Dave Russell
TVWBB Honor Circle
Pork butts for $1.05 lb. from Restaurant Depot
My wife picked up these butts a week and a half ago, and by the way, she was very happy with how Restaurant Depot handled our recent rib issues from the previous trip there. That's a bit of a story if you haven't seen where I mentioned it. Last time there we had picked up a pack of beef back ribs and what I thought was a case of spares, which were on sale. Anyhow, I made a couple of mistakes that morning. First of all, I picked up a case of St. Louis style spares, not full spares, and they weren't on sale. Second, listen to your wife if she tells you that the meat stinks...while still at the store!
The pack of beef ribs had lost it's vacuum seal, and yes, it had a bit of an odor. Well, when I started to repackage for freezing, the smell hit me. These ribs were rank! Anyhow, back to the pork ribs. Believe it or not, that case was mislabeled, and were actually full spares, not St. Louis ribs (which were what we had paid for). Well, much thanks to Restaurant Depot, because they credited us for the cost of both!
Whole case injected and rubbed last night
IBP butts usually have a decent trim job already, and these were no exception. It didn't take long at all to thin down the fat caps in a few spots. I used Chris Lilly's pork shoulder injection, but this time I modified his rub a good bit. A lot of folks post that they find his injection salty, but I'm just the opposite. I find the rub to be on the salty side, so this time I added a good bit of ancho powder and other stuff to tone down the salt and bring up the flavor. OK. Honestly, most of the stuff I added was what was left of some Myron Mixon's basic chicken rub, and some Big Bob Gibson's rib rub.
Am I cooking hot enough?
I put the butts on at 4:30 this morning, and hopefully they'll be done by the time folks start dropping by this afternoon after 5:00. I was up to temp in half an hour this morning, and the one I have probed is at 149* and it's already 5 hr. into the cook...with less than 8 hours to get them tender. Think I'll go ahead and kick it up 10* or so since it's four butts to each quite crowded grate. Hopefully though, I won't have to wrap any this cook.
Ya'll have a good 'un! I'll try to post an action shot some time mid-cook.
Dave
My wife picked up these butts a week and a half ago, and by the way, she was very happy with how Restaurant Depot handled our recent rib issues from the previous trip there. That's a bit of a story if you haven't seen where I mentioned it. Last time there we had picked up a pack of beef back ribs and what I thought was a case of spares, which were on sale. Anyhow, I made a couple of mistakes that morning. First of all, I picked up a case of St. Louis style spares, not full spares, and they weren't on sale. Second, listen to your wife if she tells you that the meat stinks...while still at the store!
The pack of beef ribs had lost it's vacuum seal, and yes, it had a bit of an odor. Well, when I started to repackage for freezing, the smell hit me. These ribs were rank! Anyhow, back to the pork ribs. Believe it or not, that case was mislabeled, and were actually full spares, not St. Louis ribs (which were what we had paid for). Well, much thanks to Restaurant Depot, because they credited us for the cost of both!
Whole case injected and rubbed last night
IBP butts usually have a decent trim job already, and these were no exception. It didn't take long at all to thin down the fat caps in a few spots. I used Chris Lilly's pork shoulder injection, but this time I modified his rub a good bit. A lot of folks post that they find his injection salty, but I'm just the opposite. I find the rub to be on the salty side, so this time I added a good bit of ancho powder and other stuff to tone down the salt and bring up the flavor. OK. Honestly, most of the stuff I added was what was left of some Myron Mixon's basic chicken rub, and some Big Bob Gibson's rib rub.
Am I cooking hot enough?
I put the butts on at 4:30 this morning, and hopefully they'll be done by the time folks start dropping by this afternoon after 5:00. I was up to temp in half an hour this morning, and the one I have probed is at 149* and it's already 5 hr. into the cook...with less than 8 hours to get them tender. Think I'll go ahead and kick it up 10* or so since it's four butts to each quite crowded grate. Hopefully though, I won't have to wrap any this cook.
Ya'll have a good 'un! I'll try to post an action shot some time mid-cook.
Dave
Does he mix it up with these butts? 
