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How To Finish Pork Butt in the Oven

By: Author William Thomas

William Thomas

Editor-in-Chief & Pitmaster

I have been smoking and grilling meat from an early age and enjoy sharing my knowledge and expertise through the hundreds of articles I have written about BBQ. I hope to make everyone’s BBQ journey that little bit easier.
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How To Finish Pork Butt in the Oven

Cooking can be done in myriad ways, including smoking the meat. When you are smoking meat, you are cooking it over firewood.

The reason you do this is so you can infuse the meat with the smoky flavor from the firewood as well as whatever flavor the firewood gives off.

You can smoke many types of meat, and this includes pork butt. Sometimes, however, you don’t or can’t finish it on the smoker and have to do it another way, like the oven. In this article, we will go over if you can do this and how!

What Is Pork Butt?

If you hear that a cut of meat has butt in the name, then you are going to assume that it comes from the bottom area of an animal.

So, you might think that pork butt comes from the rump of a pig. Problem is, this isn’t even close to what pork butt refers to.

The pork butt comes from the shoulder blade, neck, and upper arm of the pig. It’s a mixture of all of them and as you can imagine this meat is very tough. Why? Well, it comes from the areas of a pig that has a lot of muscle.

Don’t let the name of the cut of meat stop you. Pork butt is very tasty.

Can You Finish the Pork Butt in the Oven?

You can certainly finish pork butt in the oven. While it may not be the first choice for some people, it’s very useful and sometimes necessary.

If you don’t have a grill, smoker, etc. then the oven is all you have to work with.

Don’t expect an intense smoky flavor as you get with smoking meat over some firewood, but the pork will be very tender and flavorful.

If you do have a smoker, then we stand by our statement. You can finish them up in the oven and might prefer to do this rather than finishing it on the smoker outside in your backyard.

There are many reasons why someone might prefer to take the pork butt off the cooker and then put it into the oven. In the next section, this is exactly what we are going to cover.

Is It Good To Finish Pork Butt in the Oven?

It is indeed good to finish pork butt in the oven. Sometimes, it might be your only option.

The following reasons are why it might be better to finish your pork butt in the oven rather than in the smoker.

  • The weather might not be working in your favor. This usually shows up with rain or some kind of storm in general. When you are smoking meat, you are cooking it outside. Trust us when we tell you the last thing you want to do is smoke meat inside. This is a huge health and fire hazard!
  • Unfortunately, we don’t always manage to get the timing exactly right when it comes to cooking. Meat can cook at a different rate depending on the cut, size, etc. Pork butt is no exception to this. By putting it in the oven, you can get a better idea of how much time has passed since you started cooking it, given there is a timer usually directly connected to the oven.
  • Finally, the last reason you might decide it’s better to cook pork butt in the oven is that grill temperatures can sometimes be out of whack. You don’t always have an exact temperature with grills like you do ovens. Some may run too hot, and others are not hot enough. You don’t want to end up with a burnt pork butt or one that’s still raw—though one is worse than the other since it can cause literal sickness.

How To Finish Pork Butt in the Oven

Now we are going to explain to you just how you can finish your pork butt in the oven. All you have to do is follow the steps we have listed below.

  • Before your pork butt is finished smoking in the smoker, you want to go over to the oven and preheat it to around 250 degrees. It can be 275 if you want it done more quickly.
  • Once the oven is preheated, turn off the smoker. You need to wrap the pork butt in some foil. Preferably two layers of foil so you can make sure it stays secure and doesn’t start coming apart.
  • Put it in the oven and let it start to cook. This process could take a while because your pork butt needs to reach an internal temperature of 190 degrees Fahrenheit. You can easily check this with the help of a meat thermometer.
  • The method of finishing the pork butt in the oven requires you to keep checking the internal temperature. Check every ten to fifteen minutes or whatever you feel comfortable with. Just don’t let too much time pass, or you’ll end up burning it.
  • Once it reaches the correct temperature, take it out of the oven and set it on top of the stove. You should probably let it sit there for a while and give it a chance to cool off.
  • The Last step is to serve it with whatever sides and toppings you prefer!

See? It’s that easy to finish your pork butt in the oven.

Final Thoughts

And that brings us to the end, folks! We touched on what exactly a pork butt is, and if you didn’t know, don’t feel bad. It’s a term that can throw you off.

The next thing we tackled was whether or not you can finish pork butt in the oven and why it’s good to do so in some cases.

The most important part was learning how to finish pork butt in the oven.

It’s not that hard, and while it may seem a little daunting at first, with a little practice, you’ll have no trouble transitioning your meat from the smoker to the oven.

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