Mike From R.I.
Well-known member
1.5 hours? at 350degrees
🔥 What's Smoking/Cooking on your Pit Boss?
- Thread starter primeone
- Start date
brewersfan73
Well-known member
This is probably my last cook with the stock Austin XL controller since I'm planning to upgrade to the new PID controller soon. Having a small group over tonight and will be serving pulled pork and burgers. I didn't want to risk not having food ready in time for dinner (even if I wrapped it), so I started it at 11pm last night. It is a 6.5# bone-in boston butt, and as of this moment, I'm planning to not wrap it and see what happens. Obviously, that plan may change if it stalls too long.
I initially was going to run it at 200 degrees overnight to make sure it didn't cook too fast and dry out (since I wasn't going to wake up and spritz at 4am), but my grill was running a little cooler than I wanted, so I bumped it up to 225 and went to bed at midnight. I also had a full smoke tube with cherry pellets going as well. Did a dry brine for about 12 hours with kosher salt, and then slathered a little bit of yellow mustard and added Blues Hog original rub (first time trying it) before putting it on the Pit Boss. I also added some water to the pan to keep the grill a little moist and to temper the ambient temp a little bit.
Here it is after 8 hours:
It stalled around the 7 hour mark, and is still there at 10 hours. I'm spritzing with ACV every hour now. The ambient temp dropped at the 8 hour mark in the graph below because I rotated the pan and the Meater+ is on the right side of the grill now near the stack, so it is getting shielded from the heat by the pork. The grate temp is staying in the 215-240 range.
Some questions for the pros out there. I'm planning to serve it around 5:30pm, and I'd like to wrap it and have it rest in a cooler for at least 2 hours, so I'm aiming to do that at around 3pm.
1. At what point do I need to make the call as whether to wrap or not? If it is still stalled at 11am, do I need to make the decision to wrap?
2. Should I be bumping up my temp to 250 this morning, or do I let it ride at 225?
3. Do I let it cool off a little bit before putting it in a cooler, or do I put it in there when the meat is still around 200-205?
I'm really not too stressed about timing. I know that, if needed, I can wrap in foil and put it into a 275-300 oven and it should turn out fine. But I haven't made a non-wrap boston butt yet and I curious to see how it turns out. I appreciate any feedback.
I initially was going to run it at 200 degrees overnight to make sure it didn't cook too fast and dry out (since I wasn't going to wake up and spritz at 4am), but my grill was running a little cooler than I wanted, so I bumped it up to 225 and went to bed at midnight. I also had a full smoke tube with cherry pellets going as well. Did a dry brine for about 12 hours with kosher salt, and then slathered a little bit of yellow mustard and added Blues Hog original rub (first time trying it) before putting it on the Pit Boss. I also added some water to the pan to keep the grill a little moist and to temper the ambient temp a little bit.
Here it is after 8 hours:
It stalled around the 7 hour mark, and is still there at 10 hours. I'm spritzing with ACV every hour now. The ambient temp dropped at the 8 hour mark in the graph below because I rotated the pan and the Meater+ is on the right side of the grill now near the stack, so it is getting shielded from the heat by the pork. The grate temp is staying in the 215-240 range.
Some questions for the pros out there. I'm planning to serve it around 5:30pm, and I'd like to wrap it and have it rest in a cooler for at least 2 hours, so I'm aiming to do that at around 3pm.
1. At what point do I need to make the call as whether to wrap or not? If it is still stalled at 11am, do I need to make the decision to wrap?
2. Should I be bumping up my temp to 250 this morning, or do I let it ride at 225?
3. Do I let it cool off a little bit before putting it in a cooler, or do I put it in there when the meat is still around 200-205?
I'm really not too stressed about timing. I know that, if needed, I can wrap in foil and put it into a 275-300 oven and it should turn out fine. But I haven't made a non-wrap boston butt yet and I curious to see how it turns out. I appreciate any feedback.
I’d wrap around 160 degrees and pull around 195-200 degrees then when ya pull it put in a ice chest and leave the wrap on it.
Hopefully this helps you
Hopefully this helps you
brewersfan73
Well-known member
It looked like it was coming out of the stall at the 12 hour mark (11am), so I left it unwrapped. Came back 1.5 hours later and didn't think that that the temp was going up fast enough to make it by 3pm, so I decided to wrap at the 13.75 hour mark and set it 250 degrees.
If the IT doesn't start rising soon, I'm going to bump it to 300. Now I'm getting a little worried. I should have wrapped at 11am and just let it rest longer if it finished too quick.
I know it will be fine if it rests for only 1 hour, but I'm still aiming for 2+ hours.
If the IT doesn't start rising soon, I'm going to bump it to 300. Now I'm getting a little worried. I should have wrapped at 11am and just let it rest longer if it finished too quick.
I know it will be fine if it rests for only 1 hour, but I'm still aiming for 2+ hours.
brewersfan73
Well-known member
So in the end, this ended up being the best pulled pork I've made (although I've only made 3-4 in my life). Parts of the process were a little maddening, but luckily boston butt is very forgiving. Sorry no pictures since I was scrambling to get the rest of dinner on the table while pulling the pork and grilling burgers. Lots of pink smoke ring in the pan, lots of tasty bark, very juicy, and it was a big hit. I also made a homemade Carolina Gold Mustard BBQ sauce which was amazing, along with a bottle of Blues Hog original sauce. The pork didn't need it, but both were a nice complement.
Green line is the ambient temp. For the first 12 hours, the grill was set at 225 degrees. The only reason for the variation is where the Meater+ probe was in relation to the airflow. I definitely like having other probes in there a little further away from the meat for a better reading. The big downward spike around 14 hours is when I wrapped it in foil. Then I set the grill for 250, and a little while later I bumped it to 300.
So to cut down on the stress next time, I've got a few questions:
1. Is 145 degrees a normal temperature for the stall? Seems low, but I know that all cuts act a little differently.
2. Once it comes out of the stall, I expected the temps to rise a little faster than they did. This is the 11-13.5 hour time period on my graph. But maybe because the grill was still set at 225 it wasn't really going to rise that fast. Perhaps I should have set at 250?
Next time I do this, I will definitely try to replicate this process. Put it on the smoker the night before at 200-225 degrees and don't touch it until morning. Let it keep cooking unwrapped through the stall. It really helped with the bark. I usually wrap in foil at the beginning of the stall and it isn't very dark yet.
The other thing that caused an issue is that the Meater+ must have been close to the bone, or the probe was conducting enough heat that it was reading too high. The Meater+ was around 200 and I was getting ready to pull it off, but then I spot checked some different areas, and most of the pork was around 190 pretty consistently. I left it on there for another 30 minutes until all of it was over 200.
We delayed dinner a little bit as we waited for all guests to arrive, so it ended up sitting in the cooler for over 2 hours before I pulled it. I was worried when I first grabbed the bone to remove it that it gave a little resistance. But then it pulled out smoothly and cleanly and the pork itself shredded very easily. Success!
Green line is the ambient temp. For the first 12 hours, the grill was set at 225 degrees. The only reason for the variation is where the Meater+ probe was in relation to the airflow. I definitely like having other probes in there a little further away from the meat for a better reading. The big downward spike around 14 hours is when I wrapped it in foil. Then I set the grill for 250, and a little while later I bumped it to 300.
So to cut down on the stress next time, I've got a few questions:
1. Is 145 degrees a normal temperature for the stall? Seems low, but I know that all cuts act a little differently.
2. Once it comes out of the stall, I expected the temps to rise a little faster than they did. This is the 11-13.5 hour time period on my graph. But maybe because the grill was still set at 225 it wasn't really going to rise that fast. Perhaps I should have set at 250?
Next time I do this, I will definitely try to replicate this process. Put it on the smoker the night before at 200-225 degrees and don't touch it until morning. Let it keep cooking unwrapped through the stall. It really helped with the bark. I usually wrap in foil at the beginning of the stall and it isn't very dark yet.
The other thing that caused an issue is that the Meater+ must have been close to the bone, or the probe was conducting enough heat that it was reading too high. The Meater+ was around 200 and I was getting ready to pull it off, but then I spot checked some different areas, and most of the pork was around 190 pretty consistently. I left it on there for another 30 minutes until all of it was over 200.
We delayed dinner a little bit as we waited for all guests to arrive, so it ended up sitting in the cooler for over 2 hours before I pulled it. I was worried when I first grabbed the bone to remove it that it gave a little resistance. But then it pulled out smoothly and cleanly and the pork itself shredded very easily. Success!
Tim W
Well-known member
Once I wrap 250 260 seems to work best
touras
Well-known member
Sorry for the late reply. I cook until it hits 175 internally.
Mike From R.I.
Well-known member
Market Basket?
ANT0407
Well-known member
Shaws $2.97 lb
hankhill11
Well-known member
Today I took my first crack at jerky. I did bad with the brine/marinade recipe and didn't make it salty enough. Top shelf left is venison chops I had on hand, the rest is beef eye of round. I sliced it with my meat slicer, and its mostly to thick for me, I expected it to shrink a little more than it did.
Jimsmokes
Well-known member
Looks good to me
touras
Well-known member
Me too!
Lookin good!!
I like it where it’s chewy and not too dry.
I like it where it’s chewy and not too dry.
