Brining a pork butt

[1buckie]

I must admit, I was a little nervous when you said 180f pull.....but the results speak volumes !!!!

May be that the brine allows for a lower finish temp & still plenty enough fat breakdown & available moisture to shread up nice....'cause that one sure did !!!!

Fedex has some interesting observations, so if you're not doing drip beans....that would make for a good saucing.....
But the snakes aren't that much work.........I've setup 4 kettles in 9 minutes when I was in a hurry to get rolling & get to sleep.....using the OTPlatinum / Buckie / I'm Too Lazy to Make it Neat & Orderly Method.....which works fine.....

[edhead35]

In general all meats should be room temp before cooking. Just don't let it sit too long, I've seen some leave meat out all day that didn't start frozen and you start risking bacteria growth.

[One Touch Platinum]

I read somewhere that the fat and connective tissues start to break down at around 179 degrees or somewhere in that range.....which is one temp range that the stall can happen for that very reason....I would guess that as long as it was at that temp long enough it would break down enough to be fork tender, and judging by your pics it must be. I have never brined one either, Maybe it does make it more tender at a lower temperature internal. I will be curious to see what happens when you do one that is not brined. The first time that I wrapped a butt, I wrapped it  because it was done too early and nobody else was home yet to eat.....I do it EVERY time now because it does make a huge difference in the final product and the extra juices in the foil after it has rested for an hour helps as well. When I read that you pulled it off at 180 I thought that maybe you were going to slice it but I am glad it came out the way you wanted it.  The temperature thing can be misleading...I once tried to cook chuck roast before like I saw on BBQ PIT BOYS...it was supposed to be fork tender and easy to pull at 200 degrees .....I was using my other grill at the time and the temperature got away from me and I hit 200 after a pretty short time and believe me, you could not pull it apart at all.....it was a huge failure. I think the problem was that it did not sit in the temperature zone where the tissues break down long enough...it was cooked but was like eating a boot.

[edhead35]

I am going to go back and watch America's test Kitchen episode on brining again. I am curious what the effects are slow cooking a brined slab versus hot and fast.

[One Touch Platinum]

About the snake method, I have tried to use the Minion method on my Kettle and my horizontal.....never worked for me. I start with a pile of unlit , add 5 to 10 coals with vents pretty closed and I always end up with ....a big pile of HOT coals! The first time I tried the snake/fuse method it worked, and it worked GOOD! I use this method for a bunch of different cooks beside pulled pork or ribs, I will use it if I make stew or chili or something I want to simmer for a long period since once I hit my temp it will stay for hours and hours . As I have stated in other posts, do not use a slow burn setup if you are baking! You will get smoke flavor in you cake or whatever and unless you are such a diehard BBQ guy that everything must be smoked or you can't eat it you will be...unhappy. I tried to stack the coals all nice ONCE.....I found that while my patience during a low and slow is unwavering.....my patience during the stacking process was ...lacking. I have a little pan my Wife got me to use as a shovel for my coal can( I will post a couple of pics when I get home since I am at work now getting ready to get on the clock) and I just fill it up and dump the coals banked along the edge of the bowl...using several pans full and I am done. I light about 10 coals and place them at the end and wait for dinner. I end up using about 1 chimeny full or less of coal....never ounted the coals but I had some leftover coals in my chimney once ( Full) and it was about the same amount.

[One Touch Platinum]

Here is a pic of my Coal bucket and scoop. I use 3 scoops to get 350 degree heat for baking and us about 4 for a full chimney. I use this to dump out my sloppy snake around the bowl....usually about 4 pans full.
The garbage can holds about 70 pounds of charcoal.....the metal one next to it is the one I use to dump ashes and trash into.

[Kilted_Griller]

Nice. Its impressive how you have everything measured. Well done, OTP. Well done indeed.