Try not to let it cook past this point, though, or the meat might start to dry out. This waiting period will allow the juices to redistribute, so your pulled pork will be tasty and succulent. The meat will also be cooler to the touch, making your task that much easier. The pork butt stall occurs after several hours of cooking, usually when the meat reaches an internal temperature of around degrees Fahrenheit. Why does this happen?
This has a cooling effect on the pork butt, the same way that perspiration has a cooling effect on the human body. Our best advice is to plan ahead. Know that the cooking process will take about two hours per pound. This means that a pound pork butt will need about 20 hours in the smoker.
If you opt to use the Texas crutch, the pork will cook more quickly, but it might not have the same crusty bark around the exterior. As an alternative, you can wrap the meat in butcher paper. A reliable instant-read thermometer is one of the most valuable tools a pitmaster can have at their disposal.
A digital display will give you a more precise readout. This feature allows you to check the ambient temperature inside the smoker, as well as the interior temperature of the meat itself. This is what gives the resulting pulled pork meat its signature moist and silky texture. The art of smoking meat is all about taking tough cuts of meat such as pork shoulder and brisket and turning them into tender, juicy, flavorful masterpieces by controlling low cooking temperatures over time.
The anatomy of this cut is what determines its optimal cooking method. The pork butt is a sub-primal cut from the pork shoulder. It is a heavily-worked muscle on the animal. Because of the load-bearing activity of the shoulder muscle, the protein fibers of the butt are very tough, and they are held together with a web of connective tissue.
But though the butt starts tough, those who take the time and effort to tenderize it are amply rewarded with a deep, rich flavor and a succulent texture. Pork shoulder is the lead of culinary alchemists, just waiting, itching to be turned into gold. Kenji Lopez-Alt. We took two pork butts of similar size and weight, prepared them in exactly the same way and cooked them in two similar smokers.
For this project—and for successful smoking in general—we needed to measure both the internal temperature of the meat AND the surrounding air temperature of the smoker. Meat Prep: Each pork butt was taken directly out of the fridge, rinsed, and patted dry with paper towels. Our butts were boneless and needed extra help holding together, so we tied each of them with kitchen twine. Tying the pork keeps it in a uniform shape to help it cook evenly.
Use your favorite pork dry rub. Probe Placement: The ThermaQ probe for the meat was placed with the tip in the center of each butt. Any piece of meat is only as tender as its toughest part, so we needed to make sure the thermal center of each cut was reaching our desired temperature. The Cook: With the ThermaQ probes in place, each butt was placed fat side down so the fat could act as a barrier between the heat source and the protein, and help the meat retain its moisture.
We checked the air temperature of the smokers and internal meat temperatures hourly to track the progress. Maintaining a steady internal temperature in your smoker over the extended period of a slow cook can be a challenge and require some fire craft. On more than one occasion our high and low alarms helped us know we needed to tend the smoker fires to keep our cook temperature consistent throughout.
So when the water changes from liquid to gas form, it absorbs a significant amount of heat energy…creating a cooling effect…. Inside a cooker, the piece of meat is sort of sweating too. Take it on faith, once enough moisture has evaporated, the internal temperature will start rising again!
So many good things going on inside and out! Verifying the Temperature: Eventually, the internal temperatures of both butts started to rise again. Both butts were placed in their smokers at AM. Six hours and 50 minutes longer. Resting: Just like any other cut of meat, resting is an important step with pork butts. The protein fibers are allowed to relax out of the higher heat environment and reabsorb moisture.
We wrapped our pork in butcher paper and held it in an aluminum foil pan for about 30 minutes. The butcher paper is more porous than foil and allows the surface of the pork butts to breathe. I smoke Boston butts to a temperature of at least degrees. If you like sliced BBQ , degrees is fine but for pulled or chopped I want the final temp. Once the internal temperatures reaches I take the butt out of the smoker and immediately wrap it tightly with aluminum foil.
The meat will continue to cook in the foil for minutes and may reach a temperature of over degrees. I let the roast rest for between 30 minutes to an hour before unwrapping it and slicing or pulling the meat. Be careful when pulling pork from the roast as the internal meat near the bone will still be extremely hot. Now it's time to enjoy! If you have left over BBQ, place it in zip lock bags in smaller portions.
Vacuum packing is best. If will last in the fridge for days. I have heard of people vacuum packing smoked pork and freezing it. I've never tried it because we never have enough left. Here are other outdoor recipes to try:. Note to readers: if you purchase something through one of our affiliate links we may earn a commission. All rights reserved About Us.
If you didn't cook in foil you didn't did you? Shame on you then you'll also have some "bark" this is also something many pork pullers look for and eat. When done right it's not all dried and crusty, it just has a firmer texture and not quite dried out.
So, now you have this huge mass of pulled pork. The two traditional ways to eat pulled pork is either on white bread or cheap, small hamburger buns. And you know what, it's great that way. Now for the hard part. Some will eat this with cole slaw on the top - yup, on the sandwich also call a "samich" in some parts.
Depending on which side of the mountain in Carolina Lexington you'll either use a mustard based sauce, a tomato based sauce or a vinegar sauce. So there you have it, the pulled pork tutorial short version.
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