Gimme' some ideas for a 'new" pork butt technique please


 

John_Goebel

New member
This weekend is gonna' be all about PIG!!!

Planning on doing 2 butt's and 3 slabs of spareribs. The rib's I'm good with, oddly enough butt's have always been a weak point for me. I've tried many technique's and the results have been pretty inconsistent. Looking to try something new, standard as of now...

I do trim & crown butts try and leave a 1/2" cap

Inject with cider vinegar, apple juice, salt.

Rub with simple black pepper, Turbinado sugar, Paprika, dry mustard and a pinch or so of salt and cayenne after a light coat of peanut oil.

Wrap with plastic sit overnight.

Smoke FSU low about 230F till 190F internal spritzing with oil, cider vinegar and apple cider every hour starting at the 5 hour mark.

Wrap and rest in cooler for at least 2 hours.

Pull and try to get some slices of $$$ muscle as well.

Some have been pretty good, just nothing really great yet.

Gimme' some ideas please, don't care how whacky they may sound.

Any help will be greatly appreciated,
John Goebel
 
I really enjoyed the tandoori style pulled pork I made recently. Just find a recipe for tandoori marinade and do that to the butt.
 
John,

I'm not sure what it is that you don't like about the way your butts turn out, so I'll just give you my technique.

Everybody has their own approach in bbq as in everything else. I've been getting good results on butts with a much simpler technique than you've described. I usually do split- or half-butts (would that make them cheeks?). The advantages to those are that a.) they cook faster, and b.) you've got more surface area to get rub and smoke into the meat. I don't trim them or do any prep other than rubbing them down with John Henry's Texas Pig Rub right before I put them on. Once they're on, I don't mess with them until they're ready to foil at 170-175. I foil them up tight and stick my DigiQ's meat probe back in them (into the biggest one if I have more than one on) and run them up to 200 or so and start checking them for done-ness. I run my pit at 225 to 250, depending on how soon I want them done. When they're at the desired degree of mushy-ness, pull them off.

If I'm pulling them (as opposed to slicing them), I don't rest them. I put about a quarter-stick of butter per half-butt in a sauce pan and get it melting. Pour the juice from the foil into the pan, then pull your meat into the pan and stir it up so it's coated with the butter-juice mixture. I like to simmer it gently for 20 minutes or so to extract and distribute some of the flavor out of the bark. Then add your sauce, and that's it.

You'll get lots of good advice on this thread, some of which will probably be completely different than mine but equally valuable. Good luck!

Dave
 
I go simple. Trim most of the fat cap, leaving maybe 1/8". A very light coat of oil followed by a dusting of rub. Put on the smoker and take out when the shoulder blade is loose, generally around ~195-198º F. Let rest uncovered for 15-20 minutes then wrap in foil and rest in a cooler for a couple of hours. Pull and add a vinegar-based sauce (usually Lexington dip). Serve.

I haven't bothered with injections or spritzing and I rub just before I put the butts on the smoker.
 
I trim alllllll of the fat cap, including false cap. IMO it prevents bark formation on the bottom of the butt. There's more than enough marbling in the butt.
 
You didn't mention what species of schmokewood you're using.. Different woods add different flavors, and old dried out wood adds little to no flavor IMO.
I get burnt out on regular BBQ butts every now and then, switch it up and do a Teriyaki pulled pork or an Italian or Latin style one.

Tim
 
I trim all the fat, soak in brine ~8 hours, rub with spicy brown mustard, dust with rub, place on a clean burning WSM, place apple wood on fire, remove at ~198, let rest in a steam table half size disposable pan covered with foil, hand pull, eat. I never open the cooker until its done, spritz, inject, add finish sauce, etc.
 
The only things I would try differently are: removing as much fat as possible before rubbing, cook to a higher internal temp(right at 200) and rest them in a cooler on a rack unfoiled to preserve the bark you worked so hard for.
 
There's a new article on here about Meatheads tests on spritzing. I would not be lifting the lid doing this myself. I'm with Danny B. I would not foil either. Everybody above has some great ideas. Dave's idea of splitting would give you the opportunity to try a couple of methods. There are also a number of sauces you could try...Roxys Mustard & Vinegar is one depending on what you like.

Hope you find something you like.
 
Personally, I would ditch the oil. It seems to me that would block some of the flavor of the smoke and rub from getting through, JMO.

I do mine pretty simply, trim some but not all fat. Cover in small coat of yellow mustard, rub and then smoke over a mix of fruit/hardwood (Usually pecan and hickory)
 
I will qualify my comments by saying that I am just a backyard BBQ fan and not a competition cook. I have chased my tail reading and trying all the latest and greatest recipes and techniques, but I keep going back to the basics and a minimalist approach. I follow the “The Renowned Mr. Brown” recipe and techniques that Chris has outlined here on TWVB and it continues to produce the pulled pork that my family and friends keep asking me to make again and again. The only modification that I make is that based on my wife’s request I cut the cayenne in half. When I apply the rub itself, I also only use ½ the total amount of rub.

I do low and slow maintaining 225-240 and use no foil or pans in the cooking process. I have tried various injections and it always draws comments from the family that it is good but they like the other way better. My experience is that in all those various other techniques such as HH that the butts do not render and brake down the way that they do using low and slow. If I were a competition cook I would selectively pick the pieces that I wanted to showcase and ignore the fat and other stuff. As a home cook, we use it all.

I never do less than two butts at a time and do four most times because it is the same amount of work. What I really try to pay attention to is that I am using good quality wood that is dried by not years old. I have good local sources of cherry, peach, hickory, and oak and that is that I use. For pork I normally use plenty of cherry or peach with at most one piece of hickory or oak thrown in. I use KBB because I know exactly what it will do and how long it will burn. I cook the butts to an internal temp of 190 although I have pulled some that was in the 180’s on some cooks when it just didn’t want to cross the finish line. I foil and let them stand in the cooler for at least 1-2 hours. I have never had an issue with it being dry.
I put a lot of effort into the sauces that I make with it since that is what provides a lot of the overall flavor that people will taste when they eat PP sandwiches in particular. My wife and I freeze the leftovers and use it in a variety of things ranging from quiche to pasta.

Now if I could just get the same kind of consistent cook to cook results with spare ribs, I would be happy, but that is another story.
 
Thanks for the ideas. It's pork time!!!

Thanks for all the ideas folks.

As it turns out my plans have changed a bit. I was able to get 2 beautiful 8lb "Berkshire" bone in butt's so the rib's gotta' wait till another pay-day.

Got em' here.

http://fairwaypacking.com/

What a mind bending experience it was to run downtown to the famous Eastern Market district and get the grand tour of this place!!!!

Clean, Clean, Clean!!! it is, and the variety of incredible looking meat is gonna' make me get a second job...

The people were very nice, I dealt with the owners son Joe Baratta and he showed me all of it. Piedmontese Beef, Dry Aged Beef, Imperial Wagyu Beef, and of course the Berkshire Pork.

Anyway this is what I ended up buying...

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Trimmed, rubbed with Trader Joe's spicy brown and a lite first coat of the "Southern Succor Rub" Thanks Don for the link.

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You'll notice the first one got the cap trimmed pretty much all the way off, while I left 1/2 of the second one with some crowned fat on the $$$ muscle end.
No injection just gonna' let em' chill till about 9 PM pull em' add a second lite coat of the rub and let it rip!!!

That's it for now, great weather forecast for tonight and tomorrow:cool:

Till next time,
John Goebel
 
I've been on a butt roll lately......lots of family requests.

Mine are plain and simple.

I almost always do two at a time on the top grate. I trim very close, removing as much visible fat as possible. There is plenty of fat inside to flavor the meat. I've never injected. I rub heavily with a homemade rub that differs slightly every time because I haven't been measuring lately (always includes, brown sugar, granulated garlic, black pepper, chipotle pepper, kosher salt, mustard powder and onion powder). I'm usually heavy on the brown sugar and onion powder). I always taste the rub; I don;t use it until I like the taste of it straight. Watch the salt if the meat is enhanced with salt water; I try to but butts that aren't.

I cook low and slow using the minion method with K Blue. I use an empty/foiled pan. I adjust the bottom vents so the cooker runs at about 225-250. I never foil unless I'm running out of time. If I think about it, I'll spray with apple juice a couple of times, although I've never been able to tell the difference between when I do or don't. I take them off when they get probe tender, internal temp usually somewhere between 190-205. I only use the temp to gauge when I'm getting close; I only pull em' when they're probe tender.

I will wrap in foil/towels and place in a cooler with until everyone arrives and pull right before serving so it's still piping hot.

I serve with sauce on the side. I usually play around with the #5 recipe until I'm happy with the flavor; mine is usually sweeter.

Good luck and save some for me!!!
 

 

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