Gonna smoke my first Shoulder (butt-end)

[Brian Bo.]

As the title says. I picked one up this morning - a five-pounder for my gf and I (and my two pitbulls). I plan on smoking it on Saturday and I practically want to smoke this thing when I get home from work tonight! Damn smoker!

Well, I'm debating about whether or not to use a vinegar-based sauce (not too much of a vinegar fan) or a tomato-based sauce. I've found some recipes for both and that's something I'm still trying to decide on. One of my favorite BBQ sauces (commercial) is Sweet Baby Ray's. Although this sauce may be too thick for BBQ'd pulled pork, I dig the flavor. However, I do not want to commit sin by using it. hah

I'm psyched more than anything.

One question: Do you guys ever pull the pork and throw it back onto the smoker (in a pan) with sauce added to it? Just wondering how many people do that regularly or just put the sauce on the sandwich when it's feeding time.

While I'm at it, who here marinades versus dry-rubbing? I have an awesome rub I picked up from a shop on Long Beach Island in New Jersey this summer (Okie's Butcher Shop) and was planning on using that...as I've used it on some ribs I made in the oven at my cousin's beach house out there - They tasted great with the rub.

 

[Hunter Lewis]

Brian,

Welcome to the board! You guys will surely enjoy all the support everyone offers. As for your pork Butts:

I use a dry rub with brown sugar, cayenne, salt, pepper, rosemary, cumin, whatever else you want to add. I rub it up really well and let it sit in the fridge for about an hour while I prep my cooker. I use an empty water pan covered with foil. When It is done, internal around 190 F I pull it, and put it in my crock pot on the "keep warm" temp and I mix in some sauce to keep the moisture level high. The best sauce in my opinion that I have ever tried is Fat Johnny's. here is a link to the recipe. It is easy and makes a great sauce to go with the pulled pork:
http://tvwbb.infopop.cc/eve/forums/a/tpc/f/1980069052/m...790077663#8790077663


Sweet baby ray's is one of the ingredients in this sauce. Enjoy your first smoke and ask all the questions you like. there are lots of guys on this board that will forget more than most people ever know.

Hunter

 

[Tom Burrus]

My family really likes Steve Petrone's No. 5 Sauce but with some added mustard powder (say 1/2 teaspoon), honey (maybe 2 Tablespoons) and a few good twists of fresh ground black and white pepper (maybe 1/2 tsp) according to his original recipe. A simple but delicious sauce that is a nice complement to pork and beef. It becomes thicker the longer you simmer. It is somewhat sweet; you could adjust the sugar or honey somewhat if desired. In the No.5 thread above, there are lots and lots of other variations that you can try as well. (I'm thinking adding garlic for my next batch...) Making your own sauce is not only easy, it is very rewarding as well.

I like Sweet Baby Ray's OK, but only on meats that I don't smoke myself. It has a pretty strong smoke taste itself that is redundant on properly smoked meats in my opinion. It seems to almost conflict with the smoke of my pork and briskets. It is great on grilled foods though and also some commercial BBQ (but only if I don't have No 5 handy!)

Enjoy and good luck!

 

[LarryR]

Brian, I rub vs. marinade. Love number 5 and from time to time I do a Carolina red. My suggestion, do some of both and see which you prefer.

I too am a Sweet Baby Ray's guy; I mix mine with honey 2:1 for my ribs. Very tasty stuff.

Good luck with your cook.

 

[Brian Bo.]

Guys, thanks for the replies! Everyone here is always helpful.

The rib I'll be using (I guess) consists of the following:

Salt, Spices, Paprika, Brown Sugar, and Natural Hickory Smoke Flavor

I have four types of woods available for the cook: Apple, Maple, Hickory, Mesquite. I ran out of Cherry...so I think I'll be using Apple for this cook (never had smoked meats with apple wood flavor before). Good idea?

I was going to put the rub on tonight but I figured I'd wait until tomorrow...as I'll be putting the butt on the smoker Saturday morning (8am).

How soon before the cook/meal do you guys make your BBQ sauce? I've heard about vinegar-based sauces being made the night before so that the vinegar can break down the other ingredients. I'm still deciding on which to make and I'm not big on vinegar...or cole slaw, for that matter, haha.

Also, my butt has a bit of a fat cap (about 1/4" thick). Do you guys normally smoke with the fat cap on the bottom or top...or half/half? When I do brisket, I usually leave the fat on top for 75% of the cook. Just wondering.

 

[Bill Gillespie]

Brian, I am actually cooking two boston butts (about 8 lbs each) this sunday for the PATS game. This is what I will be doing. I am going to inject butts first (one vinegar based and the other with FAB -it is a flavor enhancer), then put on the dry rub(Sat nite) and let them sit in the fridge over nite. I am using two dry rubs, one is my own and the other is Bone Sucking Sauce seasoning, Which I used on ribs last weekend(very good). I am going with a high temp cook on the butts, 3 hours then foil for 2 hours (about 5 hours cook time @ 350 degrees). I always cook with that fat cap down, I feel it gives you a better bark IMO. When I do comps, After I pull the pork and add sauce I will put it back on the smoker for about 15 - 20 mins just to warm it up a bit. This is the way I am doing it, but the fun of BBQ is experimenting with different ways. hope this helps and have fun. Oh yeah by the way apple wood is a good choice when cooking pork

 

[Brian Bo.]

Thanks, Bill. I'll take that advice, however, the difference with my cook will be the temp. I usually cook at 220F for the entire cook. And it's good that you brought-up the re-heat at the end of the cook when you pull the meat, because I planned on doing the same thing. I've seen pics of the pulled meat in a pan with sauce and then thrown back on the smoker. I can't wait.

 

[Gary Michael]

Im not a Vinegar fan either, but when you make a batch and it goes on pork, its a different story..they were meant for each other. I use an unfilterd, raw apple cider vinegar mixed w/ water, ketchup and or a lil Q sauce. I like it super thin to go through the meat. The butt at 220 will take awhile so prepare for that. Dont be afraid to got 250-275 I cook em at higher temps on the kettle all the time.

 

[Brian Bo.]

My butt is 4.7lbs, so I'm expecting a 10-hour cook. I'm ready for it.

Do you guys use that to spray onto the meat or simply for finishing sauce? I usually spray apple juice onto my meats (brisket / beef ribs / pork ribs) every couple of hours during the cook.

Recommendations?

 

[Mike R. (Heyworth)]

Welcome to forums! I make my own sauce, similar to no.5, just a few more things in it. I am a vinegar fan, and love it with pulled pork. Mine has tomato and vinegar in it, so it balances between the two. I too enjoy SBR from time to time, but I like my own better!

For me, I re-heat small quantities in a non-stick skillet. I throw the pork in, get it a litle warmed up, put in some sauce, and get it all sizzling together. I really like it this way, as the sauce will carmelize a little . It also smells wonderful when it is heating up.

As for spraying/basting: I don't do it, because it requires the lid coming off. I am anal about not peeking at the meat, and occasionaly have to be restrained to not look at it, but I have found that pork butts don't need basting. When you get a good bark, all the baste does is soften it up, and most runs off anyway.

 

[Taylor Moseley]

Fat Johnny's is my personal favorite sauce for butts, so i second that. Steve petrone's #5 and Lexington sauces are great too, especially if you customize. All of those are sauces very much like the ones I encountered as a kid in southern Virginia and western North Carolina.

Here in Las Vegas, I am pretty much alone in my preference for Fat Johnny's or any spicy, red tinted vinegar sauce. Even my parents, who should know better, like another sauce I fix better, and so do all my friends, most of my co-workers, and all my in-laws. It's a recipie from Steve Raichlen's "Sauces, Rubs, And Marinades book"

"Memphis Style Barbecue Sauce"

WET FIXINS
4 C Tomato Sauce
1 C Cider Vinegar
1 C Coca-Cola ( I use caffine free, or Blue Sky Cola, sometimes Dr Pepper instead)
1/4 Cup Steak Sauce
1/4 Cup Yellow Mustard
1/4 Cup fresh lemon juice
3 T Molasses
3 T Soy Sauce ( I use low-sodium)
3 T Worchestershire sauce
1 t Tabasco
1/2 t Liquid Smoke

Dry Fixins
1/2 C packed Dark Brown Sugar
1-2 T Rub ( I use whatever rub I just made)
1 T Pure Chili Powder ( I half this)
1 T Fresh Ground pepper
1 T Mustard Powder
2 t Garlic Salt

1. Mix and bring to a boil the wet fixins.
2. Mix together dry fixins (I just dump em in 1 at a time)
3. Simmer to desired thickness about 30 mins.

The book says it makes 4 cups, but I usually only simmer 20-25 minutes for a thinner sauce, about 5 cups.

I think the "Authentic" Memphis way would be to slice the pork and use mustard slaw, but I just pull mine the NC way and use a vinegar/oil slaw. People have used the sauce on pork that didn't have any thing else mixed in, and pork that had been sauced with Fat johnny's and have been equally pleased.

P.S. When I make this I cheat and skip an ingedient or two half the time, or use a lazy replacement. The only thing I wouldn't replace is fresh ground pepper with storebought, but if you have to use a coarse grind and use half as much. I have overspiced this by using storebought, and the pepper flavor was worse to boot.

 

[Brian Bo.]

I made a finishing sauce this evening. Do you guys sauce-up the pork once it's pulled and then throw it back on the smoker (in a pan) or do you just use the sauce once the pork is on the sandwich? Will the pork be too dry if I don't use some of this sauce as soon as I pull it?

I'm also planning on incorporating chopped onions into the mix...but don't see how adding onions, without pulling the pork and adding sauce and mixing it altogether, would be appetizing.

 

[Brian Bo.]

Well, the smoking session is going well up to this point. It's been on for almost five hours and I have an internal temp of 147F (it's been stuck at 147F for the past 45 minutes - what the hell?

The rub is nice and spicy and wow, apple wood is great. We'll see how great it is when I actually taste the meat. But simply from touching the meat and having a quick taste of the rub, I can taste the smoke flavor as well and it's pretty darn good.

I'm surprised at how quickly the meat temperature rose and how it stays steady in the 145-147F range without budging for 45-min or so...Hmmmm.

 

[Brian Bo.]

Started off with a 4.5lb shoulder (butt):

I usually make my own rub but used this rub I picked up near the vacation house this summer:

After making the sauce:

Some of the K is ready and put in some apple chips the night before. Prepped everything so I could just wake up and start the hot coals and pour them over:

I re-rubbed the Butt this morning before putting it on the grate:

A little over three hours of cookin':

Four hours:

Eight hours:

Sauce - almost ready to apply:

The Butt after it was wrapped for about an hour:

Done:

Pullin' with two forks:

Meal #1:

Meal #2:

That's all she wrote!

 

[Rob W]

Hi Brian,
The same thing with the internal temp getting stuck happened to me too. It had me wondering if something was wrong. I found an interesting explanation of this. Hope it helps.

Temperature Plateau

It's common for a pork butt to reach a temperature plateau of 155-170°F during cooking--a point at which the internal temperature stops rising and stalls, sometimes for several hours. It's thought that this has something to do with the amount of moisture in the meat and the conversion of collagen to gelatin discussed above.

Do not despair, because this is when the meat is starting to "cook through doneness to tenderness." With some patience and a 225-250°F cooker temperature, the pork butt will eventually move beyond the plateau and the meat temperature shall rise again.

If you're cooking a very large pork butt and running short on time (or patience), you can kick the cooker up to 275°F without doing any harm. Or, if the pork butt has reached 160-175°F, you can wrap it in foil and finish it in the cooker or in the oven, like in Pork Butt - Quick Cooked.