Yet Another Newbie Question

[Beachboy]

Hi Folks - I am a newbie and would greatly appreciate your input. Yesterday I cooked a 7 lb pork butt on my Traeger at 225 and after 4 hours the IT was already 165. (I live in Houston and the outside temp was around 95 and very humid.) Checked the IT with both the Maverick and Thermapen and they were both about the same. Everything I had read said to take it off when it got to around 195 and I actually took it off at 200. Problem was that it had only been cooking (at 225) for about 7.5 hours. I foiled it for about an hour until the temp dropped to around 170 and then pulled it -- sort of. It was tough-tough; I only pulled about half of it. (Then my wife took the rest and put in the crock pot, but then that's another whole story.)

Should I have turned the Traeger thermostat down to 180 and cooked it longer, instead of leaving it at 225 until it reached about 200? Not sure if time or temp is more important with a pork butt. I'm thinking now it would have been time. I cooked another butt a month ago and had no problems; only difference is that meat was rounder and a bit thicker than this one.

Over the past 6 weeks I've had good success with 2 briskets, 2 bb ribs, chicken, and a few other odds and ends - so at least that's encouraging.

Will greatly appreciate your suggestions so that if and when I do the next pork butt, it will be yummy.

Thanks so much for your help. Bill

 

[muebe]

I have done butts at 260F the entire time without issue. If you took it to 200F IT then it should have pulled easy. Does not sound like you did anything wrong.

It sounds like you might have had a different cut of pork that is not good for pulling. Might have been a picnic butt and those are better at 165F and sliced. Do you remember what the label on the package stated? Did it have a pronounced fat cap on it?

 

[Beachboy]

Pork Butt

Thanks for your response. The label said "Boston Butt" on it, so I don't think it was a picnic. The recipes I've seen for Pork Butts say that it takes 1.5 to 2 hours per pound to cook; after I trimmed it, it was still probably 6 to 6.5 pounds - so I was thinking it would take 9-10 hours minimum, and probably longer. Instead, it hit about 200 at 7.5 hours.

 

[Beachboy]

Forgot to answer your other question -- it did have a pronounced fat cap on it, but I trimmed it real well --- maybe too much.

 

[HoDeDo]

I regularly cook butts in 7-8 hrs. There is a chance your thermostat is off however. bad thermocouple? Sounds like the timing is about right though. Do you add any liquid to the foil when you are wrapping... did it have some in the foil when you were done?

 

[FLBentRider]

I assume that you checked the temp in multiple locations, if you hit a fat pocket you will get a false high reading.

 

[Beachboy]

I'll double check the thermostat, but I did watch the Mavericks grill temp, in addition to the IT of the meat. The grill temp is far from exact, but didn't seem too far off.

This time when I wrapped it I only added some Tiger Sauce on top the meat -- didn't put water or apple juice in like I've done on other things when I foiled. As a result, there was very little liquid in the foil when it was done.

And I did check the meat temp in multiple locations with the Thermapen.

If this starts to happen again, should I just turn the thermostat down (from 225 to 180) and let it cook longer? That seems logical to me, but wanted to check.

Thanks. I appreciate the feedback so much.

 

[TentHunter]

I doubt that it had anything to do with which shoulder cut (butt or picnic) it was. I get a discount by buying whole shoulders, so I cook picnics next to butts all the time with equally great results and honestly can't tell a difference in the final product.

I have a sneaky hunch that the shoulder simply wasn't done. There's an old BBQ saying, "It's not done until it gives up the ghost." Meaning it will be done when the connective tissues & collagen have broken down and not when a thermometer says so. That's why, long ago, I gave up on using a final temp for pulled pork and go by feel. When that probes slides all the way in like it's going into softened butter, it's done. If you feel resistance, after sliding it part way in, it needs more time.

That's my 2¢, and it's probably not worth that much!

 

[So Cal Smoker]

You should put some zeros behind that two Tent.

 

[Beachboy]

Thank you so much for your feedback. Next time I'm definitely going to go mostly by feel and not be obsessed by temp. As I get more experienced with all of this, I'm hopeful it will get easier and easier. I guess I've been trying to follow certain guidelines too strictly, and I'll definitely change that going forward.

One final question -- do you foil your pork shoulders or just cook till smooth as butter without foiling?

Thanks again ~ Bill

 

[OneBallBiscuit]

I have a Traeger Lil Tex Elite...I do pork shoulders all the time in there. Set it to 225 usually and let it do it's thing. The temp's do swing in a 40 degree range generally but seem to keep tight around 225-235 generally. I generally foil around 160-165 after meat has pretty much beaten through the stall. I foil with a little room temp apple juice mixed with rub. Then I let it go to 195-200 or so. Usually can tell by feeling the meat when it is done. After that, I keep in foil, wrap in towel and through in microwave (not on). Let it sit a couple hours and pull away!

Note...designate ONE towel for this process and keep it that way. Wife was not happy as I destroyed 2 towels doing this consecutive weekends.

 

[Beachboy]

Thanks for the input. I wrap mine in a "moving blanket" after foiling. Still haven't tried putting it in a cooler after wrapping it, but will also do that next time.

 

[TentHunter]

One final question -- do you foil your pork shoulders or just cook till smooth as butter without foiling?

More often than not I foil, but not always. Foiling drastically cuts down on cooking time, but you won't have quite as developed of a bark if foiling. You'll have to give a try and go from there.

 

[TentHunter]

Note...designate ONE towel for this process and keep it that way. Wife was not happy as I destroyed 2 towels doing this consecutive weekends.

That's a good idea! A towel is cheap insurance to keep mamma happy!