12.76 lbs Boneless Pork Butt on the 22.5" Weber Smokey Mountain Smoker

(Commentary written as the cook happens...)

And... we're off! Once again, the pork butt is on the smoker! 12.76 lbs (two pieces) cut in half for more bark and faster smoke time. Going to try to keep the temp around 225 to 250 range. Smoking on the 22.5" WSM this time with hickory and water in the pan.

I'll wrap at the stall and keep going until I get to around 202 degrees.

I'm using two rubs. The middle rack is using Kick Butt Rib Rub - Hickory and the top rack is using Kick Butt Rib Rub - Chipotle Honey (which is really hot in comparison to the Hickory rub!) I want to see what the difference is on each rub. And, I put the rub on the day before to let it soak into the meat.

The pork is Swift Premium, boneless from Costco.

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Three hours into the cook, the pork has stalled at 159 degrees, so I placed the two pork butts into separate foil pans and covered the pans in foil. A bit of water was also placed in each pan for moisture (didn't have any apple juice or anything else.)

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Four hours into the cook and the internal temp is starting to move again. It's now at 164 degrees. The stall seemed to last only one hour this time. It might stall again though. I also added some additional coals to bring the pit temp up as well.  I also unlocked the Cajun Bandit door so a little more air could get into the smoker. I wanted to raise the pit temp up. As of this writing, the pit temp is now at 275 degrees. I'll lock it down again soon.

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I let the pit temp rise to 300 degrees and then locked down the Cajun Bandit door.  Internal meat temp is now at 175 degrees.  The pit temp continued rising after the door was locked down and got as high as 306 degrees before heading back down.

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Five hours into the cook and the pit temp is at 269 degrees. The internal temp has hit 199 degrees! So I'm done! But I'll let it go to 202 degrees anyway to be sure it pulls nicely.

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Well, I thought I was done, but I'm not!! Using my Thermapen Mk IV, I was able to quickly determine that the middle grate meat was only at 183 degrees, but the top grate meat is done at 203 degrees. I swapped the position of the middle to the top and removed the top meat and it's resting. Here's a photo of the top grate pork butt...

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The middle grate pork that was moved to the top grate finished at 7 hour 15 minutes. It is shown below:

Well, I learned a couple of things with this cook. First, the middle grate doesn't cook nearly as quickly as the top grate. I've read this before, but now I know firsthand. 5 hours for the top grate meat, 7 hours 15 minutes for the middle grate meat and that's after moving it to the top after 5 hours.

Second, I learned that even if the rub is rather spicy if tasted before adding it to anything (straight out of the bottle), it is nowhere nearly as spicy after you cook with it. Between the two rubs I used on this cook, the Hickory was too mild and the Chipotle Honey wasn't as spicy as I thought. Between the two, I'd go with the Chipotle Honey for pulled pork.

7.25 lb Pork Butt on the 14.5" Weber Smokey Mountain

Got a late start cooking at 3 PM this time... this will likely run until 11 PM or 12 midnight or later... who knows!

7.25 lb pork butt on the small 14.5" Weber Smokey Mountain smoker for pulled pork! Trying out the "Kick Butt" Hickory rub for the first time. Smoking with Kingsford Original with chunks of Hickory wood on the charcoal. Water in the pan. Pit temp is around 220 degrees currently. The smoker is wrapped with a welder's blanket today... it's cold and a bit windy.

I cut the pork butt in half to speed up the process for pulled pork and for a bit more bark. I also injected the butt with apple juice too.

Hit the stall 3 hours, 45 minutes in at 156 degrees. Wrapped in foil and added some apple juice for moisture.

The pork stalled for a second time 5-1/2 hours into the cook.  The temperature was 182 degrees.

The cook finished at 12:30 AM.  The meat never hit 202 degrees as I had hoped, but rather only made it to 185 degrees.  Still, it pulled with no problems and the bone came out cleanly.

The rub seemed rather mild, but worked fine.  I think it could use a bit more salt on it, but I'm ok with it.

Pauline's Pizza - San Francisco, CA

My sister, brother-in-law, nephew and I went to Pauline's Pizza in San Francisco.  Very interesting California style pizza!  Very thin crust except for the edges.  My sister also had their Nightly Special Salad as well which was grown in Pauline's garden!  We also met Pauline too!

We ordered an Italian Combination Pizza and also Chef's Special Meat Pizza (with Quince).  Never had a pizza with Quince, but it was very unique!

In N Out Burger for Lunch - San Francisco, CA

My sister took my nephew and me to In-N-Out Burger for lunch.

I had a Combo #1 - Double Double burger (two patties, two cheese slices) a regular fries and a Diet Coke.  My nephew had a Combo #2 - Cheese Burger, regular fries and a Sprite and my sister had a Cheese Burger only.

Got to get an In-N-Out Burger whenever I'm in California even though I'm sure it's not good for my diet!  The total calorie count for this meal was 1065 calories (the Double Double was 670 calories, the fries were 395 calories, the Diet Coke was 0 calories).

We were going to do Chinese Dim Sum, but my nephew kept saying that he had to have an In-N-Out with me because it was on his bucket list!  :)  We also searched for the Bible verses printed on each of the paper packaging.

Had to add some plastic ants to the photo since my nephew got a bag of plastic bugs!

Korean Dinner at Brothers Restaurant - San Francisco

My sister, brother-in-law, nephew and I went to Brothers Restaurant in San Francisco for dinner.  Very good Korean food!

Lots of dishes to wash after dinner!  Seems Koreans really have a lot of variety during dinner.  We went with Tasting Menu A which gave us a lot of things to eat.  The management even gave us an egg soufflé on the house!  Yum!

Lunch at Barney's - San Francisco, CA

My sister and brother-in-law had to work, so I took my nephew to Barney's in San Francisco for lunch.  We had hamburgers and fries!  He had the kid's meal (cheese burger with fries) and I had a Cheese Lover's hamburger and Sweet Potato Fries.  We shared the Sweet Potato Fries.  Not bad!

Moonstar Buffet - Daly City, CA

My sister took my nephew and me to Moonstar Buffet in Daly City, CA for lunch.  It's a very large all-you-can-eat Chinese buffet with a astronomy theme to it.  Even the tables have pictures of planets on them!

While it was very large, the food was very typical of any other Chinese Buffet.  I wouldn't say it was anything really special, but my nephew really likes the place.  I think all kids like buffets since they can wander around and pick up whatever they want to eat.  Lots of desserts too make this something that kids like.  He particularly liked the chocolate fountain so that he could dip marshmallows or Rice Krispies in it.  I liked the pistachio ice cream for dessert!

My two plates are depicted above.  I did add a few items after these two plates, but this essentially was my breakfast, lunch and dinner for the day.

$14.88 for adults, $7.88 for kids under 60 inches tall.  Service was definitely lacking here, but that is typical of Chinese restaurant service, I suppose.

On a side note, we were just 10 minutes away from the YouTube Headquarter's active shooter incident today at the time.  We didn't find out until we returned from the buffet.

Fried Egg - Made By My Nephew Ryan

My nephew Ryan made me a fried egg for breakfast!  He cooked it up all by himself.  It's really round!  Yummy!

Dinner at iPot - San Francisco

This is not the first time I have eaten at iPot in San Francisco.  I think it's actually my third time!  We got there just before 5 PM (opening time) and there was a line forming already.

You can boil your food or you can grill it.  I prefer to grill most of the meat.  But I like boiling other things like fish balls, pork balls, shrimp, mushrooms, udon noodles, watercress, mussels, etc.  For the meat, I like the wagu beef and the lamb.  But any other meat that comes my way, I like grilling that too.

We also ordered spring rolls, soup dumplings, crab rangoon and more!  For desert, we had almond jello and ice cream!

By the time we were done, there was still a line to get in.  Considering it was Easter Sunday, I suppose that was to be expected.  Great place!

Highly recommended!

Ham and Cheese Croissant from Tartine Bakery - San Francisco

My sister ordered a Ham and Cheese Croissant from Tartine Bakery in San Francisco for me.  Wow!  What a buttery and flakey croissant!  Add in the ham and cheese and it's just a winner all around!  Wonder what the calorie count on this was?  I ate half.  That's plenty.  This thing was huge!  Go there if you are ever in San Francisco and try it!