Your BEST butt BARK?

[Dave Russell]

I know that pork butt bark is discussed on forums ad nauseam, but I just wanted to share what I've learned and see if anyone else has any tips of their own. For one thing, when I think of the bark, I'm actually thinking of two different things: exterior MEAT, and exterior FAT. Obviously, you want the exterior meat to be tender and moist, with a bit of crispness on the outside. The speed of the cook and pit moisture affects this, but all in all, butts are pretty forgiving. I find that anything 225-275* on a wsm works, and that water helps keep exterior meat from drying out when temps stay too high OR too low for too long. I just wish lots of moisture from water pan steam didn't inhibit crispness, especially with the fat, and leave that dull, almost black color. Mahogany is no problem with a dry pan if temps are kept in check.



But what about the FAT? Well, I used to cook the butts (untrimmed) fat down the whole cook and when they were done, a good bit of the fat was left on the grate. I didn't think much of it. Fat is gross, right? Well, here's a pic of a couple of recent butts on my 22.5" WSM, a little while after I flipped them about 2/3rds way through the cook:


What I didn't get was a finished pic of the above butts, but you'll have to take my word for it. Virtually all of those fat caps rendered crisp and were mixed in with the final product. So what I think I've learned is that as long as there's not TOO much moisture in the cooker, cooking temp is hot enough, and the fat caps are trimmed thin enough, they can render out pretty good. I call it "butt bacon" when I mix it in. You can see score marks on these two butt's fat caps if you look close enough. Anyway, what say you? Post any pics you might have, and thanks for any feedback!

 

[Enrico Brandizzi]

Hi Dave
I agree with your bark building process totally. I have read a lot about bark in www.amazingribs.com and I apply this/yours method.
I think it is necessary to distinguish pork (butt/picnik/shoulder i believe is the same) from brisket. Speaking about pork I cooked for 21 h a 16 lbs shoulder in my 26.75 OTG modified in water smoker

[/url] IMG_1672 di BBQness, su Flickr[/IMG]

Smoking T all the 21 h was around 225 F or lower. At the end the shoulder was meteor looking
Inside the meat was not dry because the moistness of the environment.

[/url] IMG_2511 di BBQness, su Flickr[/IMG]

[/url] IMG_2513 di BBQness, su Flickr[/IMG]

Now I start cooking on 22.5 WSM and is much more easy!
Enrico

 

[Dave Russell]

Wow. Whole shoulder in a kettle is quite a feat!

 

[J Hoke]

I think in a WSM you could trim the fat cap if you were so inclined. No direct heat for the cap to protect from. I've been wanting to try butts without the pan to see if the UDS guys are right that the drippings hitting the hot coals adds flavor, just haven't gotten around to it.

 

[timothy]

I've never used water for butts because I like the 275-300 deg range. Nothing against low&slow with a sink, but something I picked up before joining this site.
I'm gonna try flippin like you at some point during the cook, I never trim ( because I love that thin layer of meat called the false cap) and always cook FC down and it does get stuck to the grate most of the times.
Even cooking at temps higher than 300 like 325 or 350, I've never had what looks like a chunk of black meteor coming off my WSM's.
I don't get it, but if water is what makes it, than I can understand.
Last few that I liked the color and bark.

Tim

 

[Dave_B]

I hope to contribute more this weekend to this thread.

One thing I don't see mentioned here about the bark is what's being used for the rub. Do you guys feel this contributes, and how much?

My guess is yes, and I tend to use a lot of sugar in my butt rubs. I'll be sure to reply back with pics from this weekend.

 

[Dave Russell]

I think in a WSM you could trim the fat cap if you were so inclined. No direct heat for the cap to protect from. I've been wanting to try butts without the pan to see if the UDS guys are right that the drippings hitting the hot coals adds flavor, just haven't gotten around to it.

J, I only trim fatcaps in the thick spots. Scoring only takes a minute.

My second and third smokers were UDS's I made. If you want to add fat in the fire flavor on a wsm, just toss fat trimmings onto the coals a couple of times. Simple as that.

 

[Rick Body]

I hope to contribute more this weekend to this thread.

One thing I don't see mentioned here about the bark is what's being used for the rub. Do you guys feel this contributes, and how much?

My guess is yes, and I tend to use a lot of sugar in my butt rubs. I'll be sure to reply back with pics from this weekend.

The rub definitely has a lot to do with the bark and the final color of the butt when finished. I use turbinado sugar (raw sugar) and brown sugar in my rub. Plain white sugar will tend to burn more although with the sugars I use I still get a dark/black color. I like it like that

My guess would be also that the amount and type of smoke you use as something to do with the color as well.

 

[Dave Russell]

I've never used water for butts because I like the 275-300 deg range. Nothing against low&slow with a sink, but something I picked up before joining this site.
I'm gonna try flippin like you at some point during the cook, I never trim ( because I love that thin layer of meat called the false cap) and always cook FC down and it does get stuck to the grate most of the times.
Even cooking at temps higher than 300 like 325 or 350, I've never had what looks like a chunk of black meteor coming off my WSM's.
I don't get it, but if water is what makes it, than I can understand.
Last few that I liked the color and bark.

Tim

Tim, those look beautiful!

Where do you measure temp? Also, cooking over 275 without foiling, I'd think that turbinado sugar would be best. You put much b or w sugar in the rub?

 

[Dave Russell]

Dave and Rick, while I agree that the rub affects your bark, you can get good bark without sugar in the rub. Most Texans that knows BBQ can tell you that. Doesn't matter to me though, since I also like a lot of brown sugar in my pork rubs. Yes, Rick, too much smoke can make the bark dark. While color isn't nothing compared to texture, I love that color on Tim's pics, above.

 

[John Segura]

I think cooking with water gets a bad rep because it's just one more step, it can be messy, it runs out etc.. but I think it's a little bit underrated. Hell, even I wrote it off a couple yrs ago for the reasons mentioned above. One thing that nobody seems to talk about much (IMO), is that it can also speed up a cook to an extent.. not like foil of course. Hot steam penetrates meat better than dry hot air. Think of using a heating pad w/out a moist towel, all it does is burn on the outside. Add that moist towel and now it starts warming the muscles, doing it's job. I believe if you got a lot of hot air circulation and little humidity you can easily end up with a dry crunchy bark, which is fine if that's what you like. Add some humidity in your cooker and it slows down that affect. You may still have to wrap, but not as soon. This allows the meat to absorb a little more smoke,(hopefully clean smoke!) and you minimize that caramelized rub taste where it's hard to even taste what rub you used anymore.

As far as PBs.. I do like some brown/turbinado sugar in my rub, it goes well with PB. The best PB I ever made was in my bubba keg, which provides a little more humid environment than my 22 WSM (maybe cause it's smaller or less overall airflow?). I used some dizzy pig rub and let it go till done. The bark was set just right not thick at all. While it rested I wrapped it with some clean juice-based injection I had set aside along with some semi-sweet sauce mixed in. End result was great, lots of flavorful bark and juicy meat. I hope I can repeat the whole process one day!!

 

[J Hoke]

If you want to add fat in the fire flavor on a wsm, just toss fat trimmings onto the coals a couple of times. Simple as that.

Notice any difference?

 

[Bob Correll]

This one is fairly typical of my done butts.
I cook pretty much like Tim, 275-300, no water.

And here is a kettle cooked one cut into pieces for maximum bark.

 

[Dave Russell]

Notice any difference?

Oh yeah. And a little fat on the coals goes a long way. I only did it once. I did mention that I USED to use an UDS, right? Now J, I'm not knocking it. I'm just more a fan of a clean smoke flavor, rather than a fat in the fire pit flavor.

 

[Dave Russell]

This one is fairly typical of my done butts.
I cook pretty much like Tim, 275-300, no water.

And here is a kettle cooked one cut into pieces for maximum bark.

Great pics, Bob. My, you ARE a fan of barky butts.

 

[timothy]

Tim, those look beautiful!

Where do you measure temp? Also, cooking over 275 without foiling, I'd think that turbinado sugar would be best. You put much b or w sugar in the rub?

I always measure at the top vent with a turkey fryer therm. I prefer turbinado, but don't recall what was in that particular rub.
I do recall using a Cherry/Hickory mix on that one which gives it that nice reddish color.

Tim

 

[Dave Russell]

I always measure at the top vent with a turkey fryer therm. I prefer turbinado, but don't recall what was in that particular rub.
I do recall using a Cherry/Hickory mix on that one which gives it that nice reddish color.

Tim

Yeah...with that long fryer therm you are indeed measuring some actual cooking temps. Hickory/cherry is an awesome combo. Dr. BBQ's, aka Ray Lampe, recommends that, and it works for me as well. I find that regular and even brown sugar blackens sooner than turbinado, as is often reported. I used to cook 275*+ in my old UDS, but I prefer to cook slower for a bunch of butts or if I don't want to get up early in the morning. I usually now flip once if only using the top grate. If using both though, I leave fat down the whole time. Thanks for the feedback!

 

[Dave Russell]

I think cooking with water gets a bad rep because it's just one more step, it can be messy, it runs out etc.. but I think it's a little bit underrated. Hell, even I wrote it off a couple yrs ago for the reasons mentioned above. One thing that nobody seems to talk about much (IMO), is that it can also speed up a cook to an extent.. not like foil of course. Hot steam penetrates meat better than dry hot air. Think of using a heating pad w/out a moist towel, all it does is burn on the outside. Add that moist towel and now it starts warming the muscles, doing it's job. I believe if you got a lot of hot air circulation and little humidity you can easily end up with a dry crunchy bark, which is fine if that's what you like. Add some humidity in your cooker and it slows down that affect. You may still have to wrap, but not as soon. This allows the meat to absorb a little more smoke,(hopefully clean smoke!) and you minimize that caramelized rub taste where it's hard to even taste what rub you used anymore.

As far as PBs.. I do like some brown/turbinado sugar in my rub, it goes well with PB. The best PB I ever made was in my bubba keg, which provides a little more humid environment than my 22 WSM (maybe cause it's smaller or less overall airflow?). I used some dizzy pig rub and let it go till done. The bark was set just right not thick at all. While it rested I wrapped it with some clean juice-based injection I had set aside along with some semi-sweet sauce mixed in. End result was great, lots of flavorful bark and juicy meat. I hope I can repeat the whole process one day!!

John, great feedback, and I concur. Now that I've got my ATC, I'll be going dry with pork butts, but the down side is how water seems to even out a cook. They all seem to get done closer to the same time than when I cook dry. That's exactly why I have water in the pan right now cooking 40 thighs.....but regarding your "best butt"...funny how it can be difficult to get exact same results.

 

[Andy K]

Wow, you guys have some great looking cooks going on! Being such a new guy to the WSM world, I only have three PBs under my belt and two of them were done in the same cook. I wasn't really impressed with the out come of those- seems like I burnt them up a bit. I do foil wrap, towel, and cooler them at the end. This weekend I'm doing another or two to work on the process. I should have my maverick and stubbs in for that cook to help in the temp control arena. I've struggled with controlling temp on my last cooks- not sure if I'm using too much unlit coal and not enough hot coals for my minion method (seems like it chokes out) or if its just been the ambient temp outside have been so cold and windy (been below 20 on both cooks) that it naturally messes with the cooking temp. I do run my WSM dry (foiled) but I am thinking of trying the water method just to get experience at it to underderstand the differences.

If you start out dry for several hours ad then add water is there any issue with that to help the bark formation process while still getting some moisture benefit?

Lastly, anybody use mustard on their PBs like you do on ribs? I'm thinking of trying that technique as well to see how that works. I've got a dry rub and raw sugar coming tomorrow that I'm going to try with a mustard base like I do for ribs. I'll let everyone know how it turns out…

 

[Andy K]

Tim- how do you maintain the 275 heat in the WSM? do you add coal during the cook or an ATC?