roasted pork butt

[Dutchoven]

Hey all!
Fired the oven today to bake some bread and decided to use the lower heat to make a really fantastic pork butt for dinner tonight. Seasoned with dry rub and roasted for 5 hours and consumed with horseradish...meat fell right off the bone...tender like butter...MMMM!
Best
Dutch

[DrakeRemoray]

Re: roasted pork butt

Yum! How hot do you think the oven was when you started? Do you know the oven temp when it was done?
Drake

[PizzaPolice]

Re: roasted pork butt

Dutch:

Would you expound on your method? How many butts did you do?
I have a NBBD all tricked out for 225F but can fit only four butts in there. 10 hours and a case of beer later, I'll have a tender butt with a one inch smoke ring. ...And the pork is pretty good, too.

PizzaPolice

[Dutchoven]

Re: roasted pork butt

Drake
I was still baking bread in the oven when my wife had it ready so this one started inside and then went in the WFO...air temp was about 325 when it went in...can't say exactly what the temp was upon retrieval...was dark...by feel low to mid 200's...it was in about 5 to 6 hours total...I said it would be a new Ron Popeil product...just set it and forget it...
Police
We did just one but it was a pretty big one....just a dry rub...this time a short marinade but could be better with a longer rest...we don't generally apply smoke because we do it when the oven is fully clean after bread baking...also this one roasted covered...smoke could be applied in a WFO if you have a pretty good seal on the door and you leave some coals in there while you are cooking...in that case you can go in uncovered to get nice caramelization and then cover and let it go for anywhere from 6 hours...drop some of your favorite wet smoking chunks on the still hot coals and there you have it...turkeys are great in there too...have to make the thanksgiving pics smaller...Oh and our oven chamber is 34 by 40 so we could do quite a few in there
I was trying to be good and not poke fun at the "10 hours and a case of beer later, I'll have a tender butt with a one inch smoke ring"...but I failed...does the case of beer help to tenderize your butt?
All the best to you guys!
Dutch

[RTflorida]

Re: roasted pork butt

Looks VERY tasty.

I've done several pork and or beef pot roasts, usually cooking in the same 5-6 hour range - until falling apart ( they have all stayed juicy). I usually start with the dome in the 300 (sides) top (325) and hearth around 300.
I am actually afraid to go any lower or slower (food poisoning thing) for a starting point. The ending temps are somewhere in 225 - 250 range.

Smoking has been a different story. I will start around 275 and keep all temps in the 250 - 275 range with smoldering hickory chunks. I know it is not die hard low and slow smoking temps (200 - 225), but I am still learning and making great experimental food.

Keep your temps high enough to stay healthy and have fun experimenting

RT

[Dutchoven]

Re: roasted pork butt

RT
You should worry so much about the cooking temps with regard to safety...it is the final temperature of the product. Cooking in the 200-225 range would simply mean a longer cooking time to get to temperature stabilisation...like police's 10 hours to a tender butt...if you do pork 155 internal temp is considered safe in restaurants higher if it is stuffed...beef has a whole different set of standards...so after I got long winded...I don' think you have to worry at all!!!
Best to you
Dutch

[DrakeRemoray]

Re: roasted pork butt

I have linked to this somewhere before, but if you keep the temp above 170, it seems to be ok from a food saftey perspective:
Slow Cookers and Food Safety
Drake

[rberg02]

Re: roasted pork butt

From a smoker's viewpoint, for a pork butt (as prepared for pulled pork) to be fall-apart tender, the internal temperature has to reach at least 190 degrees F. From a safety standpoint, trichinosis (the main safety concern with pork, although extremely rare nowadays) is killed at 139 degrees F. I believe it is also killed by being frozen around zero degrees for a couple of weeks, but I couldn't swear to this.

For other more tender cuts of pork, such as a pork loin, for example, cooking it to an internal temperature of 140 - 145 degrees F. then allowing it to rest for 15 to 20 minutes before carving, the carry-over cooking will raise the internal temperature an additional 5 to 10 degrees F. and will result in a fine juicy roast which is perfectly safe.

It should be emphasized here, that resting time is extremely important for any roast, be it pork, beef, poultry, game, etc. in terms of quality of the final result. I once saw pictures of a prime rib roast roasted to medium-rare which was cut in half immediately upon exiting the oven. It appeared well done except for an approximately 1" circle of very rare meat in the center of the roast. An identical roast cooked to the same internal temperature was allowed to rest for 20 minutes, then cut in half. This roast was medium-rare from edge to edge.

Hope this helps.
Ron