Pork shoulder injection Apple juice to Apple Cider Vinegar


 
R

Rob - TexasRob

TVWBB Member
Hello,

I'm hearing that Kroger is having a good sale on pork shoulder, thinking about using an injection of apple juice and apple cider vinegar. What ratio of juice to cider vinegar should I mix the two to inject? I don't want a dominate vinegar taste, the wife is not really a vinegar fan.

Thanks

Rob
 
Last time I smoked a shoulder I used a modified version of Chris Lilly's Championship Injection:

Modified injection:
1 cup apple cider vinegar
4 cups apple juice
1 cup water
¼ cup kosher salt
¾ cup granulated sugar
3 Tbsp worcestershire sauce

It's a 4:1 ratio of juice:vinegar, and there is no detectable vinegar taste in the final product. I don't know that the water is that important.
 
Wow that looks pretty fantastic. I don't think I'm getting a big shoulder, so I will just modify my quantities but keep this ratio...Thanks!
 
Rob - TexasRob said:
Wow that looks pretty fantastic. I don't think I'm getting a big shoulder, so I will just modify my quantities but keep this ratio...Thanks!
Click to expand...
I use Chris Lily's injection also. I really like it. I don't suggest you you scale down the amount overall. It has to do with, no matter what, I end up using just about all the injection I make. Seems some always gets wasted.
 
Be careful with the Kroger Boston Butts, although they are a great price (.99/lb), the one's sold at my Kroger store are enhanced and already injected with a salt solution.
 
just to clarify, Chris Lilly's original recipe does not have any vinegar in it. I got the ratio of 4:1 from Myron Mixon's hog injection recipe and went with a cross between the two recipes.
 
This past weekend, I smoked my first BB using Chris Lilly's injection recipe without modification. My 2 BB's turned out to be pretty good, but I am not certain that the injection really did that much in terms of retaining moisture in the meat or adding flavor. I think retaining a good bit of fat and chopping that up in the final product may be as useful as an injection if you want the meat to not be overly dry.

I also retained the drippings from the meat by putting an aluminum pan on the lower grate, and I folded the melted fat back into the chopped meat for flavor and moisture retention. I then added about 1/4 cup of my dry rub back into the pulled meat and finally poured a decent amount of my BBQ sauce (the "bastardized piedmont sauce" from this forum) over the meat and mixed it all together. I think mixing in the BBQ sauce was the big step that really punched up the flavor of the meat.

Just my $0.02.
 
I used the modified injection to spec as an injection then used the remaining to spritz on the hour. I would say it helped keep it all moist, don't know ...maybe just my imagination. Last time I did a shoulder I didn't injection and I shredded right after the cook and it all dried put on my. This time wrapped in foil and waited an hr before shredding and worked out better. Will use it again....thanks for sharing!

Rob
 
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