Did This Ever Happen To You?


 
Lew Newby

Lew Newby

R.I.P. 1/26/2024
I'm doing a Pork Butt on Saturday and I was sitting here thinking about when I was going to inject. I always inject before I go to bed and start cooking the next morning. So the injection is in the meat 8-10 hours before it goes on the cooker. Since it's something I just do automatically I was wondering why? I got on the computer and did a search for how early to inject a butt. The very first item that came up was a TVWBB thread so I read it. Someone had posted the question and several folks explained how early and why. Then I noticed the name of the person that posted the question. DUH!!!!

7 years ago that was one of my first 20 questions on this forum. Here it is. "Sunday I'm cooking an 8.5 LB. Butt and will inject it with Chris Lilly's inject. SWMBO prefers injected pulled pork. Thinking about the cook, engineer mentality , I'm wondering how far in advance I can inject the Butt. Is it safe to inject 36 hrs. in advance?" The advice I got was 12 hours max.

I'm getting old folks.
 
I was thinking that if an injection is meant to tenderize (also flavour but that's not the issue here) time depends on what's in the liquid. Just like with fish, tenderizing too long (say with an acid component--vinegar) turns the product to mush. Not what you're looking for I'm sure.

Having said that, why? Any time I've done it it always comes out tender and juicy with it's "built-in" fat component. Don't need to add anything (other than the exterior rub).
 
I was told that the salt in the inject starts to cure the meat after 12 hours and the ham taste creeps in. My inject doesn't tenderize, it just adds a layer of flavor. Why inject? When I started I didn't inject and then one day I tried it. Sara , my wife, noticed a taste difference and told me she prefers the injected butt. What Grandma wants, Grandma gets. I inject.
 
I tried injecting a solution of no salt chicken broth and the exterior rub I put on the butt. It did give it an added element of flavor which I really liked.
But like Len said with all that good flavored fat in a butt except for exterior rub nothing else is really needed.
 
I have let a rubbed butt sit in a zip-loc bag, refrigerated, for up to 36 hours before smoking. Everything turned out fine.
 
If you are talking about brain fade, yes. As to injecting and brinning, I quit almost as soon as I started. I just like the meat as is.
 
Ya know - this thread could start approaching an "R" Rating with all the talk about "butt rubs" and injecting...

I stopped doing it after I found that it was mainly to get some salt into the "inner meat".
What I NOW do instead is to sprinkle a little left-over rub into the finished product and gently fold it in - gets a bit of salt & spice into ALL of the meat and enhances the smoky flavor.
 
When I was a kid, I would try to get away from the Doc before an injection. I figure the butt probably feels the same way.
 
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