Maine Mans pictorial guide to butts. Lots of pics & tex

[Maine Man]

Thanks to the help from lots of folks here at TSM.com I have managed to come up with a great way to cook butts. I thought I might pass along some of the tricks I have learned from all of you nice folks!

I have decided that to cook really great smoked food you need only two things:

1- A smoker that you can easily control the heat on for at LEAST 12 hours.

2- PATIENCE This is the most important factor. Be prepared to wait for quality food from your smoker, I can guarantee that awesome BBQ flavor isn't going to come quickly.

With those two simple pre-requisites in place lets get started on the best BBQ you are ever going to make.

Start at least 12 hours in advance. Here is what I usually do about 5:00 PM the night prior to the cook. An 8 pound or so butt, some yellow mustard, and your rub of choice. In my case it is a Cajun rub I make myself but I think most anything would do. Lots of brown sugar will make a black bark, that is what I like.



The first thing I do is make a crosshatch pattern of cuts on the butt. I make them about 3/4 of an inch deep. Once that is done I coat the whole thing in yellow mustard, I don't think the brand matters. There will be NO mustard taste when the cook is done. The mustard is simply to help hold the rub on the meat.



Once that is done I VERY liberally apply my rub. Work it in good, get it in deep on your cuts. Your delicious bark will be produced by your rub, so spend some time coating every surface.



At this point wrap the whole thing in plastic wrap. I use two layers to help prevent leakage. Now just slap it on a plate and wind it in the fridge to rest overnight.



The day of the cook! This is my Big Baby smoker at about 6:15 A.M. We had a frost last night, you can see it steaming off. I love this pic. I should mention at this point that incredible BBQ is a labor of love and this will be an all day process culminating in 12 to 14 hours from the time you first light your smoker. Once the smoker is up to temp and loafing along easily put a meat thermometer of some type on the butt and place it in the smoker. No foil or anything needed at this point. Just a thermometer, a warm smoker, and your seasoned butt ready for cooking!



About 9:30 in the morning. The butt is sitting in the cooker and the temp probe says it is already up to 133 degrees. Don't be fooled by this early rise in temp. It is going to take all day. Notice my smoker temp gauges are at 225 degrees, keep it there. Low and slow makes for that incredible taste you want. I should note that I run my smoker mostly on either lump charcoal or briquettes. I throw in the occasional stick of oak or apple to give the meat some smoke. But I try never to go over 225 degrees indicated on the gauges. And I use the hardwood pretty sparingly to keep from getting too much smoke flavor in the finished product.



It is noon now. Almost 6 hours since the butt went on. This is the first time I have opened the cooking chamber since I placed the butt in there early this morning. The less you can open the door the better, just concectrate on keeping your temp at an even 225. Just after this pic was taken I very liberally soaked the meat with a spritz of pomegranate juice, whiskey, vermouth, and apple cider vinegar, just something I make up. You can choose to spritz or not, I have done it both ways and just like it better with the spritz. Make up the spritz of your choice. You pretty much can't do it wrong at this point. I might add it is starting to look really good, and the smell will have permeated everything in a hundred foot radius around your smoker, the smell will be incredible!



Early afternoon, maybe 1:30 or so? Not sure. The butt has hit 170 degrees. By all rights this piece of meat is done. But if you want amazing pulled pork that will just fall apart and make your friends and family bow down at your feet then you are just getting started. So yank that thing off and seriously soak it down with your spritz if you are doing that, then wrap it in a double layer of foil. Now throw it back on.



12 Hours into the cook, I saw 197 on the temp gauge and decided it was time to pull it. I always pull my butts at 197 and place them in a cooler. Notice the temp gauge has creeped up to 198, perfectly normal, the butt is still cooking big time at this point even though you have pulled it from the heat. The bottom of the cooler is lined with paper. Do this or risk melting your cooler! Newspaper works great here, I just happened to have this brown paper around.



20 Minutes later, I covered the butt with a couple of towels when I put it in the cooler and amazingly the temp has climbed to 200! The temp just keeps on rising. That is what is really going to make your butt stand out. The long periods of cooking time and most importantly your PATIENCE. Keep in mind that your cooler should really have its cover on it. I just opened mine to snap a pic.



2 Hours on since I pulled the thing. The temp has dropped considerably and it is time to shred the meat, keep in mind however that the meat will still be painfully hot at this point!!!! We are now over 14 hours since the smoker was lit. Unless you like getting up really early in the morning then plan on having your pulled pork sandwiches the next day and do your cook the day before you plan on eating it! Grab the "wiggle bone" and it should just fall out. If it just slides out then you have done your cook correctly. The meat will shred with nothing more than your fingers. No forks, no bear claws, nothing at all will be need to make the meat fall apart.



I like these disposable aluminum trays to shred the butt into. Perfect containers that will hold a lot of food and easy to just slide in the oven the next day about 40 minutes before you are ready to eat.



When you are getting ready to eat the next day heat the oven to 300 degrees. Cover your aluminum pan with tin foil. Put the whole thing in the oven for 40-45 minutes and heat it up. Don't worry the meat won't dry out, there is still a ton of fat in there to keep things moist.

I like to serve my pulled pork sammys on hamburger buns. I load them with meat and then sparingly apply some BBQ sauce to the top. It will taste so good you will think you are in heaven! Don't go crazy with the BBQ sauce, this will taste so good that you can eat it as is, but lots of people like sauce, so add just a little and see what happens. But the worst thing you can do is to overpower that delicate smoky pork flavor that you spent more than half of yesterday cultivating.

The leftovers freeze very well I should add. Not sure how long they keep as ours usually get eaten within a week or two. My guess is that properly stored the leftovers will keep in the freezer for months.

Good luck and have fun smoking!

[OwenStubbs]

Nicely done Maine Man. That tutorial will certainly help a bunch of folks. The photos are really helpful - I think a lot of us take for granted just how much photos can help explain things.

Now, about those 2 suggestions: Learning to control heat for at least 12 hours, and being patient. My friend, those are 2 of the secrets to life, and not just BBQ!!!

[eastcoaster]

nice job!!
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[Canadian Bacon]

Great butt cooking pictorial Maine Man,looks like it turned out real nice,great pics and thanks for sharing.
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[solanabeacher]

Great post! I do them the same way with the same results time after time. This IS the BEST way to cook your butts. Now we just need a post this detailed on whole hog. Maybe that's my calling?

Thanks for the info, fantastic looking butt you've got there!

[eccho108]

Excellent ! Very well done. The post and the pork.
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[Maine Man]

Thanks for the nice comments everyone. I think I could have done a better job now that I am reading the post again. But it should be pretty helpful to some folks.

[k.a.m.]

Maine Man, you cooked up an awesome Butt right there. Beautiful bark, nice color, and pulled fantastic, that is a pan full of Goodness. I love the pictorial. Nicely done my man.
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[bbqsmokeshackk]

Outstanding

[messerist]

I'm hungry!
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[Brinnie]

Maine Man, you would have to be happy with that - great post
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Cheers
Smoking
Down Under

[BluzQue]

Excellent job on your cook Maine Man
The pulled pork looks outstanding!
Thanks for sharin' the pics & info too


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[coyote]

Well done, great looking PP.
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[grill-guy]

that looks brilliant and it is inspiring me to go and give it a try.
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