Butts - is it the brand or...?


 
R

Ron Hunter

TVWBB Member
I've had my WSM since early summer. After a number of smokes I'm beginning to believe there is a difference of where or which brand you use. All the butts have been bone-in: My experience is -
Walmart - tyson brand, never a failure always moist. Used these for my 1st smoke.
Sam's - Not tyson, about half always moist, the others so so! (still better than your average BBQ)
Kroger - Used them for the 1st time this weekend. If I didn't have two in the freezer, I'd never use them again. One of them is basically ok - not great but fairly moist and flavorful. The other - the meat around most of the fat is good; the rest dry. I wonder if a butt can be too lean for good smoking? If so, how can you tell? Another thought, the Kroger was the 1st time I used meat that had been frozed. They had been in the freezer for about 6 weeks at approx 0 degrees. (an instant read in ice cream at same location reads -4)

BTW - used hickory and cherry for the smokewood. Had been 50-50 but have changed to 2/3 cherry.
 
Have you made any correlation between the sources and results as to whether some are enhanced and some not? Walmart here sells just about everything enhanced, while butts from Sam's (typically IBP) are not.
 
Good point!

I haven't checked whether they were enhanced. However, I think the Tyson's are. I'll start paying attention to this.

Any thoughts whether a butt can be too lean?
 
Tyson owns IBP but like other packers there will be more than one product they sale, some labels will be enhanced while others won't from the same packers.

Jim
 
<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">Originally posted by Ron Hunter:
Good point!

I haven't checked whether they were enhanced. However, I think the Tyson's are. I'll start paying attention to this.

Any thoughts whether a butt can be too lean? </div></BLOCKQUOTE>

It sure can. Just like anything else. Usually happens in the summer when the piggies work off a bit of their chub in the heat.
 
True. Which is why, though you can use finish temp as a guide, going by feel will give you more bankable results.

Wal-Mart and Sam's buy from the same packers--but there is more than one. Also, there are many growers that supply the packers. Still, barring some minor seasonal variations, I find little difference in commercial pork products nationwide since the now many-year-old standardization of hybridizing, feed and feed allotment, and warehouse husbandry has occurred.
 
Ron, there are many variables in play on every smoke. Different rubs, different amounts of smoke, different cooking temps, different fat to lean ratios, etc. etc. When you are just getting started with the cooker, there is some amount of learning curve that you are going through as well. Even if you use the same smoke wood, same rub and same sauce there will still be many variables in play. There is likely more to the story than the source of the meat.
 
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