2nd butt better than the 1st

mojo

Did an 8.25 pounder for pulled pork sammies out on our friend's boat. They said it was the best pulled pork they had EVER eaten, and they love BBQ.

Got the large ready.



Tossed on the seasoned butt, used Elder Ward's North Carolina rubb recipe, didn't inject anything.



The cook went exceptionally smoothly, and I don't yet have a power ventilator system. I stacked the lump initially using the large-med-small method, but after filling to the top of the fire box I simply poured new lump right out of the bag to fill to the top of the fire ring. The last time I cooked a butt the fire went out after about 5 hours, and then I burned through all the lump and had to reload. I was not about to let that happen this time. After putting on the Butt I stayed home for about an hour, then went out for dinner and a movie. When I got home the dome temp had drifted down to 175 so I cranked it up a little and went to bed once it settled at 225. At 3 a.m. I checked it and it was a steady 225, so I slept peacefully until 6 a.m. when I got up for my run. The butt temp was 166 internal and the dome was down to 200, and I needed for the meat to be ready by 10 a.m., so I cranked up the Egg to 300. When I got home from my run at 7:30 the meat temp was 180, so I increased the dome further to 350 and at 10:00 the meat was taken off at just over 200. I foiled it and placed it in a dry cooler with towels, then pulled the meat on the boat a couple hours later for sammies.



This was my first time trying Carnivore too, and that is one fine sauce!

I was amazed at how much lump I had left over, even after a 17.5 hour cook.



Guess I'm ready for another cook!

Jeffersonian

Congrats, Mike. Butts are one of the easiest, best cooks you can do on the Egg, IMO, always a crowd-pleaser. It only gets better, too. :woohoo:

TXTriker

Good cook Mike. Now, when I cook my overnights, I'm up every two-three hours checking, but then I don't sleep well. Glad it turned out good for you and it just gets better over time.

wsuduc

it gets easier over time. I have it down now where I can light the BGE about 8 or 9 pm, get the fire going, drop in some hickory, place the pork on, go to bed, wake up at 7ish to check on the progress. Temp settled in at 220-240, meat is like 165 degrees and heading into the plataue. I don't touch anything and let it ride.

The last 9.5lb pork I cooked for 18 hours on one load of coal. It amazes me. about 11am I have to start opening up the bottom draft and by the time I am done it is wide open to keep the 230 degrees.

I am always skeptical of the cook but friends and neighbors rave over it. If they only knew how easy it really was with the BGE.

danny285

Welcome aboard mojo, butts are the easiest thing to cook, the more you use your EGG the more you will love it, i dont do over niters when i cook butts dont know why but an 8 lber i can cook in less than 8 hrs at 250 dome. again welcome and enjoy your new toy.

Canugghead

Danny, 8lb butt in less than 8 hours? my butt cook takes forever. Do you cook indirect with platesetter, or direct cook with butt elevated above gasket level?
-Gary

mojo

Thanks for the positive feedback folks! I have seen countless comments about how easy it is to cook a butt ... but even after only cooking 2 of them I must disagree. When I think of an "easy" cook, I think of spatchcock chicken, steaks, pork tenderloin, even ABT's. I think the pork butt is more challenging because it's such a long cook, and a lot can go wrong in that amount of time (temp. swings, fire goes out, timing is off, etc.). I don't think it's particularly difficult, but really, I can do a spatchcock chicken or a pork t'loin in 1 hour and not a lot can go wrong. I'm not trying to discourage newbies from cooking a butt, not at all, but there is a degree of 'babysitting' the Egg that must occur, especially if not using a PVS or even a Maverick. Just my .02.

All that said, I can't wait to cook another one!