Oh NO!!! Is it true?? Can you over sit the rub on a butt for pulled pork?


 
J

Joel Oliva

TVWBB Member
Is there such thing as letting a rub sit too long in the meat/poultry/pork? I just had someone post on my last question that over sitting the rub may cause the pork to come out tasting too hammy? OH NO!!! Is that true?

I'm following the recipe on this site to make pulled pork and it states to let the rub sit in for 8-10 hours. Is there a reason why only between 8-10? I'm making pulled pork for tomorrow and the only time I had to prep the butt was last night. The butt is sitting in a ziplock bag all nicely rubbed. Once I get home I'll rub the butt one last time and then start up the cooker for the butt.

Did I just waste my butt? Would the butt come out too dry, tasting way different like hammy or something? Help please! And please be honest...Honesty is the best policy. Its for my bday party tomorrow and 20 people will be there all excited about the pulled pork sammich. I'm sooo worried now! HELP!!
 
Well relax my friend.

I know ppl have stated this and it might be true on some rubs.

But i have done both many times and never had the Ham feel,maby its just my taste buds but i guess/hope your pulled will be exellent tomorrow.

But normaly i rubb the meat 1h prior to cooking.
 
Joel,
Grab hold of yourself. Take a few deep breaths. It's a piece of meat, relax. If you don't like it the way you prepared it this time, next time do it a different way. Don't go off the deep end. You just joined.
 
Joel,

I have never over rubbed a pork butt or had it taste like ham.

Chicken, ribs.... yes, they can easily be over rubbed.

I rubbed 2 bone in butts last night at 8-9 pm, they will not go on until 5-6 pm today.

What rub recipe did you use? Also, you shouldn't need to rub it a second time when you get home.

Deep breaths
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I'm using the recipe from this site called: Pork Butt - The Renowned Mr. Brown.

Josh, I feel much better that i'm not alone on this one. Have you done an overnight rub with the butts before? Oh and the recipe calls it to rub it a second time right before it goes on the cooker...hmmm...I followed everything to a TEE except for the "rubbing it and letting it sit for 8-10 hours".

Has anyone sat a rub on butt overnight? any reviews on how it turned out?
 
I did 2 butts last week for a New Years Party. I rubbed them the night before and let them sit until the morning. Everyone at the party couldnt get enough of it. The pork went faster than the catered food! Don't worry smoking is a constant learning process. Good luck and Happy Birthday!
 
Joel,

I have never made Mr Brown so I wasn't aware of the second rub. Just follow the recipe and you will be fine, I have heard great things about it.

Out of the many (50+) pork butts I have cooked in the past few years, most have been rubbed 18 - 24 hours prior to cooking. The only exception was a couple times I couldn't get the meat until the morning of the cook and at my first competition, where meat inspection was at 1pm the day of cook.

You will be fine with the overnight rub. I use 2 TBL of Kosher salt in my rub per butt. Mr. Brown calls for 2 TBL of table salt, which is equal to 3 TBL of Kosher salt. Because a butt is a large roast, the salt is not going to have time to penetrate the meat and make it taste hammy.

Again, you will be fine and relax, you are supposed to enjoy it. The best part about doing something different is you learn what you like and don’t like.
 
You shouldn't be so stressed on your b-day. Just relax and enjoy the day!

I've done butts and ribs overnight with no problems. The ribs were tasted just a little bit spicy, but I don't mind a little heat.

Hope you have a great birthday!
 
I've never had butt come out "hammy" and I've always rubbed them overnight.

Once, I had ribs come out a bit "hammy" after rubbing them overnight. But it only happened once and I may have rubbed too heavily. Even so, I now only rub ribs 2hrs in advance.

Butt's bulletproof. Relax. It'll be fine.
 
When I have the time, and manage to plan ahead, I actually like to salt (and pepper) pork meat three days ahead. The salt gets more evenly distributed.
 
pork butt? no. ribs? yes, or so a lot of folks say.

When I first started bbqing I would rub the butt the night before and put a little more on when I fired up my smoker in the morning. Now I cook at night and just never get to putting any on much ahead of time. I've never heard anyone complain of bad results from rubbing a butt OR brisket ahead of time, just ribs.
 
Joel, don't panic, relax, sorry I missed it earlier, but ...

You have just 1 butt for 20 people "all exicted about the pulled pork sammich"?

uh ... just how big is this butt?

You'll need at least 10lb of butt just for everyone to get one 1/4lb sammich.

No worries if you're under, just go get another one, rub it up good, and toss it on.

Hey, it'll be a great test - can you tell the difference between a 24hr rub and a 2hr rub?

Remember ... relax.
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Joel,sorry. I didn't mean to cause a panic! I may have been mistaken about that. But I do know that a pork butt is REALLY hard to mess up. And,if this one doesn't turn out right,try it again until you get that perfect butt! Sorry again.
 
Hey Josh, first experience bombed on me. Overcooked and dry. I had it good at one point but then left it in for another 4 hours due to some areas of the butt not going over 180. Some parts were 190+ but other parts were around 180 so i left it in awhile more. come to find out, my butt was too stubborn and didn't rise in the inner temp. i ended up taking it out and letting it rest. it came out too dry...it was in the cook for 17 hours total. i post it on the Barbeque link...thought it was here on the smoker thread. anyways it got a lot of replies and ended up reaching 4 pages long. check it out. i had some photos in there. good learning experience...i gotta try it again sometime and learn from this mistake.
 
Joel, I've had that happen to me. I just put the butt back on the smoker or pop it in the oven. I've taken the temp in the butt to 200 to get all the areas done and I still had parts that were low. The only down side was that some areas were tougher to pull. No big deal!!. Just make sure you wrap it up really good with foil and a towel. Put in the cooler for at least a couple of hours. As someone else said "it's just meat". You can try again with another piece of meat in the future to tweek your cooking style. Good luck
 
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