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