# Spending a Saturday with my two best Butts!



## PantherTailgater (Jul 15, 2006)

A group of my wife’s relatives are visiting today.  My wife is taking them, including her young nephew, to search for gems somewhere nearby (Thank You Lord for sparing me!) and I get to stay home to prepare BBQ for an afternoon meal.    

I purchased a couple of Boston Butts, about seven pounds each, at BJ’s.  They’re a little larger than I normally use so I’m starting a little earlier than when I planned.  I’m grilling with charcoal and using hickory chunks to add just a little smoke to the process.  I put the butts on the grill around 5 am so I’m thinking they’ll be ready by 4 pm.   =P~ 

Wish me luck!  I hope everything goes well.


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## Finney (Jul 15, 2006)

What you cook on panther?  You may have said before, but if you did, I forgot.  Hope it all goes well.  Remember the website's pic requirement. :!:


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## PantherTailgater (Jul 15, 2006)

Good Morning everyone.  It's going to be a HOT one here in Charlotte.

Finney, I use a CharGriller.  

I added more charcoal at 7 am.  The temp went up a little too high when I added the new coals so I had to close off the ventilation to cool her down.   #-o


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## Finney (Jul 15, 2006)

Butts don't care about fluctuations too much.  Just keep it in "the range".


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## Captain Morgan (Jul 15, 2006)

who's hosting your pics?  I can't enlarge em.  Always like to do that to see the finished product.


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## PantherTailgater (Jul 15, 2006)

Captain Morgan said:
			
		

> who's hosting your pics?  I can't enlarge em.  Always like to do that to see the finished product.



Photobucket.  I always edit them in Photoshop before I upload them so I can keep the size down.  Sorry......  :-(


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## Greg Rempe (Jul 15, 2006)

Looks like you are off to a great start!  But at 7lbs each, won't it take 14 hrs or more to finish them??  Glad you didn't have to go gem hunting either!! :grin:


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## PantherTailgater (Jul 15, 2006)

Greg Rempe said:
			
		

> Looks like you are off to a great start!  But at 7lbs each, won't it take 14 hrs or more to finish them??  Glad you didn't have to go gem hunting either!! :grin:



I usually use ones that are 5-6 pounds and they're ready around 10.5 hrs or so.  Think it will take that much longer for these?


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## Captain Morgan (Jul 15, 2006)

well it all depends on what temp he's cooking at.
Sounds like he's done it enough to make a decent guess on the time.


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## PantherTailgater (Jul 15, 2006)

craig castille said:
			
		

> You can increase the temp and finish them quicker. If you are cooking at 225, 11 hours may not be enough.
> 
> If you cook at 275, you'll probably be ok.
> 
> Or, you can wrap in foil to speed them up.



We'll see.  It's just family so they can wait if they're not ready in 11 hrs.    

I try to maintain it around 225 throughout and I never use foil.  I test the internal temp and when it's at 190, I usually leave them on for additional 25 minutes or so.  Since they're larger than I usually buy, I'll just have to play it by ear.  It's pretty easy to touch them and see when they're getting close to the right texture based on the one's I've done in the past.


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## Captain Morgan (Jul 15, 2006)

no worries, if you run short of time, just increase the temp some.


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## Bill The Grill Guy (Jul 15, 2006)

Captain Morgan said:
			
		

> no worries, if you run short of time, just increase the temp some.



You could also foil!


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## PantherTailgater (Jul 15, 2006)

Turned the butts at 12:30....time for another beer.......... 

Looking pretty good so far to me at least.....


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## Captain Morgan (Jul 15, 2006)

ok, I got my beer.


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## wittdog (Jul 15, 2006)

Those butts are looking good. =P~ How did you prep them and what kind of rub did you use?


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## PantherTailgater (Jul 15, 2006)

Just got a call from my wife.  They've bailed on the gem hunting already!  Can't blame them because it's getting rather toasty here in Carolina!!

Butts are coming along just fine.....................


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## PantherTailgater (Jul 15, 2006)

Of course they're not home on time so that gives me some wiggle room on the cooking time!   #-o

Gotta find another beer time before my wife and her family comes home......


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## PantherTailgater (Jul 15, 2006)

Well, here's the finished product.  Turned out pretty good, very tasty IMO!  The family seemed to like it even though they did have to wait a little while longer than expected.


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## Bill The Grill Guy (Jul 15, 2006)

Now thats what I call a meal.  Way to go.


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## wittdog (Jul 15, 2006)

Well I’d call those a couple of Gems….


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## Captain Morgan (Jul 15, 2006)

oh yeah!!! =D>  =D> 
The only thing missing from that picture is me!!


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## Cliff H. (Jul 16, 2006)

Looks real good.  How long did they end up taking to finish?


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## Finney (Jul 16, 2006)

They look great.  Plate of food looks gooooooooooooooood.  
I'm with Cappy this time... I wanted to enlarge to see detail.


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## Puff1 (Jul 16, 2006)

Fine looking meal Panther =P~


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## PantherTailgater (Jul 16, 2006)

Thanks for compliments everyone.  Turned out to be a pretty good meal.  It ended up taking till around 5:45, 12.5 hrs, till we took the butts off the grill.  

Sorry about not being to enlarge the photo guys.  If I could figure out how to use the board's hosting site, I would post it up there but I didn't have much luck yesterday when I tried.  Maybe one of the mods or admins could send me some info on exactly what I need to do in order to use the recommended site.

bige1, were you referring to the actual plates themselves?  If so, my wife found those at Wal-mart, believe it or not.  They work well to keep moist foods divided.


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## Captain Morgan (Jul 16, 2006)

the ephotohut thing died.  I'd reccomend www.imageshack.us
for hosting pics.


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## PantherTailgater (Jul 16, 2006)

Captain Morgan said:
			
		

> the ephotohut thing died.  I'd reccomend www.imageshack.us
> for hosting pics.



Thanks for the info Captain.   =D>   Here by popular demand..........


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## Captain Morgan (Jul 16, 2006)

mo betta!  I loves me some squash!  That's  Tar Heel heaven right there!


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## Finney (Jul 16, 2006)

I'd stand in line to eat that. :!:


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## LarryWolfe (Jul 16, 2006)

PantherTailgater said:
			
		

> Captain Morgan said:
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Looks great to me! But I've gotta say, the dish looks like the same one my little girls "Kids Cuisine" come in!  Do you serve the BBQ with the Pop Rock dessert??   8-[


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## Bill The Grill Guy (Jul 16, 2006)

Larry Wolfe said:
			
		

> PantherTailgater said:
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## PantherTailgater (Jul 16, 2006)

Larry Wolfe said:
			
		

> PantherTailgater said:
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## Cliff H. (Jul 16, 2006)

One more question there Panther.  From the pics it looked like the butts were as close to the firebox as they could get.  Just wondering if that is right or am I backwards somehow? 

If they were then how did you keep them from burning?


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## PantherTailgater (Jul 17, 2006)

Cliff H. said:
			
		

> One more question there Panther.  From the pics it looked like the butts were as close to the firebox as they could get.  Just wondering if that is right or am I backwards somehow?
> 
> If they were then how did you keep them from burning?



I prefer using the main chamber rather than the sfb for the fire source so the butts are at the other end of the main chamber from the fire.  I guess it's just me but I find it easier to maintain the temp with indirect heat from there with less charcoal.


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## Cliff H. (Jul 17, 2006)

So that puts your fire right under the exhaust.  Never seen that before.  I will have to give that a try and see how it goes.


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