How much wood for pork butt?

[gfloridafan93]

I just bought a smokenator and I'm very anxious to try it out. I'm planning on cooking for at least 8 hours, using a larger pan instead of the small water pan. I am going to use both Apple and hickory wood chunks. My plan is to put one hickory chunk on one hole, one Apple chunk above the other hole, and an Apple chunk in with the charcoals to get the smoke started. I believe this will be a good start. However, when should I add more wood, or will this be enough? I'm a newb, so any help would be greatly appreciated.

[1luckytexan]

I would use more - probably try to have 'fairly regular' thin stream of smoke for the first 1/4 of the cook time.

however, it is variable due to personal taste and wood chosen. Hickory, sometimes called the King of smoking woods, is kinda strong. Oak is called the Queen, less strong, pecan is awesome, the fruitwoods are good too, but perhaps less strong. Avoid mesquite for BBQ, save it for grilling. (some folks make it work in tiny amounts, experiment carefully - it's strong and kinda 'oily' for low/slow cooking)

I'd think 3 hours would be fine fro your first smoke with the combination you mention. Some folks say theore's no benefit to more smoke after a certain temp/saturation level is reached, and there's a real possibility of over smoking if rub flavor is important to you.

Err on the low side and you will still enjoy the product - avoid excessive yellow or white smoke for long periods.

[ncsmoker]

gflorida how large is your pork butt. I can then better answer your question. I always use a mix of woods. Hickory, oak, maple and apple. But assuming an 8lb butt it will take 12 hrs. You will want to put smoke to for 6hrs. I use hickory for the first hour, then maple or oak for the 2nd hour then apple for the rest of the six hours. This gives a nice mild smoke flavor to the butt.

Don't put chunks in the round holes they will not start smoking until you need to add new coals. My chunks are 3x3x1 and I put them directly on the coals. See my post on where I get my wood chunks. If you have small chunks put one on top of the other so you can get a longer smoke. You may not be able to close the hinged grate at first but after an hour or so the coals will have burned down enough so you can. Just put your water pan as close to the coals as you can when this happens.

I also use a rub and do it the night before and wrap it and put in the refrig the night before.

Good luck with your butt, and enjoy.

Tom

[gfloridafan93]

Thanks guys for the advice. Yes I'm going to smoke an 8 pound butt. I guess I'm getting really paranoid about the wood chunks because I do not want to oversmoke the meat. That is my main concern. I do have another question. I just bought a maverick thermometer. Do I actually stick and leave the probe in the meat the entire cooking time or do I periodically stick it in the meat to check temps? Am I worrying too much about oversmoking with too much wood, or is it a legitimate concern? Again thanks all.

[ncsmoker]

Stick the meat probe in the meat the entire time. The remote will give you the temp of the meat as it goes up. As far as over smoking the meat, don't go over 1/2 the estimated time of the smoke for an 8lb butt 12 hrs., so 6hrs, it will never be over smoked. Also don't use the harsh woods like hickory for more than an hour. Use oak, maple and apple. Using all apple after the hickory will guarantee a mild sweet smoke. Also don't worry about the butt being over smoked the smoke will only penetrate so far, and then you have the rest of the meat to pull and mix with that meat. I use a good Carolina vinegar based barbeque sauce to mix with my pulled pork to cut the sweetness of the pork and the apple smoke.

Tom

[brianherbert]

Smoked Pork Butt Recipe for you here: bestsmokersinfo.com/smoked-pork-butt-recipe/