first Pork Butt - where did I go wrong??

[Bclark01613]

Hi

I smoked my first pork butt at the weekend and ended up with a really disappointing roast pork with a soft bark

here were my steps. This was my first cook on a brand new 14.5 inch Weber Smokey Mountain, it was a 3.5kg Boston Butt from my local butchers

1. rubbed the pork butt in mustard and covered in Butt Rub, left in the fridge overnight
2. took the meat out of the fridge an hour before cooking and dusted with rub again
3. got the smoker steady at around 240-250 (going by the Thermostat on the Weber)
4. put the meat on the top grate with a temp probe and added 3 tennis ball sized lumps of apple wood to the coals

Everything was going fine, the temp started to slowly rise and the smell was amazing. The trouble is it never stalled, it just kept climbing and climbing. From what I read I was expecting the temp to get to around 160 and stay there for a while!?

It was at 160 in 4hours, I sprayed it down with some apple vinegar and put the lid back on and it was at 195 in no time. My total cooking time was 5.5 hours which leads me to think that my temps were too high?

The result was a very tasty smokey flavoured roast pork, but not the soft juicy pulled pork I was after. I'm a bit stumped as to where I went wrong, any ideas?

[Kickback]

My guess would be that you are right and the temperature was too high. The thermometer on the lid of my smokey mountain is quite a bit off the temperature on the grill that my digital thermometer reads. It may be you were actually cooking closer to 300. That could be solved by getting a maverick thermometer or something similar.

Another possibility is that the meat probe was touching bone and so not giving a true read of the pork temperature. Did you try it in a few places? I go in from the side in a thick part.

Otherwise sounds to me like you were doing everything right. Sorry it didn't work out but I'm sure the next one will be great.


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[GingerBen]

Was that 240f or centigrade? Sorry if a daft question but that does seem very fast for a decent sized butt to cook.

[essexsmoker]

That's silly quick. My last one took 24hrs and that was about 4 / 4.5 kg.

Very strange.
I guess you didn't foil?
Which if the temp was high you would have assumed would give you a great bark.

What did you use to test your IT? Is that accurate?
Normally, rost pork means it didn't go for long enough, or wasn't not hot enough for the time it did go.

Hmmm.

[Bclark01613]

Thanks for the suggestions guys, got a lot tinker with on my next attempt

@essexsmoker - I was planning on foiling but I decided against it when the temp hit 160 too early. Just going purely ff the Weber dial for my grate temp and a cheap meat probe from Ebay for my internal temp

@Kickback - This was my first time ever using a meat probe so its quite likely that I had it in the wrong part of the meat

@GingerBen - that temp was 240F, it was sitting right in around the middle of the 'SMOKING' range on the weber dial

I think I'll have to invest in a Maverick thermometer and try again. Ah well, I'll chalk it up to a learning experience and try again, Thanks very much guys

[Tiny]

All very odd,
As it is so odd will ask some potentially daft Qs -
Are you sure it was a boston butt?
At 240F I would have reckoned 11-12 hours, what you seem to have is an roast pork joint
did you have a dual probe at the grate level, if your lid thermo is out you could have been cooking way hot
Not sure about adding the rub the night before, will draw out moisture potentally start to cure so this could cause your bark based flaccidity issues......

But great excuse to try another!
Cheers
Tiny

[essexsmoker]

Only thing I can think is that it wasn't a butt, but more like a rolled joint.
Cook time mostly depends on thickness, not weight.

Was it a big squarish, thick block or a long roll?

A long roll could well cook quick.

Got any pics?

As Tiny said, good excuse to have another go!

[sleepybones]

My first few supermarket pork shoulders were a bit hit and miss. Took me a few attempts to get the hang of my smoker and iron out the variables (airflow, coal positioning, meat selection etc.).

The satisfaction when it comes good is all the better for it

[Toby]

Couple of things I would point out. Don't rub until 4 hours before you cook, any longer and pork will start curing. No need to use mustard, some smokers need it but the WSM isn't one of them. Also the bark may have set before you spritzed it which could have had an adverse effect.

Cooking at 220f or 300f isn't going to make a difference they are just different methods so don't worry about that. Also as it was like roast pork sounds like you didn't cook it to a high enough temp, you should be looking at about 200f internal.

Nothing wrong with fooling after the bark has set, this will help forcing the cook along

[Bclark01613]

I'm pretty sure it was a butt. The butcher near me seemed to know exactly what I was on about when I asked for it - he even asked me if it was for a smoker!

It had the shoulder blade in it like the American cuts I've seen. No pics though sorry, I'll make sure to take some for my next attempt in case things go wrong again

Toby...thanks for the advice! I didnt realise I may have been curing the pork