Hey folks,

I tried cooking my first pork butt on my 22.5" kettle today. I used one charcoal basket on one side filled with Royal Oak lump charcoal. On top of that, I placed a small water pan. Once the lid temp was at 300, I put a 3 pound butt on with a drip pan beneath. Once an hour I turned and basted the meat and added more coals and wood. The lid temp was between 225 and 280 most of the time. At 6 hours, however, the meat temp was only 150. I kept cooking it for another 3 hours, and the meat temp was still only 185. I finally just foiled it and finished it in the oven. What gives?

The only reason I can think it took so long was that taking the lid off to add charcoal and baste every hour kept dropping the temp down, so it wasn't really cooking steady.

Thanks for any help you can give.

Jason Ridgeway

Just like with a small brisket, a small butt will take a long time to render it's connective tissue.

I can cook a 12 lb packer in 12-15 hours, while a 4 lb flat took me over 9 hours recently. I think the same would hold true with small butts as well.

Opening the lid every hour or so may have slowed down the process marginally, as the kettle is quick to recover temps, but the real culprit was the meat itself.

At 185, the butt should have been close to pulling. Sounds like you did OK.

Craig,

Thanks for the help. I would never have figured that out on my own.

The pork was excellent, by the way.

jason, the lower charcoal grate needs to be covered up to the charcoal with foil. otherwise fresh air just cools things around the butt.
on the old style with the three vents its not to
bad cuz you can close two of them under the butt.