Two Butts and a Picnic

A personal best has been achieved. Last night the Weber was extended and fired up. At 9 pm, having achieved a steady state temperature of 240 +/- 30 deg-F (despite light wind, rain and a low of 45-deg-F), two boston butts* (6-7 lbs each) and a picnic roast (6-7 lbs) were placed on the grill and it was capped with one vent opened on top and bottom. Started with lump but replenished using briquettes at 11 pm, 3 am, 7 am and 11 am. One problem encountered was a low dome temp of 105-deg-F was accidentally hit at 3 am because the lump burned out too fast. I suspect however a mean kinetic temperature of approximately 240 was achieved for almost all the grill time. Twelve hours into the cooking, the internal temp of the meat (measured at several spots near the bone, was 195-200 deg-F. Despite this reading, the roasts were left on until Noon, a total of 15 hours. For fatty pork roasts, I've always cooked them long and have never turned one dry. I believe the window of optimal cooking is huge. The pork roasts were removed, wrapped in foil and placed in a warm oven until 3 pm. Still quite warm but easy to handle, they fell apart nicely. Fork-pullable indeed. The meat was lightly dressed with a mixture of ketchup and cider vinegar (3:2 v/v) and served up with rolls and coleslaw for a proper pulled pork sandwich for 20 or so (with several pounds leftover). It was heavenly. I wrote this to remind myself of all the things that can go wrong (coals going out, overcooking, letting it sit for hours until dinner time). It seems all you need to do is cook it till 195 internal and then keep cooking. I don't know if it's possible to overcook a butt/picnic. Also, the picnic was significantly leaner. I think the taste of the two was about the same.


*Note: Butts and picnic roast were rubbed with a mixture of brown sugar (4 T), salt (2 T), pepper (2 T), paprika (2 T), coriander (2 T), oregano (2 T, dried), parsley (2 T, dried), wrapped in foil and placed in a cooler (ca. 45-deg-F) until ready for cooking.