Just got my first smoker

[WeezyBengal]

(03-22-2021, 02:05 PM)MileHighGrowler Wrote: That's a beauty!  I've been caught by surprise at how long it takes to smoke a butt without wrapping.  Definitely a longer day than it feels it should be.  I love the idea of bark, but since I usually do pork like that for sammies, and they're going to get doused in sauce anyway I've started to car less about bark.  If I really want to relax, I'll smoke it for 5-6 hours and then pull it and just toss it in the crockpot till it's done.  It braises in its own juice so it stays moist but there's no bark.  Then I can shred right there in the bowl, too, and make it even easier.  If you want the bark and moisture and not as long smoking... well, I'm interested to hear what works to meet in the middle!  Otherwise, you could try wrapping it un butcher paper.  Or you could pan it in the smoker so the top half would get bark but it would sit in its renderings and stay more moist.  

One thing I always do is put a pan under the pork while it smokes and catch all of the drippings.  After I shred, I'll mix at least some of those drippings back in.  That adds fat/moisture back, and since the drippings sat in the smoker, they're really smoky tasting, which helps add smoke flavor to the meat in the middle which certainly never got smoke.  If you had a bark, it will be there for a little bit, but won't last super long since it's now wet. 

Yeah, I usually end all my cooks in the oven after I wrap. Just no point in wasting more pellets when its basically just roasting at that point.

Good point about the butcher paper. Aaron Franklin uses butcher paper and it seems like its a good compromise between bark and tenderness. The butcher paper allows the steam to vent through but also keeps the meat tender. I'll play around with it some more.