Turbo Butt

My Two Pork Butt Methods

By Ron Pratt

1. The Traditional & Popular Slow & Low Method

A finished pork butt yields about 60% of the beginning weight so I always select a bone-in pork butt that weighs around 7 to 8 pounds. It will have a fat cap which is just going to become rendered fat in the bottom of a drip pan so I cut most all of it off.

Wash the butt in running cold water and dry slightly. Rub liberally with a favorite rub such as Dizzy Pig brand Dizzy Dust or a home made rub. If yours is a home made rub select one that is not heavy in sugars as they will tend to burn and char the meat. Next smear the butt with French’s Classic yellow mustard. This will assure good adhesion of the rub to the meat plus create a desired and delicious outer coating on the finished butt commonly called “bark”. BTW – no – you will not taste the mustard after the cook.

The rule of thumb for pork butts is 2.5 to 3 hours per pound of initial weight. If egging two or more butts it is best that they all weigh approximately the same. Then for time calculation use only the largest one. In other words it is single weight and not combined weight. It is best that you use a meat thermometer with a cable and probe so as to monitor the internal meat temperature during the cook. It’s very important that in placing the probe in the meat be sure the tip is not touching the bone as you’ll get a false reading. Also as the cook progresses and a temperature just doesn’t seem logical you may want to reset the meat probe as it may also be resting in a fat pocket. In time you’ll sense when there is a problem.

Be sure your old ashes have been thoroughly stirred, the holes are not blocked and then add new lump so that you have filled the entire fire box up to the bottom or even further up in the fire ring. Remember this is going to be a long and slow cook for many hours and you don’t want the fire to go out!

This will be an indirect cook so the set up in your egg is as follows:

plate sitter with legs pointing upward

drip pan (lined with foil makes clean up a snap)

grate resting on plate setter legs

Start your fire and bring it up to a steady 225° dome temp and then place plate sitter on so it too will come up to temp. Your best cooking temp for a butt is about 240° but no higher than 250°. If you plan to add smoke then once stabilized add wood chips or chunks right when the cook is started. Place the drip pan, grate and butt on and close dome making sure you didn’t impale the butt with the dome thermometer. 

Remember to keep the dome closed – if you’re lookin then you’re not cookin! Now, relax or go to bed since the butt won’t be ready for many hours – in fact not until it reaches the desired internal temperature of 200°.

Now you need to know something unique about pork butts. The temperature will rise slowly but steadily as it cooks until it reaches the point called the plateau. Every butt has a slightly different plateau but most times it occurs around 160° to 175°. At that point the collagen begins to convert to gelatin and the internal temperature will remain stable for anywhere from 3 to 4.5 hours! You do not what to rush this critical stage of the cook – just be patient. Sometimes there will even be a second plateau at a slightly higher temperature but that is more uncommon. Now after the plateau has occurred and if you want to speed up the cook it is ok to let your dome temperature creep up to 300°, but not more than that. On the other hand if your butt cooks much quicker than the calculated period of time  you have two choices – either plan to eat earlier or once you hit the 200° internal you can  remove it, wrap tightly in heavy aluminum foil, then wrap that in towels and place in a cooler. The butt will stay hot up to 4 hours that way.

When you remove the butt let it rest for 15 to 20 minutes to cool down – as it will be too hot to handle and you can actually burn yourself! As you pull the meat (use two forks to shred the pork) you’ll encounter internal pockets of fat and some meat close to the bone that won’t look too appetizing – just discard it.  And lastly – remember the bark? Obviously the badly crusted remains from the fat cap area may have to be discarded, but the rest is the treat – that can either be the reward for the egger himself or can be broken up and added to the pulled pork to enhance the taste for everyone.

One last suggestion – until you have become “one” with your BGE and trust it to go all night unsupervised you might want to set your alarm and check on it every couple hours. That way if you need to you can tend the fire during the critical stage of the cook. Pork butt has a danger zone with bacteria between 40° and 140°, but as long as the temperature is rising steadily you’ll be fine. If you oversleep and find the fire has died and the butt temp is below 140° you may be best off to pitch it and serve the crowd hamburgers. 

2. The Turbo Method

Follow the same preparation steps and set up as the Traditional Slow and Low, but in this case you will be egging at a dome temperature of 350°. Your cooking time is cut to 40 to 45 minutes per pound. NOTE: a variation on this is to monitor your temp and tightly foil at 160° and remove from your egg at 200°. Only drawback is there is no bark or just mushy bark. Also with foil then be careful of the hot grease when you open the foil. I personally now prefer to not use foil if I am using the Turbo Method.

Serving size information: Typically one half of cup of pulled pork is considered the amount for a sandwich for an adult. Normally a raw 8 pound butt will yield 9 cups of finished pulled pork. Another rule of thumb is # of guests divided by 2.4 equals raw weight needed.

One final tip – if egging multiple butts the time is based on the weight of the heaviest butt and not the combined weight. 

Good Luck and Good Eating!  Ron Pratt aka RRP on this forum!