Latest Cook - w/ thanks to K. Kruger and the community.

[Dupree]

So My last cook over labor day was ~24lbs of heirloom Duroc pork butts that were on the pricey side (see the "Overpaying for butts" thread). Here is the debriefing.

Well first of all these were the 6th,7th & 8th butts of my smoking career. On opening the butcher paper the butts were noticeably more colorful and marbled than any of the previous 5 butts I have cooked. MMMMMM (unfortunately those are the only pics). I did not trim them at all, just rubbed and smoked.

Rubs:
1) Smallest butt - left naked.
2) Medium butt - Yellow Mustard method and the standard Southern Succor rub found on this site

3) Big 'un - Here I got a little fancy and used This rub from K Kruger subbing Chipotle peppers for the heat. And I must say THANK YOU! that one motivated me to visit the mexican grocer in town, buy some dried Guajillos and Anchos and grind my on chile powders. The only thing here is I don't think I put enough salt on the butts before applying the rub...live and learn. I also omitted the bay leaf.

Sauce:
Modified Miss Piggy Sauce using my fresh gound Guajillos and Anchos instead of the Chili powder and trying once again to cut the heat by using less Chipotle instead of the amount of Cayenne called for and less hot sauce. For the mustard I use 1/2 Yellow and 1/2 Guildens Brown. This batch came out quite reddish in color compared to others, which I attribute to the fresh ground Chile's. But this was easily the best batch of sauce I have made to date and everyone raved....this is the only sauce i make...if anyone has a problem with it I hand them the jar of bone sucking sauce and make a snide comment

Breakfast:
2 Fatties rolled in the Kruger Special Rub

Appetizers:
ABTs made with Red Jalapenos which were WAY to hot...

Sides:
Krugers Another Slaw - Somehow the slaw came out quite salty...which worked well on the PP sandwich but not so much on its own. Maybe I had less Cabbage than the recipe called for..and I used Kosher salt..... Saltiness aside this was the best slaw I have made to date...will enjoy dialing this in to my tastes.

Big guy went on the bottom rack with the other two barely fitting on the top rack and this became an issue as the top two turned out significantly drier than the bottom guy, and I think it was due to parts of them hanging to close to the edge of the grate and being directly in the blast of hot air.

For smoke wood I used 4 fists -o- hickory in with the coals and 1 packet of apple and cherry pellets....needed more smoke with one packet of JD pellets as the fatties went on. For my liking there was not enough smoke flavor will need to ramp this up next time.

Speaking of the big guy on the bottom...that was easily the most succulent, moist, flavorful BBQ I have cooked so far...that guy was amazing..I almost didn't get to pulling the other two butts for eating on this one... Now the other two were ok but this guy was simply amazing. They all cooked for about 15hrs at 230-250 grate with a 2hr rest.

As for the verdict on the pricey heirloom meat..As mentioned the big one was a cut above any BBQ that has come off my grill. Was it the meat or the cook? Well I like to think it was the cook but I am pretty sure the meat played a big roll....however, at the end of the day I will probably be going back to the standard more reasonably price meat for the bulk of my cooks and splurging once or twice a year on these guys....as I cook more "regular" butts I will have a better base comparison...so I will revisit this experiment next summer....Looking forward to that experiment already

Well if you made it this far, thanks for reading my blog and happy smoking.

 

[Don Irish]

Dupree,
Excellent post!
I learn so much from reading this site, from experts and novices alike as well as those in-between. The pros give us the major starting points, we try them and report back, tweaking along the way.

My guess is that you are both a better cook than when you did your first and you used much better meat so in this case 1 + 1 is greater than 2.

Going back and doing a cheaper one soon would be a very good test. Another thing to consider is that the best one was both the biggest and on the lower rack (lots of variables to control here…this might take awhile to figure out).

So was there much difference from the top two – one rubbed, one not?

 

[K Kruger]

Good question. What did you think of the top two compared to each other?

For the salt on the pork: It takes a heavier hand since the meat is so thick. But feel free to err on the side of caution and simply sprinkle some additional salt on the pork as you pull it.

For the slaw: After wilting the vegs, taste some. If it seems salty at that point, give the vegs a quick rinse in cold water, tossing briefly, drain well, the pat dry with paper towels, by the handful, as you remove it from the colander. Adjust salt later, if needed, just before serving.

Have fun experimenting!

(I have just one Duroc hindquarter and one forequarter left...

)

 

[Dupree]

So far as the top 2 both were about the same in terms of dryness...suprisingly I did prefer the flavor of the mustard rubbed meat vs the naked...(figured all those pig-pickin's which are so good are naked meat....). I think for those two I would have been better served to move them towards the center of the rack as they shrank over the cook. I still think the problem was due to the ir proximity to the edge of the grate agree/disagree?

K.Kruger thanks for the tip..I will certainly put it to use next time around.

This stuff makes you a believer in the old adage "...try, try again"