3lbs Boston Butt -- Never done anything like this before; best course of action?

[addicted-to-smoke]

Eh, I didn't prepare for this and bought the meat on a whim the other day. I'm armed with a OTS 22.5" kettle but could employ my Performer's lid since it has a thermometer, the only type I have.

Not aiming for perfection, just something not raw or burnt. Really should have cooked it today but will hope for the best tomorrow.

Don't have time for a lengthy rub or whatever but I do have time to cook it slowly. I'll be up around 9am and will have to run out and buy stuff.

[Heyjude]

Cook it! An hour and a half per pound of meat at 225 to 250. Pull at an internal meat temp between 195 and 200. Wrap in foil then wrap that in a towel and stick in an closed ice chest for another hour.
Wehn ready to eat, pull it and enjoy!
I assume you want pulled pork? And its only a 3 lber?
Rubs don;t need to sit overnight, just coat it and let it sit at room temperature while yo get a fire going..
Pulled pork is the easist to make! Damn, now I want to smoke one.. 

[addicted-to-smoke]

Pretty narrow temp range --- and I don't have any other thermometer than the lid thermometer. Can I reasonably go by time alone if I'm able to maintain a decent temp of some kind as indicated on the thermometer I have?

[1buckie]

One that small doesn't have the fat of a pound of bacon......
Stick it in a pan with a small can's worth (or a little less) of low sodium chicken broth for moisture....
Just what I would do.....

Pretty narrow temp range --- and I don't have any other thermometer than the lid thermometer. Can I reasonably go by time alone if I'm able to maintain a decent temp of some kind as indicated on the thermometer I have?

Yeah, shoot for past 4 hours, push it 'till it falls apart......

[addicted-to-smoke]

Interesting. What should the temp read on the lid thermometer?

[1buckie]

Hard to tell if you've not done a test against the grate temp...
Say you want to cook @ 240.....the "usual" answer for difference between grate & dome is 25~50
degrees, higher at the dome, so a middle of the road guess would be: 275 at dome, maybe check how it's doing @ 3-1/2 hours.....

Best Guess Dept.......this assumes a lot, try it & see,.......

[addicted-to-smoke]

Will do, thanks.

[harris92]

Don't worry about taking internal temp.  When the bone starts to easly wiggle and slide then it is done. 

[mike.stavlund]

You're absolutely right, harris, but on your first butt it's nice to be able to track the temp and know when you're in the ballpark. 

Don't check it too much, though Addict, or it won't cook.  ;-)  Remember, "If you're looking, then you're not cooking".  And expect to experience 'the stall' where the butt gets stuck somewhere between 160 and 180.  Don't panic, and don't rush that process- that's where the magic is happening.

Let us know how it goes!

[1buckie]

In a three pound chunk, there might not be any bone to wiggle...........stall may be insignificant, or minor also, just not a lot of mass......let's hope it's the end cap...the money muscle....MMmmmmmmm

[Cookingmama]

when i started out i would get these little baby butts too.  i was basically just trying to get a feel at doing things.  temps.... smoke flavors.... times.... etc. 

i wouldnt even buy anything.  just experiment with the amount of smoke flavor.  but thats just me.  i also dont foil.  especially with that small size.  and they would always come out moist. 

[addicted-to-smoke]

It's 1:40. Meat's been on the grill for 15 minutes.

I have one filled one charcoal holder off to the side, a small shallow foil pan for water partially right on top of, or i.e. right near of the coals and in between the meat.

All vents currently open, because I expected the grill to be hotter? (Keep reading.)

Two noted challenges so far:
1) I have to use my standard grill grate, so adding charcoal's gonna suck.
2) The Performer's lid doesn't have a hook. Doh!

The lid thermo reads about 220. Should I forget using the water pan? Took this 15 mins to read from 200 to 220 --- I will definitely resist the urge to open the lid, but I can see now that adding charcoal will slow things down, especially since I'll have to entirely remove the grate.

[1buckie]

" I have to use my standard grill grate, so adding charcoal's gonna suck."


Do you have a flip up w/ the other one......"have to" limits things......

Alternately, when you go to lift out the grate, have the other kettle right there, with no grate in it & set your grate there while noodling.......

[addicted-to-smoke]

I have a Smokey Joe standing by for setting the grate on top of. The old Performer's not available to the backyard today. It's in the garage awaiting rejuvenation.

**********

Less than 10 minutes ago the temp sank to 210. I went back inside for 2 minutes and now the thermo says 230 and climbing and now there's a little ash coming from the bottom vent so I guess I'll choke it a little.

EDIT: Despite holding steady at "230" I closed the bottom vents to 1/2. I started with one basket to overflowing with briquets but all-vents-open sounds like everything would burn out too fast and/or cook to hot?

[mike.stavlund]

Addict, I seriously consider buckie to be one of the world's foremost experts on low-n-slow Weber kettle cooking, so I'm more than a little reluctant to chime in here.  But I think you might be over-managing this thing. 

In the summertime on a calm day, my kettle runs at 225 with about 5 briquettes to start it, so I'd say you have plenty of fire.  Also, remember that this is a slow,   g r a d u a l   process, so let your kettle do its thing.  I wouldn't even check the grill temp for 30 minutes, and I wouldn't expect any adjustment I made to vents, etc. to affect anything for almost that long.  Your setup sounds good, so just let it work.

Also, if you're using a non-flip vent, do like the old-timers used to do-- turn the grate until your grate handle is over the coals, and then you can drop fresh coals through the slot. 

I would also say that if your grill is coming up to the target temp, be aggressive about choking off the bottom vents to slow it down.  It's much easier to tweak things *up* to temp than to try to get a hot fire to burn cooler. 

Bottom line:  relax.  Your kettle was designed to do this.  Let it teach you.  ;-)