Help from Grill / Smoker experts

Well I decided to jump into the whole pellet grill world. I found what I think is a great deal on a Pitboss Navigator 850. It came assembled, with 2 Temp probes, a cover, and a big Bag of pellets. Got it for 100.00 less than most everyone is selling just the unassembled Grill.

Now its time to start learning to grill / smoke with it. It sounds like a Pork butt is the best thing to start with. I’m looking for any Info. anyone here cares to share to get me started. A few questions I have are :

What to look for when buying a pork butt?
What Temp to cook it at?
What should the internal temp be when finished?
About how long should I plan for from start to finish?
Do you want to add the most smoke at the beginning or end?
Overall – What’s the best recipe / process to follow.
Another ? I have is if I use it to smoke some fish ( Like salmon or Suckers ) is there anything I have to do to it after to make sure the fish smell / taste doesn’t carry over to the next meet cooked

I’m looking forward to giving it the maiden Voyage sometime this weekend. After the Pork butt what is anither easy meet to try on it?

Thanks in advance for all the reply’s and suggestions !!!

I have done a half dozen or so pork butts since I started smoking. I followed Aaron Franklin’s directions for rub, temp and time. Pork butt is less finicky about getting it to an internal temp and I dont think you can overcook it unless you dry it out. Look up his video on youtube. He doesnt go by temp, but by time. I have done it and it comes out amazing. You know its done when the blade pulls right out.
The key then is to let it rest so it reabsorbs the juices.
The night before I will put the butt in a big container with Apple Cider. Then dry it and put the rub on the next day.
One thing I tried once and really liked it was rubbing a spicy mustard all over it. Got some crazy bark that time which is also what I do for briskets.

my advice would be to jump on youtube and check out howtobbqright channel and bbqpitboys. hundreds of videos on there to try and most are pretty well explained.

also ive never had to do anything special while doing fish as far as the taste carrying over to the next cook

Trial, error, cold beverage, and enjoy the journey. There’s no “right” way or “best” recipe.

Best mentor for me is on youtube How to BBQ Right by Malcom Reed

How long? till it’s done:) temp 190-200 on the probe

Generally accepted smoking temps 225-275

Foil or not to foil is an open argument and if foiling when you do is also a debated topic

Yes, pork shoulder is one of the easiest to get started. It’s also more economical $/pound

As for fish, I would start another thread. that one is also not in my wheelhouse.

Have the same grill. It’s awesome. I would look on the Pitboss website. They have a recipe section that details how to cook just about everything. All the recipes I’ve tried have turned out great.

X2 on How to BBQ right by Malcom Reed. His Killer Hog rubs are also very good to try out.

KP wrote:

X2 on How to BBQ right by Malcom Reed. His Killer Hog rubs are also very good to try out.

excellent rub. i buy it in the 5lb bulk bags

I do salmon at least every 2 weeks. We eat it hot and then it is awesome leftover cold, or you can vacuum and freeze it.

I get the farmed steelhead (skin on) from costco because it is a little fattier than wild. Marinade with ginger, salt, garlic, honey, and soy sauce. Smoke at 325 until it is 140ish. You could do it lower and slower.

My 5 and 7 year old are becoming quite the food snobs…

Malcom is the man. Howtobbqright.com is a very good source. His killer hogs rubs and sauces are among the best out there. Scheel’s carries many of the killer hogs rubs.

Like all say You Tube is very helpful. The grill will do all you want to do but, cook a good hamburger.

Lots of good advice here. I would also recommend recording what you do so you can repeat it or adjust it next time or share a recipe. I have been recording the stuff I make in a word doc for years. It sucks when you make something up, it comes out great, and you can’t remember what you did because you had a couple of beer. If you PM me your email address I will be happy to forward my smoke book. Also make a fatty.

Fatty
Ingredients:
o 1 lb ground beef
o 1 lb ground pork
o 1 lb thick cut bacon
o 1 egg
o brown sugar
o garlic powder
o Worcestershire sauce
o Italian breadcrumbs
o Fine shredded provolone cheese
o Fine shredded mozzarella cheese
o 2 slices of provolone cheese
o 1 green pepper
o 1 red pepper
o 1 sweet onion
o Yellow mustard
o BBQ sauce
Directions:
1. Combine beef, pork, egg, brown sugar, Worcestershire sauce, Italian breadcrumbs, yellow mustard, BBQ sauce, and garlic powder together. Cover and refrigerate overnight. You can also use your favorite Meat Loaf recipe here instead.
2. Chop onion, green pepper, and red pepper up and sauté
3. Flatten meat to 1/4-3/8” thick on to wax paper.
4. Place the provolone cheese on one end of the meat.
5. Spread sautéed peppers evenly acrost meat.
6. Sprinkle cheese over peppers.
7. Roll up the meat into a round log starting on the side with the cheese slices and transfer into a tinfoil pan.
8. Lay the bacon on top.
9. Smoke for 225 degrees for 2.5 hours or until the internal temp hits 165 degrees.
10. Dump out grease than let it sit in the smoker for another 5 min.

A few tips:

bring your meat to room temperature before starting your cook

I like to let my rubs soak into the meat overnight

I’ve read smoke only gets into the meat within the first few hours. After that it won’t penetrate much anymore

As others have said don’t go by time go by internal temp to determine when it’s finished. Every cut of meat is different. You might buy a pork shoulder that cooks in 10 hours and the next week a different one takes 12 hours.

If you apply any sauces do it at the end. Sugar will burn and turn bitter

Most guys smoke in the 225-275 range. If u wanna have fun and experiment read up on “hot smoking”.

Beef can handle heavier smoke profiles like mesquite and hickory whereas fruit woods work best with more lighter meats like chicken and fish. My favorites are apple and hickory but they all have their place

Malcom’s great. Check out the ATBBQ Youtube channel, too.

I don’t find it’s necessary to bring meats to room temp, but it probably shaves off some overall time cooking. I think I get a better bark and deeper smoke ring when I start it cold. Once the meat hits 170 the smoke ring formations stops. Don’t get hung up on that because the smoke ring doesn’t directly translate to better flavor or anything else. It just looks cool.

Don’t get hung up on the temp to say when something is done. I poke the meat with a toothpick or probe thermometer and there should be almost no resistance going in and even less pulling out. I like the Thermapen from Thermoworks.

When picking out a pork shoulder, I check the side opposite the blade bone and look for one with a nice “money muscle”. It’s the tubular muscle with fat grains running long ways and is the best part, IMO.

If you have a Costco near you, they sell awesome prime briskets. I find they are much easier to do than a choice grade and cook faster. At the Costco near me the prime ones go between $50-60 for about a #16 packer.

Most importantly, have fun and stay hydrated with your favorite adult beverage. Lastly, save yourself the stress and start cooking earlier than you think. Once the vultures start circling the pit if the meat’s not done when they’re ready to eat, you’ll be inclined to pull it before it’s done. It’s better to rest finished bbq in a low oven or inside a cooler than to have to lay a beat down on one of your guests, or worse, to serve it before it’s time.

picklerick wrote:

Malcom’s great. Check out the ATBBQ Youtube channel, too.

I don’t find it’s necessary to bring meats to room temp, but it probably shaves off some overall time cooking. I think I get a better bark and deeper smoke ring when I start it cold. Once the meat hits 170 the smoke ring formations stops. Don’t get hung up on that because the smoke ring doesn’t directly translate to better flavor or anything else. It just looks cool.

Don’t get hung up on the temp to say when something is done. I poke the meat with a toothpick or probe thermometer and there should be almost no resistance going in and even less pulling out. I like the Thermapen from Thermoworks.

When picking out a pork shoulder, I check the side opposite the blade bone and look for one with a nice “money muscle”. It’s the tubular muscle with fat grains running long ways and is the best part, IMO.

If you have a Costco near you, they sell awesome prime briskets. I find they are much easier to do than a choice grade and cook faster. At the Costco near me the prime ones go between $50-60 for about a #16 packer.

Most importantly, have fun and stay hydrated with your favorite adult beverage. Lastly, save yourself the stress and start cooking earlier than you think. Once the vultures start circling the pit if the meat’s not done when they’re ready to eat, you’ll be inclined to pull it before it’s done. It’s better to rest finished bbq in a low oven or inside a cooler than to have to lay a beat down on one of your guests, or worse, to serve it before it’s time.

Really good advice here–especially starting earlier than you think. You can keep food wrapped in towels and in a cooler for a long time.

the 4+ hours cooks usually taste the best. drinking pops that long everything tastes great

Coletrain27 wrote:

the 4+ hours cooks usually taste the best. drinking pops that long everything tastes great

I’ve had a few marathon days that start with bloody marys and bacon wrapped jalapeno poppers. Then it’s on to beers and more appetizers and a quicker cooking lunch option like a fatty, smoked meatballs, meatloaf, baby back ribs, and then be too drunk and stuffed to have more than a little taste of the short ribs or brisket when they’re done. Good thing the leftovers make awesome breakfast burritos and will clear that hangover right up.

fishthumper wrote:

What to look for when buying a pork butt?
What Temp to cook it at?
What should the internal temp be when finished?
About how long should I plan for from start to finish?
Do you want to add the most smoke at the beginning or end?
Overall – What’s the best recipe / process to follow.

In order of your questions: Sale prices, you can usually find pork butt for around $1/pound if you stay on the lookout. Costco has them for slightly higher than that as a regular price. Not only is it the easiest to smoke without messing up, it’s up there with most tasty imo.

225 for pork and beef. You can play around with temps and times, but 225 is tried and true. Plus you are smoking meat, you don’t want to rush it.

Internal temp needs to hit at least 145, but you don’t want to cook it to just done enough when smoking, like you would a steak, you want it falling apart. 190-200 degrees is done enough to pull.

One hour per pound of butt is my general rule, but varies on smoker temp and weather conditions.

Roll the most smoke at the beginning, you want it picking up that smokiness right away before it starts to crust. I’ll roll smoke all the way thru, or at least halfway thru, but really the level of smoke the meat takes is decided early on.

You can get as fancy as you’d like with brines and rubs and other techniques. But imo you don’t get a lot of flavor from brines nor rubs after 8+ hours on a smoker, so I keep it simple with salt, pepper, garlic powder and brown sugar. And I’ll add on whatever else depending on how I’m feeling, onion powder, cayenne/paprika, inject apple juice etc are all in regular rotation, but not necessary.

You have an awesome easy bake oven (derogatory term for pellet smokers from stick burners, like myself ), that will make great finished products, so you can play around with all sorts of stuff and make it as easy or hard as you’d like.

BigWerm wrote:

You have an awesome easy bake oven (derogatory term for pellet smokers from stick burners, like myself ), that will make great finished products, so you can play around with all sorts of stuff and make it as easy or hard as you’d like.

I was going to go there, too, but I mostly use a Weber Smoky Mountain or an old Brinkmann Smoke’N Pit stick burner that I only use with charcoal and wood chunks, so I’m not worthy. Props to the stick burner purists.

crappie55369 wrote:

A few tips:

bring your meat to room temperature before starting your cook

Some great tips in here! Just this quoted one I’d maybe reconsider!

Meat takes a remarkable amount of time to fully reach room temperature. A 1.5″ thick steak takes more than 2 hours for the center to come to room temp. a 4.5 pound pork but takes….TEN HOURS! In the situation where you are smoking something, cool meat attracts more smoke than warm meat anyways, so your final result won’t be as smoky either!

This is pulled from Meathead’s book : The science of Great Barbeque and Grilling. Has tips / recipes for how to cook everything and dispels A LOT of grilling myths with science!!

Some examples of other myths he debunks:
– Plan on a 5 to 10 degree carryover
– Meat needs to rest after cooking
– Meat stops taking on smoke after an hour or two
– The red juice is blood
– Searing in meat seals in the juices
– Marinades penetrate deep into meat

+1 for Malcolm Reed’s channel.

Check out Meat Church on youtube; they just posted a good video on pork butts.

Mad Scientist BBQ is another fun channel to follow.

BigWerm wrote:

In order of your questions: Sale prices, you can usually find pork butt for around $1/pound if you stay on the lookout. Costco has them for slightly higher than that as a regular price. Not only is it the easiest to smoke without messing up, it’s up there with most tasty imo.

I could not find a Butt anywhere in my area for anything close to 1.00 a pound. Costco had packs of what they called a Pork shoulder that was about 1.79 Lb. I asked the meat guy if it was the same as a Pork Butt – He said Yes and NO. He said they do not carry true Pork Butt ( Also known as Boston butt ) I did a little google search search while I was there and the Pork shoulder and Pork butt are different. The Pork butt comes from higher up on the hog. The Costco guy said they do not sell true Pork Butt. Not sure if that is the same for all Costco. Then again there may not be much of a difference.
I was able to find a Butt at a local meat store ( Overpaid for it I’m sure ) I’ll have to find a better source for them in the future.

Thanks for all the Info. I’m looking forward to firing it up for my first run on Sat. I’m going to do the Prime and Burn off tonight. The research I’ve done says I should do the burn off at 400-425 for about a Hr. Is that enough temp and time?

I know a lot of other forums on this site don’t see much traffic but the Recipe Forum on IDO actually has quite a bit of traffic/food talk. Great advice and recipes there!

Not sure if he’s ever posted here, but there’s a guy who used to post to a lot of other sites named Reinhard and he maintains his own simple website. It hasn’t been updated for a while and it’s kind of a DIY website template, but I reference it ALL the time. Great tips and recipes for smoking meant, sausage making, and other recipes and outdoor stuff. He also has an AWESOME archive of historical photos of Northern Minnesota starting around 1900. Really cool stuff.

sausageheavenoutdoors.com

fishthumper wrote:

I could not find a Butt anywhere in my area for anything close to 1.00 a pound. Costco had packs of what they called a Pork shoulder that was about 1.79 Lb.

You did just fine. I’ll guess this was the boneless in a 2 pack. It’s my go to when cooking for large groups. There’s nothing wrong with that price either. At times places like Hyvee will do 99 cents per pound but that’s the exception not the rule.

I’ve also done the bone in from local meat stores. Much more expensive that the big box option. Sometimes it seems like it’s better and some not so much. Most days it’s just different. that’s probably more due to bone in vs boneless

I’ve watched a fair amount of youtube video’s. Lots of different opinions and thoughts on the whole BBQ / Smoking process. I guess that’s why they have Championships for BBQ. I’m not looking to win any championships – Just cook some meat that Taste good !!!

patk wrote:

<div class=”d4p-bbt-quote-title”>fishthumper wrote:</div>
I could not find a Butt anywhere in my area for anything close to 1.00 a pound. Costco had packs of what they called a Pork shoulder that was about 1.79 Lb.

You did just fine. I’ll guess this was the boneless in a 2 pack. It’s my go to when cooking for large groups. There’s nothing wrong with that price either. At times places like Hyvee will do 99 cents per pound but that’s the exception not the rule.

I’ve also done the bone in from local meat stores. Much more expensive that the big box option. Sometimes it seems like it’s better and some not so much. Most days it’s just different. that’s probably more due to bone in vs boneless

The ones at Costco were the Boneless ones. I paid more for Two of them with bones at the local meat market. Next time I will probably just try the cheaper ones from Costco and see if there is much of a difference. Both Costco and the guy at the local Meat market said that right now Pork prices are way up.

fishthumper wrote:

<div class=”d4p-bbt-quote-title”>BigWerm wrote:</div>
In order of your questions: Sale prices, you can usually find pork butt for around $1/pound if you stay on the lookout. Costco has them for slightly higher than that as a regular price. Not only is it the easiest to smoke without messing up, it’s up there with most tasty imo.

I could not find a Butt anywhere in my area for anything close to 1.00 a pound. Costco had packs of what they called a Pork shoulder that was about 1.79 Lb. I asked the meat guy if it was the same as a Pork Butt – He said Yes and NO. He said they do not carry true Pork Butt ( Also known as Boston butt ) I did a little google search search while I was there and the Pork shoulder and Pork butt are different. The Pork butt comes from higher up on the hog. The Costco guy said they do not sell true Pork Butt. Not sure if that is the same for all Costco. Then again there may not be much of a difference.
I was able to find a Butt at a local meat store ( Overpaid for it I’m sure ) I’ll have to find a better source for them in the future.

Yeah, sorry I mixed up the two terms, but both butts and shoulders work great for pulled pork and I don’t really think there’s a huge difference besides price.

fishthumper wrote:

Both Costco and the guy at the local Meat market said that right now Pork prices are way up.

That’s surprising since they were almost giving pork away a year ago when some of the processing plants shut down.

patk wrote:

You did just fine. I’ll guess this was the boneless in a 2 pack. It’s my go to when cooking for large groups. There’s nothing wrong with that price either. At times places like Hyvee will do 99 cents per pound but that’s the exception not the rule.

x2 Costco is usually between $1.39-$1.79 regular price, occasionally they will have them on sale for less. Hyvee/Cub/Coborns will have them on sale periodically for $.99 and I usually buy up a bunch when they do.

ThunderLund78 wrote:

I know a lot of other forums on this site don’t see much traffic but the Recipe Forum on IDO actually has quite a bit of traffic/food talk. Great advice and recipes there!

Not sure if he’s ever posted here, but there’s a guy who used to post to a lot of other sites named Reinhard and he maintains his own simple website. It hasn’t been updated for a while and it’s kind of a DIY website template, but I reference it ALL the time. Great tips and recipes for smoking meant, sausage making, and other recipes and outdoor stuff. He also has an AWESOME archive of historical photos of Northern Minnesota starting around 1900. Really cool stuff.

sausageheavenoutdoors.com

Reinhard is the man, and I tried to get him to make the move over to IDO from LSF, which I think he tried but didn’t stick for whatever reason. He used to post meat sales regularly too, which was great. That website has a ridiculous amount of info for all things meat, great reminder ThunderLund!

Get yourself one of these.
https://www.thermoworks.com/Smoke

When I get the grill up to temp I throw whole onions, garlic and green peppers directly on the coals to add a little more flavor to the smoke.