![big minion butt big minion butt](https://i.pinimg.com/originals/28/b4/38/28b438dc68dc323ad3b8618353189385.jpg)
One problem I had with this method was that the fat cap and false cap meat-the surface facing the direct heat-rendered into what I can only describe as a burnt “hard cap”. Still, I don’t think it was a big improvement over my usual process of trimming the meat and cooking it indirect with or without water in the pan. The process was easy and the meat tasted good. Overall, I’m happy with the results of this cook. It goes from pulled to chopped to baby food very quickly! Is Untrimmed Direct Heat An Improvement? It works great, you just have to watch closely and not overprocess it. You can watch this process in the video that accompanies this article. The other butt was processed in a KitchenAid stand mixer! I pulled it into large chunks, removed any areas of fat and weird connective stuff, dropped them into the mixer and let it rip until the meat was the texture of chopped pork. It made for a delicious pulled pork sandwich! I pulled one of these butts by hand, mixing in some additional rub and a bit of barbecue sauce for added flavor and moisture. Make sure to mix the pulled pork so everyone gets some of the dark outside meat along with the light inside meat. See Pork Butt Selection & Preparation for a description of how to pull pork. Pull The PorkĪfter cooking, let the butts rest for 30 minutes before pulling the meat. Note that the vent percentages represent the way I set the vents at the time indicated.
![big minion butt big minion butt](https://grantland.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/07/minions_behind.jpg)
Here’s how the cooker temperatures and vent settings went during my cook: Time Both butts were finished at 8:15 am, with the smaller butt a bit overcooked at 207☏ and the larger one at 205☏. I fell asleep around 4:00 am and didn’t get back to the cooker until 6:15 am it was still chugging along at 276☏. I also gave the cooking grate a 1/4 turn every hour in case there were any hot spots below the meat. Along the way, I used a spray bottle to spritz the meat with water once the crust was set about 2 hours into the cook and about every 30 minutes thereafter. I cooked the butts until the internal meat temperature measured about 205☏ with a Thermapen Mk4 instant-read thermometer, checking in 3-4 spots and averaging the results. My temps spiked as high as 300☏ at times, but that was OK.
![big minion butt big minion butt](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/vzCHZEptBcU/hqdefault.jpg)
When the cooker reached about 250☏, I started to partially close the 3 bottom vents so the cooker settled in at 250-275☏ measured at the lid, adjusting the 3 bottom vents as necessary to maintain this temperature range throughout the cooking session. I opened the top vent fully and left it that way throughout the entire cook. I started with the 3 bottom vents at 100% open. No trimming, no tying, just patted dry with paper towels, slathered with brown mustard, rubbed with Big Poppa Smokers Sweet Money Championship Rub, and refrigerated until I started cooking near midnight.Īt 11:30 pm, I fired the WSM using the Minion Method, filling the charcoal chamber to the top with unlit Kingsford Charcoal Briquets, nestling three fist-sized chunks of dry apple smoke wood into the unlit charcoal, then lighting 30 briquettes using a Weber chimney starter and spreading them over the unlit briquettes.Īt 11:45 pm, I assembled the cooker, leaving out the water pan, and placed the pork butts fat side down on the top cooking grate. It doesn’t really matter, this is about the technique of cooking untrimmed butts over direct heat.įor the two butts shown here, I used bone-in butts weighing a total of almost 16 pounds. You can use whatever smoke wood and charcoal you like. You can use bone-in or boneless butts, you can slather or inject and rub with whatever concoction you like. Purchase two pork butts and season them as you like.