Experimenting with my Butts

I have to admit, I was caught a little flat footed at our first two competitions this year.  I did not know that the rules had changed for pork butt.  You never used to be able to separate your meat, then place it back on the smoker.  Now you can.  This opens up a world of possibilities.  So, off to the R&D labs.

Nothing changed withy the preparation.  Inject, rub, smoke.  Where things changed was at the 165 F point.  Here I separated my money muscle, sauced rubbed again, and placed in the cambro for later use.  I then put the remaining part of the butt back on the smoker to finishing cooking.  I did so unfoiled to promote maximum bark formation.  I then pulled this meat at 185 F, foiled, and put in the cambro to use with my money muscle.

When ready for use, I pulled the money muscle out of the cambro, sauced and rubbed again, then placed in a foil pan.  From the remains of the butt, I fashioned some burnt ends from the meatiest bark pieces.  Then I placed these in the pan with the money muscle and placed the meat back on the smoker for 20 minutes at 325 F to set the glaze.  I think it looks pretty good:

Everything was nice and tender.  I have some tinkering to do, but I was happy with the results at our first competition with the new method.

We received our best scores of the year.  Like I said, more tinkering needs to be done to dial this recipe in for good.  But, this is a good start.

Thanks for stopping by,

Bill

Getting Caught Red Handed and Smoking a Butt, Low and Slow

We love our dogs.  Generally, they are not allowed on the furniture.  But, you know how it goes.  There is that unspoken agreement.  We are going to sleep on the couch at night.  When the alarm goes off, we will get down.  Kinda of like "Don't ask, Don't tell" with your dogs.  Well, I woke up a few weekends ago for an all day smoke for some pork butt practice.  I did so without the alarm to wake me up.  Look who I caught red handed...

Now, on to our experimental pork butt.

Last year, after we had received comments that our pork butt tasted too much like injection, we entered a pork butt without any injection at all.  Then, we scored a 3rd place.  Our brisket scores improved when we stopped using the packet of au jus mix in our injection, netting us a 5th place.  So, we are experimenting with a pork stock injection.  Here is how we make our pork stock.

2 lbs of country style ribs
1/2 sweet onion
2 carrots
2 ribs of celery
1 tbsp of dried parsley
2 cloves of garlic
1 gallon of water

Bring to a boil and simmer for 12 hours.  Chill, strain off fat, and freeze until ready for use.  I froze in two cup packages for my anticipated injection recipe.  For our injection, we formulated the following:

2 cups of pork stock
1 bottle of Stubbs Pork Marinade, strained to remove the solids
1 cup apple juice
1 Tbsp sea salt
3 Tbsp of butter

Bring to a boil and chill so that it is safe to inject into your pork butt.

We picked up our butt at the butcher.  It was a beauty at 8.25 pounds.  We always use bone-in.

After injection, we applied a fresh coat of plain yellow mustard.  This adds some tangy flavor and helps the rub to stick to the meat.

Then, we mixed 1/2 cup of turbinado sugar with 1 cup of Oakridge Secret Weapon Pork and Chicken Rub and applied evenly to all surfaces of the butt.

We wrapped the panic foil and placed in the refrigerator for some overnight happy time.

In the morning, I woke up and caught the dogs red handed.  Then I went outside, started the smoker and brought to 225 F.  We wanted to try low and slow for this cook since it worked so well for our last brisket.  While the smoker was coming to temperature, I took the butt out of the frig, applied a fresh coat of rub, and inserted the temperature probe in the meatiest part of the pork butt.

Once the smoker was at temperature, I placed some hickory, pecan, and apple splits in the ash pan.  Once the smoker was rolling with that thin blue smoke, I placed the butt on the top rack.  Here are our cooking notes:

8:00 am, placed butt on top rack of smoker.
10:00 am: reloaded ash pan with wood.
12 noon: 140 F
2:00 pm: 159 F
4:00 pm: 164 F, pushing through the dreaded stall (All meat when cooked at low heat experiences a stall in temperature rise.  This is usually where all of the protein is breaking down, producing that tender meat you associate with pulled pork)
5:39 pm: 175 F.  Placed butt in foil pan and covered tightly with foil.  Here is a picture before foiling.

Look at that beautiful bark!

7:24 pm: 190 F.  Probed with Thermapen.  Meat is like warm butter.  Pulled and placed in a cooler to rest for two hours.

9:30 pm: Removed from cooler, pulled and sliced.

How was the final product?  The bark was outstanding.  Sweet with a bit of heat.  The meat was a bit over done.  Just slightly mushy.  The longer cook time with the lower heat seems to break down the meat more than a shorter cook at a higher temperature.

Next time, I will try Stubbs Chicken Marinade in our injection as it has a mellower flavor and we will check the meat and possibly pull from the smoker at 185 F.  Overall though, we were happy with the result.

Thanks for stopping by,

Bill