What's your pulling technique? Do 2nd day butts pull easier?


 
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a galarneau

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Do you find that butts pull better the second day? What's your pulling technique?

Cooked two boneless butts on Saturday, 9 hours to 187F internal, foiled both.

Let one sit an hour, then pulled it. Used 2 forks. Separated well enough, but a bit of a struggle. Threw the other one in the fridge.

Football time, warmed the 2nd in an oven and pulled it. So much easier. Sort of smooshed the chunks with my fingers and it separated into the fibers you want.

Guess I'll always cook em a day ahead if I can. Can you get the same effect by wrapping with plastic and letting them sit for hours?
 
187? is on the low end of pulled pork range.
Kick it up to 190-195? and you would have found the butt would have pulled much easier.
Jim
 
Hi a galarneau!

The problem pulling your first butt may be the internal temp was just a touch low. I have noticed a difference between 190? and 205?.

I always pull right after cooking. This allows me more time on the day of serving, plus I already have all the "stuff" for BBQing handy after I cook it.

On the other foot........if I want to make a "show" of it, I will partially cook to 190? and then the next day finish it off and pull in front of the "crowd".

Stogie
 
I am about to make your pork butt pulling life a lot easier.

Take your raw meat and score it no more than 1/3 the way deep both lenthwise and widthwise on the top and bottom. You will wind up with a butt that resembles a 'koosh ball' meaning that you will have little cubes of meat all connected at the middle. Make your cuts about 1" apart.

This allows your rub to penetrate MUCH deeper and speeds the cooking time as well.

Apply your rub all over, making sure to get plenty into the cuts.

Pop it on the cooker until it reaches an internal temp of 150?F. Remove from the cooker and wrap heavily in heavy duty plastic wrap, making sure not to puncture it w/ the bone. Then wrap tightly in foil...return to cooker. Remove when your butt reaches an internal temp of 200? to 210?F. Stick it in an empty cooler and let her sit for at least 30 minutes.

Make sure you have some heat resistant gloves on. Chris O showed me a trick of putting on cotton glove liners and then latex on top. This will insulate your hands for the next step.

Peel off the foil and plastic wrap over a foil pan/baking dish. You will have about 2 cups of juice that will pour out.

The bone should slide right out and now the fun part! Squeeze the pork butt with both hands. The meat should shred like butta! That's all there is to it!

We have used this in competition before and took 6th out of 47 teams. It works well. I have done this on about 40 butts and it works every time. No plastic taste is transferred at all. You will not have any bark per se, but who wants to pull a butt w/ forks?!?!?

I thought the person showing me this was nuts, but he proved me wrong. We loaded an OK Joe chuckwagon model full of butts w/ using this technique at 9pm. At midnight, they were ready to wrap. They came off at 2:30am. That's right...only 5 1/2 hours cooking time! We did this to 30 butts (184 lbs) for a charity gig back in March and they ALL shredded like a dream. No forks here!

I will be doing this on a case of butts next week as well for a catering gig.

Good luck!

[This message has been edited by Steve Wilson (edited 09-10-2001).]
 
Thanks for the replies.

Jim: Not cooked enough, yes that would tend to make it harder to pull. The light dawns over Marblehead.

Steve: Thanks for the tip. You prefer bone in? Why?
 
Those bones retain a lot of heat when pulled from the cooker. Besides, why mess with deboning when they just slide right out when you are done?

Save 'em for the dogs...the LOVE them! If you do a bunch of butts, throw them in a ziploc and put them in the freezer. They'll keep til the cows come home.
 
I very rarely pull pork butts. I use the N Carolina method of a rough chop, then a douse of vinegar, butter and hot pepper flakes. Distributes the crispies, rub, and fat better. Plop it on a bun with a scoop of cole slaw for topping.
 
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