Gentleman,

Many of you are already well aware of my struggles on the BGE cooking meat right. I have a prime brisket I'm cooking for Mother's Day which I'll likely have some questions on that, but i'll table that for later.

On Friday i'm cooking a 13 lb pork butt on the BGE. From what I understand, this can be one of the most forgiving pieces of meat to cook, but I'm not entirely confident I won't find a way to mess it up. At any rate, what advice would you have to offer me. I'll likely smoking with cherry or apple. I think I learned my bad smoke lesson from my last cook so I'll be sure to wait for the blue, wispy smoke before I throw it in.

What other tips would you give? When do you guys like to pull it? Do you spritz it periodically? Do you wrap it? Have any good recipes for a rub, or just S&P it?

It is a boneless roast. Your help is appreciated.

I'm lazy so here's what I do. start at 6 pm. Smoke for six hours at 250-275. Pull and wrap in foil at midnight and stick it in the oven at 275. Go to bed. Remove from oven at 8 or 9 when you get up. Let it rest until just before lunch. Remove from foil, pull apart, pour juices over the pulled pork.

Works every time. Those that have eaten it have liked it.

You planning to pull it or slice it?

This is stupid easy.

Rub liberally with salt/pepper/brown sugar.

fat side down at 225-250 until done. Done can be determined by when your probe slides in easy. Or around 200 degrees.

You don't need to spritz, you don't need to wrap, you don't need to fool with a bunch of goofy woods.

If you want to add some character, mix in six or eight good fruit wood chunks with your lump.

RightWingConspirator said:

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Gentleman,

Many of you are already well aware of my struggles on the BGE cooking meat right. I have a prime brisket I'm cooking for Mother's Day which I'll likely have some questions on that, but i'll table that for later.

On Friday i'm cooking a 13 lb pork butt on the BGE. From what I understand, this can be one of the most forgiving pieces of meat to cook, but I'm not entirely confident I won't find a way to mess it up. At any rate, what advice would you have to offer me. I'll likely smoking with cherry or apple. I think I learned my bad smoke lesson from my last cook so I'll be sure to wait for the blue, wispy smoke before I throw it in.

What other tips would you give? When do you guys like to pull it? Do you spritz it periodically? Do you wrap it? Have any good recipes for a rub, or just S&P it?

It is a boneless roast. Your help is appreciated.

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I cooked a Boston Butt Sunday and it turned out to be my best one yet.. I seasoned it with Fiesta Brand Pork Rub and let it set overnight. I cook on a Hasty Bake Charcoal Oven/Grill and used a combination of lump charcoal, oak and hickory chunks. I kept the temperature between 275 and 300 and smoked (fat side up) for about 7 1/2 hours spritzing every hour with apple cider vinegar and garlic flavored olive oil. I pulled it with a internal temperature of 200 and wrapped in foil for another hour. The meat fell apart and was very moist! Good luck!

Damn that's a big ass butt. I buy the partial 5-6 lb bone in Boston butts from HEB and they take about 8 hrs at 275-300.

Granted this is from my experience doing it on a stick smoker. No clue how it changes things on a BGE.

Keep it simple. I just rub with Steven Raichlen's Lexington pork rub the night before and let it sit in the fridge.

Don't spray - I've found it takes way too long if you're constantly opening it up spraying. Plus the pork butt doesn't need the moisture
Don't wrap - I like the chunks of crispy bark, but with a butt that big you may wanna move it along quicker by wrapping

I just put it fat side up with a foil pan underneath to catch the drippings (not sure if that's possible with the BGE) and keep it between 275-300 until it gets to 205 internal. Shred then pour drippings over the pulled meat.

I would inject with a marinade. Cook until 190 average internal temp.

Coat the pork with mustard, will help you out seasoning of your choice on.

Make sure you are using indirect heat. I .e. Use the plate setter.

Don't be surprised if you have two pieces of meat in the package instead of one, it will be fine either way.

Let the meat rest for 30-60 minutes then shred. Your family/ friends will be amazed and you don't have to let them know how easy pork is.

You will be good on this cook, super easy!

My easy go to is smoke it heavy for an hour, up the heat to 275 until it reaches 165ish, and put it in a foil pan, add some apple cider vinegar or apple juice, cover with foil until it reaches 205. I normally season mine with Meat Church Honey hog since that is what my family likes the most. Like you said these are pretty hard to mess up. Others do a mustard base and seasoning, some just salt and pepper, just depends what you like.

I just cooked one on Sunday, mine was only 9 lb. Here's what I did:
Coat with equal parts Meat Church Gospel and Gospel BBQ rub and add a little Honey Hog BBQ last.

Smoke at 250 F for 5 hours no spritzing or injection or anything, just leave the lid closed I added pecan chunks and apple chips to the coals.

Wrap with double layer of bbq foil and continue cooking for 3 hours at 250 F. And then rest for an hour.
After resting.

Shred and eat.


Walked about 2' from this little guy before I realized he was there. Caught him and put in the snake box for my ranch manager.



Edit: coated in vegetable oil before adding rub and let sit for 1 hour before putting on BGE.

Good question. What do you guys recommend? Pull or slice? This is my first pork butt in the BGE.

Shred

Quote:

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What other tips would you give? When do you guys like to pull it? Do you spritz it periodically? Do you wrap it? Have any good recipes for a rub, or just S&P it?

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BBQ Purists please skip this post....

This is my go to.

• put pork butt in a disposable aluminum pan (the half steam table size)
• Inject with Apple juice and/or pour apple juice in the bottom of the pan.. about 1/4 - 1/2 an inch
• Sprinkle butt liberally with Fiesta Pork Rub
• Smoke for 12-13 hrs at 250 until bone pulls out easily OR the meat pulls easily with a fork
• Remove from smoker and let sit for a while
• Pour drippings from pan into a fat separator
• Pull pork and put in a big bowl
• Pour drippings in bowl and mix
• Optional ------ Add in some more Pork Rub

Yes, I was planning on using the plate setter....do you guys throw in a water pan like I would for a brisket?

No water pan needed

Must have bone in .......

Cooked a bone in 8 lber a couple weeks ago on my BGE. Brined it overnight in a thin marinade called Wickers. Patted dry, brushed on honey mustard and then applied a generous dry rub from a local BBQ joint here in Memphis. Smoked at around 240 for 4-5 hours. Mixed up some melted butter, honey, and dry rub into a brushable paste, put the butt in a foil pan, brushed with the mixture, covered the pan with foil and put it back on the egg at 240 for another 4 hours or so. Let it rest for a bit, opened it up pulled it with fork,then chopped with a cleaver (I like mine chopped a bit rather than straight pulled).

Very good and easy.

Yeah, I read your post up top that said that it's boneless. I'm not sure what that does to the process, I've only done bone in and it's helpful because it's like a built in thermometer, when you can wiggle it freely and it's clean, it's good to go.

Two things that Aaron Franklin does that have really helped me:

-Take off that thick fat layer that covers the top of the butt. The rub doesn't penetrate it and there's plenty of fat in the butt so you don't have to worry about it drying out.

-Save some rub for when you pull it to mix in before serving. It's a huge roast and so it's not going to get seasoning deep down into it so you need to mix some extra into it.

Pork being a relatively bland meat, I advocate plenty of spices.

But my best advice on a 13lb butt roast is...cut into at least two, if not three pieces (the blade bone may only allow two reasonable size pieces).

The more surface area, the more spices and smoke. And a shorter cook time.

I still use an adulterated version of old-school mop/sop---sometimes I just take the cheapest Italian dressing, add Worchestshire sauce and some vinegar, and use it during the cook. I can't guarantee it keeps it more moist, but it sure results in tasty BBQ pork!

Edited to add: I just saw the "boneless" part, so it should be very easy to separate into 2-3 pieces.
And cooking to "sliced or pulled" category? We prefer sliced, so not needed to go to 200-ish degrees. And occasionally grind/process any leftovers into the pulled equivalent. Either way works!

Small piece was a tester for the cook...

My bet is that you went to Costco and bought a packer bag of pork butts that weighs 13 lbs. You actually have 2 of them that weigh between 6 and 7 lbs each. All the above recommendations apply, but be ready to have 2 of them to fit on teh smoker...

Don't inject.
Don't wrap.
Don't peak.

Rub it with whatever. I prefer Plowboys Yardbird.
I use peach chunks but any fruit wood is OK.
Cook it at 225 till 203F internal.
Shred with Bear Paws.
Serve with Hawaiian buns, onion, pickles, and a good BBQ sauce and eat the **** outta it.

I will add that I do trim the fat cap per Franklin's book and I do use some 16 mesh coarse black pepper (again from Franklin's book) in addition to Yardbird. I use a little olive oil on the pork to help hold the rub, then sprinkle and pat the seasonings down onto the meat. I do not 'rub'.

Willy Wonka said:

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Yeah, I read your post up top that said that it's boneless. I'm not sure what that does to the process, I've only done bone in and it's helpful because it's like a built in thermometer, when you can wiggle it freely and it's clean, it's good to go.

Two things that Aaron Franklin does that have really helped me:

-Take off that thick fat layer that covers the top of the butt. The rub doesn't penetrate it and there's plenty of fat in the butt so you don't have to worry about it drying out.

-Save some rub for when you pull it to mix in before serving. It's a huge roast and so it's not going to get seasoning deep down into it so you need to mix some extra into it.

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I had to settle for a boneless, because Covid, and all it did was knock a little time off. Taste was the same.

OP, WC87 is pretty much exactly how I do it, temps and all, and pulled pork turns out great every time. As long as you can hold your BGE temp consistently, you're good to go.

Great point on the buns and pickles! Why no injection. So much fun injecting pork and seeing how big a mess you can make in wife's kitchen! Good fun for couples!

Did an 7.5 lb butt this weekend.

Fiesta Pork rub as mentioned above, I used mustard instead of oil but have used oil in the past. I like mustard simply because its easier to wash off my hands.

225ish degrees. Put it on at 11:30p. Woke up at 6a and wrapped it (about 160). Pulled it off the BGE at 10a when it hit 200 degrees (usually wait until 202 but had to get out the door). Rested for about an hour or two and then pulled it and as mentioned above served with buns, onions, pickles and cold beer.

Turned out real good. First time I've tried wrapping one. Bark wasn't as pronounced as when I do it unwrapped but capturing the juices and mixing those back in to the final dish was a nice trade off.

I'm not sure there is a better item to eat for the $ spent than pulled pork.


Oh and the don't peek part, is key. Let it be and just make sure the heat stays stable and keep an eye on meat temp.

Thanks, guys, for the suggestions. I'll be sure to try these. And yes, we did purchase the Costco pork butt so maybe there are two butts in the package at roughly 6.5lbs/each.

Brine overnight in like 2-3 cups of pickling salt, ice water, and molasses.

Use whatever rub you want. I like a combo of brown sugar and something a bit spicy.

When using a BGE, make sure you use the plate setter so you're cooking with indirect heat.

Smoke at 250 and then pull at 200 internal temp and wrap in butcher paper and towels in a cooler. Let sit for about 30-45 min.

Bone should slide out.

Shred with those claw things.

Hawaiian buns, slaw, and a vinegar sauce.

Keep it simple.

-Put some mustard on the surface and give it a good amount of your favorite rub (salt, pepper, garlic, paprika if you need to make your own).

- smoke 250-275

-spritz every hour or so

-Wrap in foil when the bark looks good (definitely going to be later in the cook).

-Pull when it probes with no resistance, and you can pull the bone right out (if its a bone-in). Internal temp will be around 200 degrees just like a brisket

-shred for pulled pork.

-eat and enjoy

Pork butt is probably the easiest cut of meat to bbq.

I use this method from Franklin's BBQ on my BGE and it is the best thing I smoke.

LRHF said:

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Great point on the buns and pickles! Why no injection. So much fun injecting pork and seeing how big a mess you can make in wife's kitchen! Good fun for couples!

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I just find it more trouble than it's worth for a pork butt. I have done it and it does work, but a Boston butt doesn't benefit that much from it in my experience. But yeah the mess is spectacular and that can be fun.

I'm in my cook now. I threw the two pork butts in the BGE this morning around 8:15 hoping to eat around 6 or so tonight. Meat is in a serious stall at 167. It's taken about two hours to get from 150 to 167. Ugh. Looks like we won't be eating at 6.

I find it interesting that there are folks saying don't peek is key and then you have folks spritzing every hour.

What temperature are you cooking at?

AggieChemist said:

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This is stupid easy.

Rub liberally with salt/pepper/brown sugar.

fat side down at 225-250 until done. Done can be determined by when your probe slides in easy. Or around 200 degrees.

You don't need to spritz, you don't need to wrap, you don't need to fool with a bunch of goofy woods.

If you want to add some character, mix in six or eight good fruit wood chunks with your lump.

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this is about how I feel with all BBQ. It isn't difficult. Just takes cooking time and patience.

Pork butt is stupid easy. Rub with S&P, brown sugar, paprika, garlic powder. Temp anywhere in the 225-300 range will work. No need to spritz or marinate, but do it if you want to. It will turn out fine either way. Take it off at 200 internal temp.

Make a good vinegar sauce yourself! Apple cider vinegar, molasses, smoked paprika, cayenne pepper, red pepper flakes, garlic, salt, black pepper. brown sugar, ketchup or tomato paste (optional), thicken with just a little flour if desired. Sweet pork goes so well with a spicy and sour sauce.

Way too much mumbo Jumbo on here. You guys acting like it needs the 7-3-7 method.

Season it with any basic ass rub. I put mustard on mine first. Whatevs.

Smoke at 225* until it reaches 190*. Can go to 203* if you want.

Didn't wrap it. Didn't spritz it. Didn't inject it.
Had an AMAZING bark. Let it sit for about an hour (insulated) after you take it off.

Got so many compliments. 6 adults polished off a 9lb (uncooked) butt.