I smoked another two pork butts on the 18.5" smoker today! I cut them in half and put the 8 lb butt in the middle rack and the 6 lb butt on the top rack.
The outside temp today was 6 degrees with wind chill making it feel like -9 degrees. My pit temp was adjusted and was holding strong at 256 degrees. The 18.5" WSM was wrapped with a welder's blanket. The pit temp and meat temp were monitored indoors using the remote of the ThermoWorks Smoke thermometer. (Can't smoke without that thing!!) I also used water in the water pan and had a pizza pan (wrapped in aluminum foil) on top of the water pan.
Eventually, the pit temp dropped to 228 degrees, so I opened up all of the lower vents on the WSM to get more air in. That started to raise the temp to 240 degrees where it remained until I decided to put the meat into aluminum trays and wrap the top with aluminum foil. The internal temp of the meat was at 150 degrees, but the pit temp had started to drop to 230 degrees. I also added more charcoal to the charcoal grate in hopes to raise the pit temp and to keep the heat going. It helped bring the pit temp up to 270 degrees.
Total cook time was 5 hours, 45 mins. I took the meat out when it hit 198 degrees just to be sure both top and middle grate butts were done. I was only monitoring the butt on the middle grate, but I confirmed that the top was finished by using my ThermoWorks RT-600C Pocket thermometer. That temp was 199 degrees.
I decided not to pull the pork but to slice it instead. There wasn't much rub left from previous rub containers, so I just used what I had. Because of this, the pork isn't too salty (a good thing for me, really) and there wasn't much bark either. It's ok. Still tender enough!
Eventually, the pit temp dropped to 228 degrees, so I opened up all of the lower vents on the WSM to get more air in. That started to raise the temp to 240 degrees where it remained until I decided to put the meat into aluminum trays and wrap the top with aluminum foil. The internal temp of the meat was at 150 degrees, but the pit temp had started to drop to 230 degrees. I also added more charcoal to the charcoal grate in hopes to raise the pit temp and to keep the heat going. It helped bring the pit temp up to 270 degrees.
Total cook time was 5 hours, 45 mins. I took the meat out when it hit 198 degrees just to be sure both top and middle grate butts were done. I was only monitoring the butt on the middle grate, but I confirmed that the top was finished by using my ThermoWorks RT-600C Pocket thermometer. That temp was 199 degrees.
I decided not to pull the pork but to slice it instead. There wasn't much rub left from previous rub containers, so I just used what I had. Because of this, the pork isn't too salty (a good thing for me, really) and there wasn't much bark either. It's ok. Still tender enough!
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