a restaurant. P.S. I only used Elder's dry rub as a "marinade". Hope this may help. Good luck Mac

Unknown

Mac in NC ,
You are looking at aprox 2 hours a pound, that's more the norm if cooking at an average of 250 to 275º pit temp.
Jim