Not real great

[hawkendog]

Cooked my first pork butt (3#) tonight Cooked at 225-250 for 5 hrs use oak and apple. Pulled and wrapped at 200. set for 1 hr

Thoughts: Could not pull, had to chop. Smoke was a little strong/bitter tasting but not bad. No juice at all. I think the strong smoke taste was the oak. Did I over cook? Int tmp was 200* HELP PLEASE

[chefn58]

Where did you temp the butt?  At 200 it should pull. 

Oak is a strong wood.
How much wood did you use? 
Were they chunks or chips?

What did you wrap the butt in?
Where did you put it to rest?


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[hawkendog]

Where did you temp the butt?  At 200 it should pull. 

Oak is a strong wood.
How much wood did you use? 
Were they chunks or chips?

What did you wrap the butt in?
Where did you put it to rest?

checked Temp it in the largest part
Used chunks 3-4 apple and 3-4 oak
Used foil to wrap
rested in cooler


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[bbquy]

Where did you temp the butt?  At 200 it should pull. 

Oak is a strong wood.
How much wood did you use? 
Were they chunks or chips?

What did you wrap the butt in?
Where did you put it to rest?

checked Temp it in the largest part
Used chunks 3-4 apple and 3-4 oak
Used foil to wrap
rested in cooler


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I agree with @chefn58 & @hawkendog. I pull mine anywhere from 200 to 204 and it pulls. Wish I could offer more helpful info.

[chefn58]

One other thought I have would be about the butt itself. It seems on the small side.


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[1buckie]

Cooked my first pork butt (3#) tonight Cooked at 225-250 for 5 hrs use oak and apple. Pulled and wrapped at 200. set for 1 hr

Thoughts: Could not pull, had to chop. Smoke was a little strong/bitter tasting but not bad. No juice at all. I think the strong smoke taste was the oak. Did I over cook? Int tmp was 200* HELP PLEASE

Did you happen to check temp several different places?
Sometimes it hits a fat pocket & you end up with a wrong reading sort of.....

Best way to do these things is only go by temp up to a point, then just go for probe tender where therm
( heck, you can use a skewer or an icepick) just slides in with zero resistance, like there's almost nothing there.....

Try maybe cooking just a little hotter, like 250~275, it will move along a bit faster & the pig can take it...
This also perhaps keeps your fire burning a bit hotter & like more clean (possible cause of some bitterness might be a tad too sluggish of a burn)

I know it kinda wrecks dinner plans, but in that situation you can just stick it back on (even foiled up) & cook awhile longer 'till it falls apart........

Lastly, it is not impossible that a small piece could skip right thru done & start to dry out.....unlikely, but possible....

[Troy]

3 pound butt?  Doesn't sound right.  Probably a terrible cut.

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[Hogsy]

And sometimes you just get a bad cut of meat
Best to try again....I'm sure you'll nail the next one

[1buckie]

@hawkendog  ....forgot to say, keep trying, you WILL get this......

" I will prevail....no pig will ever get the better of me"

^^^^Famous Quote

3 pound butt?  Doesn't sound right.  Probably a terrible cut.

See those all the time in the stores here, don't know exactly why they're put up like that, but they're all over here.... would rather do 2 x 10 lb. ones, the leftovers freeze great !!!!

[addicted-to-smoke]

Most ones I see in stores are 5-7 lbs. Are those also too small for success? I've only done a few. They weren't terribly successful pulls either.

So if you cook to a certain temp how often are you then sticking the pig to see if the probe glides in?

[toolhead]

burn the chunk with the coal in the chimney...or make sure you wood chunk during warm up to burn offbthe bitter smoke when wood forst catches...

Are you using a good accurate temp food probe?

And sticking the probe into center of the butt?

It should definitely pull at 2pp

[hawkendog]

burn the chunk with the coal in the chimney...or make sure you wood chunk during warm up to burn offbthe bitter smoke when wood forst catches...

Are you using a good accurate temp food probe?

And sticking the probe into center of the butt?

It should definitely pull at 2pp

I did not burn off the wood. Had it too far back from the center. Next time I will correct that and use no oak. That should help with the taste.
Using a T-pen for temps.
I think you guys hit it with it being a poor small cut of meat. Also I believe it should have cooked longer. I thought with it being 3# 5 hrs cook @ 225-250 and a hour hrs rest would be OK

Thank all

[1buckie]

It can be small & be just fine.......the miscalculation comes a lot of times in assuming it will take half as long or whatever.....

It's not so much total weight, but thickness, for instance, a 5# piece being the same general thickness in a direction as the 10# it was cut from could take almost as long.......

You'll get the hang of it, the probable time it might take, as you go along & do a few, but length of time & internal temps are really general on these things.......

Get it into the ballpark & then go much more by the feel of the probe....

It's not quite as magical as all this sounds, you'll really know it when it's right.....unmistakeable easy probe feel, OK?

[hawkendog]

Note: I put what was left of the butt (maybe 2/3) foiled in the oven today @ 275* for a little under 2 hrs. Came out great. Pulled good and most of the strong smoke taste had mild out.
This tells me I under cooked.
Does this count??

[SixZeroFour]

Sir 1buckie has it bang on... (Of course!)

The advice to only use your therm up to about 195 and then forget temps and only remove once it probes like butter is the key thing to remember!

Now here's another quirk, when I was just learning and I saw people say "probe in a few spots" I simply moved the MAVERICK probe from one spot to another but would still get some resistance just from the larger size of the probe. Now when I "probe" I use the skinnier, sharper thermapen probe and just wait till it slides in like butter.

Don't let it bother you, you'll nail it next go