Pellet Smoker Cooking: One Pork Butt and Two Sandwiches

May 02 2013

I smoked one of the two pork butts I bought the other day and put the second one in the freezer for later. The one I smoked was 9 ½ lbs.

I wanted to do it Wednesday but we had plans to try out a new restaurant just south of us. They were having a German buffet. It was not worth the trip, some of the worst food I have eaten at a restaurant.

With all the discussion lately on Lets Talk BBQ whether to foil or not, fat cap on or off and fat cap up or down. I had been doing fat cap on, fat cap down and foiling. I thought, don’t be stubborn try it different. So for this one I cut most all the fat cap off and did not foil. I put what was the fat cap side down.

Since I was not foiling I cut the butt in half; gave it a light coat of mustard and dusted with Penzey’s Galena Street rub. I got them on at 8:30 am.

I did it on my Traeger; used the smoke setting and P-#’s for the first six hours.
P-4 gave me 170 deg. average for an hour of smoke
P-1 gave me 225 deg. for 5 hours
Went to 250 deg. for another 2 ½ hours to get to 201 deg. IT on the butts
Total cook time 8 ½ hours
Temps above were from the RTD digital temp so grill level temps were about 25 deg. hotter
For added smoke I used the Amazen tube filled with apple wood and used Traeger oak pellets in my smoker.

I had planned for an IT of 205 deg. but at 201 my test probe went in like butter so I pulled them.
I placed them on a tray and covered with foil and in the oven to rest an hour. I uncovered and let set for a half hour then pulled it. It was plenty moist and had plenty of bark. I chopped it some after pulling. Even though it takes longer I may be converted to cutting the fat cap off and not foiling.

I was going to have baked sweet potato fries too but my oven quit so we just had sandwiches and a salad. My wife had yellow mustard and dill pickles on her sandwich. I had two sandwiches, one with some of my homemade German mustard and one with Bone Suckin Sauce. We both thought the pork was pretty darned good!

Two Pork Butts 20 lbs.