Internal Temp, Boston Butt

Gloria

Hey Everyone,
It's been a while since I posted. Thanks to all of you who responded about my Dad's death. I really appreciated the kind thoughts. I need to ask if the Boston Butt should cook to an internal temp of 200 to be perfect for pulling. We have one on now and the internal temp is 185. Will it take several more hours to reach the 200? We just can't remember. We uusually do our overnight but this one was put on about 8 hours ago. Thanks.

Unknown

Gloria,
You will only need to take it to 195º and it will pull very well. You are a couple of hours away.
Jim

Tim M

Gloria,[p]Jim is correct, 195° will do nicely and 200° is maybe better. Ofcourse, your dome temp needs to be 250-270° since it would take a much longer time to reach an internal temp of 200° if your dome temp was also 200°. Many start out low (225°) and bump up the dome temp around 170-180° internal to get it up to the 195-200° goal.[p]enjoy[p]
Tim

Animal Eater

Gloria,
All right Gloria, I'm a complete rookie (I've done one butt) but on my maiden voyage into the realm of TRUE BARBECUE, my dome never exceeded 225F and it actuall spent the first 7 of 10 hours at 200F. I pulled my butt out when it reached 201F internal and it was a truly beautiful piece of pig flesh.

Gloria

Thanks a bunch. We pulled it off the Egg at 195 and it was sooooooo good. It would have done no harm to leave it on until it reached the 200 internal temp. I didn't put anything on it.....no salt, pepper, etc. First time I ever tried this and I must say, it would be hard to beat. Just plain 'ol pig.

Unknown

Gloria,
There are some great competition cooks that will tell you that to wait to pull a butt off at 200º is too late. The reasoning behind that is after pulling the butt the internal temp continues to rise and much after 205º the butt is starting to dry out ( this is not saying that is dry but that process has begun). A butt after pulling off the cooker will rise about 10 to 15º in temp.
Jim

Unknown

Jim Minion,
Well I'm no exspurt but Cooks Illustrated will tell you that letting any roast rest does good things for it and I 100% agree with them & Jim.
~Konrad

Gloria

Jim Minion,
Now that just makes great sense to us. So, maybe the 195 is the perfect temp. We had some more of that meat tonight as tostados and it was really moist. Lord, lord, it was good. Thanks.