Butt injection advice (needed soon)


 
J

Joe McManus

TVWBB All-Star
I'm smoking 4 butts starting tomorrow night. Won't have much if any time to inject prior to them needing to get on the smoker tomorrow evening. Is it OK to inject tonight, almost 20 hours before they go on? Thanks.
 
I've done 12 hours...not sure if 20 would hurt... or even make it better. Have had great luck with,

1 cup chicken broth
1 cup pineapple juice
1 cup apple juice
1 cup beef broth
1 tablespoon olive oil
1/8 cup garlic juice (from the jars of chopped garlic)
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/8 cup granulated white sugar
2 tablespoons Worcestershire sauce
2 tablespoons hot sauce of choice
1 tablespoon kosher salt
1 teaspon garlic powder
1 teaspoon celerey salt
pinch of chipotle pepper

Combine everything in sauce pan, heat, stir until blended. Add whatever to your own taste. Refrigerate. Then inject, being sure to move the needle all throughout the meat so there's no puddling. (Puddling. That's kind of a fun word, isn't it?)

Then, take your rub of choice, put in a small bowl, and add just enough of this nectar to make a slimy slather. Rub the butt with it. Be sure to get the stuff in every nook, crannie and crevice of the meat. (Don't get carried away though--it's just a pork butt.)

Stick that baby on the smoker with your wood of choice.

Take the remainder of the magic juice, add a stick of butter, put in metal bowl on the smoker, and baste the big ole butt every couple of hours.

Pull the butt at 197 degrees, let set for 20 minutes, pull the bone out, start pulling and serving, and watch your guests' eyes roll back in their head as they say "Omygod, that's the best pork I've ever had."
 
As far as quality, I can't see it being a problem (I've only injected turkeys though...I'm certainly no pork butt master with only 1 pb smoke under my belt).

Be careful, though, about food safety concerns. My understanding is that un-injected is safe b/c the interior is sterile, and the high temps on the outside kill all the bad bugs before they get a chance to reproduce (or produce toxins, such as with the botulism organism). You are putting unsterile stuff into the meat and holding it...I would think this could be a little dicey. I may be wrong...hopefully someone else will chime in here.

Here's a great link regarding the food safety and bbq:

http://www.cbbqa.com/articles/Food-Safety/
 
Unless youre going for a specific flavor pattern or spice I wouldnt inject them at all. There really is no need to inject butts since they are the most forgiving meat to smoke. The rub and the smoke itself would do the trick and compliment the naturally sweet juicy shreads of the smoked butt.
 
<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">I may be wrong </div></BLOCKQUOTE>
You are correct.

Personally, I am not an injected meat fan but if you're going to do it cook then chill your liquid as Art suggests. Inject into cold meat and keep cold. It would behoove you to decrease the salt. (I realize this is post facto but I'm chiming in anyway.)
 
I just did an injected chicken yesterday, I put the injection solution in the freezer until it's 0*C (if there is any salt it won't freeze solid) then let it warm slightly in the fridge.

In the recipe given, I would be concerned about the amount of pineapple juice over a long time.
 
Thanks all for the responses.

I ended up not injecting last night. Got too late, I was too tired. I also just didn't feel right about leaving it there for that long. Hopefully I'll be able to get out of work a little early and give a go, but if I don't, everything will be just fine.

Again thanks for chiming in
 
If you look at the injection recipes used by the top competition teams out there you will find that they increase the salt content in the recipes.
Here is the Chris Lilly injection recipe:
1 1/2 cup apple juice
1 cup water
1 cup sugar
1/2 cup salt
4 tbsp worcestershier sauce

When doing whole hog I find for best results the injection needs to be almost to salty.
Jim
 
Jim,
That's the basic injection I've been experimenting w/ for awhile now. Taking it to competition next week. That'll be the test to see if I do better than last time out.

Was the salt content that ultimately convinced me to hold off on injecting last night (really i was too tired to start the process). Care to comment or suggest on how long before starting a cook the butts should be injected?
 
<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">you will find that they increase the salt content in the recipes. </div></BLOCKQUOTE>

My comment on decreasing the salt was specific to the increased amount of time between injection and cooking.

Jim, do you find that decreasing the salt is unnecessary in this circumstance?
 
I'm smoking two butts right now that I injected right before taking to the grill. I used my basic Q sauce (vinegar based) with the salt ramped up a wee bit. This is the first time I've ever injected a butt. Usually I store the butt in the fridge submerged in Q sauce overnight. Didn't have time last night to set up the marinade, hence the date with my stainless steele injector.
 
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