Pork butt

[Dumbdigger]

Another shot

 

[Shedd]

Another shot

Looks great and moist. Thanks for posting the pictures!

 

[RayClem]

If your pork butt was bone-in and you were planning on pulling rather than chopping, the bone should pull out cleanly from the meat when your are finished. If you are planning on chopping, you do not have to go that far.

I always pull mine, so I wrap mine in foil. The steam trapped inside make it cook a lot faster and more uniformly. It also provides lots of juice for the pulled pork.

 

[Harrell]

I’m reading your posts. I cooked a butt according to Traeger show me the honey pulled pork.I cooked to 160 and wrapped then cooked to 204. It was tough as leather! I had to chop it not pull it. I’m going to try your way next time. Any advice for this beginner would be appreciated!

 

[Smokin In Bama]

I’m reading your posts. I cooked a butt according to Traeger show me the honey pulled pork.I cooked to 160 and wrapped then cooked to 204. It was tough as leather! I had to chop it not pull it. I’m going to try your way next time. Any advice for this beginner would be appreciated!

I’m reading your posts. I cooked a butt according to Traeger show me the honey pulled pork.I cooked to 160 and wrapped then cooked to 204. It was tough as leather! I had to chop it not pull it. I’m going to try your way next time. Any advice for this beginner would be appreciated!

Thank you. When you cook the day before, do pull if after the rest or after you re heat

I just posted this on a different thread

Here are 2 different ways I do my pork butts with or without bone.


My steps for a Boston Butt cooking the day of serving and the day before serving so these steps would also apply to a smaller pork butt .

Sit on counter. No need for room temp butt. Cold butt will take on more smoke flavor.
Slather Butt with yellow mustard
Season with whatever rub you choose
Start heating your grill while rub is working
Put on Butt after grill sits at 225. 250 or 275 for about 15 minutes to let the heat saturate everything metal. Not sure why I do this with my TRAEGER but I started doing it with my Kamado Joe a decade ago a still do it. Your choice on cooking temp because you can’t screw it up.

I tend to do mine around 250-275 and use a pellet tube for additional smoke since my Ironwood super smoke cuts off at 225. HOWEVER sometimes I will start my Butt at 225, Super Smoke plus pellet tube for a few hours until I remember to bump the heat up to 250-275 . The theme here is it’s hard screw it up. I have botched them when large amounts of alcohol was involved. I served those butts to my Auburn friends


When internal temp of butt hits 165 you have 2 choices here.

A. You can wrap it in foil (called a Texas Crutch ) and put it back on the grill until it hits an internal temp of about 190 for sliced pork OR 203 for pulled pork even if you are planning to serve the next day. . When your butt hits these temps you pull the butt off, put some towels in a cooler, place the foil wrapped butts in the cooler and close the lid . The butts will hold for HOURS in here and get more and more juicy. I have left them at this stage from noon to 7 pm without a worry in the world.

B. You can leave the butts on the grill without foil until the desired temp of either sliced or pulled pork…. Pull the butts , wrap them in foil and drop into a cooler as described above.


COOKING THE DAY BEFORE

Cook as above. You will still want a few hours resting in the cooler before you refrigerate overnight. Trust me, this is the most important step for getting a juicy pork butt.

Leave it whole. Leave it foiled. Do not slice or pull until tomorrow when you reheat

Remove from refrigerator …. It’s still in its foil and it’s still whole. It doesn’t come out of the foil until you slice or pull the butt after you reheat to 165 internal temp. The 190 or 203 temp of sliced o pulled pork still holds true from yesterday. ALWAYS reheat to only 165 internal temp. No need to take it back up to 190 or 203… you will ruin it and dry it out. the 165 degree reheated temp will allow you to slice or pull as desired. lt is safe because you are only reheating and you killed off everything bad yesterday when you cooked it. Don’t unwrap it and resmoke it. If you want to use your TRAEGER instead of your oven to reheat it then leave it foiled. Actually cooking the day before will give you GREAT results with no pressure of a timeline

I learned all of this from a drunk Cajun at a BAMA LSU game in Baton Rouge. Cajuns know how to party. If you don’t have one in your circle of friends then you need to find one

One last edit. If your boneless/ smaller one is done really early … foil wrap it and put it in a cooler as described above while the larger butt is sill cooking. I would probably cap sitting in a cooler at about 8 - 10 hours before refrigeration. No health rules. Just my gut and it has never failed me.

Hope that helps