Boston Butt

Just how does one get that smoky flavor deep into the pulled pork. I swear the flavor on any of mine seem to be the bark and a little smoke seems to make it inside.

I’ve tried low and slow and turbo style. Komodo and pellet.

The best BBQ I’ve had is from a pit with coals shoveled in. I’m about to build a small pit in the yard.

Pit built in the yard sounds nice

You get most of your smoke flavor in the first 3 hours or so. Imo. Green wood works best.

Might try buying smaller butts. Those 10 or 12 pound butts are hard to get smoke inside.

How green?
Heck I was wanting to try one this weekend. I can cut one tomorrow and I have another log that’s been drying for several months.
Last night in food channel one BBQ guy mentioned he only used green hickory.

I’ll buy a smaller butt too

10lb butt takes almost 24 hours. I have 3 electric smokers. They run 225-250. Add water soaked dry hickory near the elements to start. Beer in the bowl. Wood chunks about the size of a pack of cigarettes. Meat will take smoke mostly the first few hours. Get it to around 160 then wrap in foil. When it hits 200 I pull and wrap in beach towel and place in a cooler four hours. Bone comes out smooth. I rub and wrap them 24 hours ahead of.the cook. Leave it out of the fridge a couple hours to get room temp before hitting the smoker.

Butts, or most any meat for that matter, will actually take smoke as long as you want to smoke it. All it needs is moisture. Start spritzing it with some flavor you like(or just water) every 1/2hr to hr after the first couple of hours.

The greener the better. You are wanting to get the smoke out of it not heat. You can smell the difference in the smoke between green and dryer wood.

More wood. Run it around 250 not 225. At least in my experience. Also keep in mind the more fat you leave on the outside and the more rub you apply, the least amount of smoke can go in. Also, If smoke aint rolling out of your exhaust it's not getting in the meat.

Cut a butt up into 2-3 pieces. More smoke, more bark, everybody wins.

I use a stick of wet hickory about 12” long and 2–3” in diameter in my komado. Run it at 225-250 Seems to work well

We got in a bind on a big cooking once and didnt have enough wood so we cut a oak and split it on a thursday and used it next day, bbq tasted real good, but we use big pits not electric or gas cookers i think that makes a big difference, not knocking you guys that like the pellet or whatever just personal prefrence

My dad and uncle would always cut the hickory tree the week, sometimes two before the 4th. Their pit was concrete blocks and x metal on top. Something they stacked up the day before. It was always great. I have an egg and a traegar. I can’t get close to what they cooked. And they always started the evening before and cooked all night. We are for lunch. Best ever.

Smoke will only penetrate so deep, so best way is to expose more surface area (smaller pieces, butterflied, etc)

Also the meat is only going to take on smoke for the first couple of hours, so hit it hard up front because after that it’s not absorbing much.

Also when you serve, make sure to pull and mix well, so each “bite” gets some outer smoky and inner juicy pieces

Good advice filmore. I started separating the brisket flat from the point for this reason and also because the flat cooks a little quicker. I usually don't divide the butt though. Some people remove that "money muscle " but If you mix the pulled pork like you're talking about there isn't much of a reason to. At least for me.

Thanks for all the info. I may try green hickory in the KJ and also scoring two sides to help get more bark.

Very good tips in this thread

Men's group at church was selling boston butts, slabs of ribs, etc this weekend. I think I'll share this post with whoever cooked the butts. I've had better pieces of meat from golden corral. Couldn't pull the bone out, some of the meat was still raw, while some was like chewing on a tire. I fixed a pulled pork sandwich (with some of the "better meat" that I pulled off, ate 1/2 of it, and wound up throwing the rest of it away.

It's OK to say it, electric pellet smokers make sub par bbq. It's a fact !

I had similar results until I invested in a good meat thermometer and cooked at 225 until the internal temperature reached 160. Then I wrap the butt tightly in foil up the heat to 300 until I get internal temp. of 195-200. The next step is to place the wrapped butt in a cooler with a towel over it for about 4 hours. The meat will be fork tender, the bone comes out with two fingers and it's still hot as Hades and ready to separate meat from fat. I'm still working on a vinegar finishing sauce similar to Whitt's, Lawler's and Gibson's.

I've got an egg and a traeger. The traeger is just an outdoor oven so that people can claim they grilled or smoked something. I haven't been able to find anything cooked on the pellet grill that I can't do better on the egg

Truer words have never been spoken on this site. And it don’t matter if it’s a $1000 Treager, Pit Boss or a $200 Masterbuilt smoker. I’ve had them all and still use one but it’s just a fact that electric smokers of any variety just won’t put the smoke to butts or briskets like they deserve. They have their place, like chicken or bologna, or anything else you want a light smoke on but butts and briskets deserve the real deal.

I don't own an egg type grill but I have had some fine bbq off of one .

Yep...

Sounds like you've got it figured out. Rather than putting it in a cooler try sitting in on the counter over night to cool off. Think you'll find that it's easier to separate the fat and meat and your meat won't dry out nearly as fast at room temperature.

I'd get divorced! My wife and daughter are like circling buzzards when they know what's in the cooler. I've always had enough liquified drippings to keep the meat very moist. And that's with me picking out most of the fat and connective tissue. Maybe I'm partial to fat butts.:)

Good info in this thread

I know just didnt want to start a fight over it, some people get in a crazed way over knocking thier pellet smokers,

We had some butts that we did that we got to 180* on smoker, pulled and put in cooler for 2-3 hours and temp got to 205*. Meat was still tough and did not pull apart easy. I think it was the meat, either not enough internal fat or something. We ran the worst 30 or so of them through the buffalo chopper and it turned out ok. That is the first time I have had butts that didnt fall apart at +200*