Weekend Smoke: Smoked Pork Butt
This is how I did my last two butts last weekend. 7 people ate the first butt with a small amount of leftovers remaining. I removed the second butt form the cooler about 3 hours after it hit 205 internal and it was still really hot and super juicy and is still tasty 3 days later.
I have been using 3 Little Pigs brand rubs, mainly their Kansas City Touch of Cherry (for ribs) and the Kansas City Championship for pork butts. This last time I used their Kansas City All Purpose rub, which was tasty as well.
This recipe worked very well for me. It was pretty simple and produced amazing tasting pulled pork.
As a side note, if you smoke at home and don’t have a copy of any of the three BBQ cookbooks by Myron Mixon, I highly recommend them. They have some fantastic recipes and helpful insights.
Tools:
· Pairing knife
· Meat injector
Ingredients:
· Pork Shoulder (between 6 & 10lbs.)
· Squeeze Butter (Blue Parkay bottle)
· Light brown sugar
· Honey
· BBQ Sauce
· Your favorite rub
Myron Mixon’s Hog Injection:
· 4 quarts apple juice
· 1 quart distilled white vinegar
· 5 pounds white sugar
· 2 cups salt
· 1 cup MSG or Accent flavor enhancer
· The night before I make Myron Mixon’s injection from his book Smokin’ with Myron Mixon. I make it the night before so that it can cool overnight in the fridge and be as cold as the pork. You basically will be adding all of the injection ingredients into a stockpot, over medium heat and stir until the seasonings completely dissolve.
· I cut the above recipe in half for the 2 butts I did last weekend (9.4lbs & 7.7lbs.) and I still had a ton leftover. If you do not want to waste any, I would cut the recipe in half twice, so 1 quart apple juice, ¼ quart white vinegar, 1.25 lbs. of white sugar, ½ cup of salt and ¼ cup Accent.
· Mix all in the stockpot and once the salt, sugar and Accent are completely dissolved, remove from heat and let cool, then store in the fridge over night.
· I first wash off the pork butts, in order to get any of the excess meat juice or any blood off. Pat it dry with a paper towel and then trim off any loose pieces of the butt, loose meaning if you see any pieces hanging off like strings or such. I also trim out large chunks of fat from the non-fat cap side, as the pork butt has more than enough fat in it as is, removing the large fat deposits helps it be not so greasy when you shred it.
· I trim off about ½ an inch of the fat cap, again, the internal meat of the pork butt is so fatty that you are still going to get succulent pork without the full amount of grease and extra chunks of fat.
· After trimming, I inject the pork injection. I buy my meat injectors at the local supermarkets, they range between $4.00 to $8.00 and usually last me about 6 months of weekend use. You can find them at any supermarket or on Amazon.com. I inject the hell out of the pork butt. I target the areas around the bone (which I never remove until the butt is finished cooking), I target the money muscle, which is the chunk of loin meat that is on the opposite end from the bone. Hit the money muscle from both sides (right & left) a few times. I then just make sure to give the remainder a good once over with the injector.
· After injecting, I apply the rub. Here is where I have deviated several times.
Ø I have slathered the entire pork butt with mustard (minus the fat cap) as an adhesive. I usually have used a honey mustard, as the honey adds to the sweetness and the vinegar in the mustard helps with tenderizing the meat.
Ø I have also slathered the pork butt with an oil of some type, something like a peanut oil or flaxseed oil, again, as an adhesive. Both oils I mention have very neutral flavors, meaning that they do not overpower the flavor of the rub or the pork.
Ø This last time… I forgot to use either; I just applied the rub to the pork butt without an adhesive. In all honesty, if you apply the run right after injecting, the butt is going to be plenty moist enough for the rub to stick.
· I apply a large amount of the rub to the entire pork butt, all sides, minus the fat cap. Apply this at least 15 minutes before you put the butts into the smoker. Let them rest as you clean us your prep area or crack open a beer or make your coffee or something.
· I have a charcoal/wood-burning smoker. I have to fill my Weber Smokey Mountain with about 50 - 75% of a bag of Kingsford blue bag charcoal and then use my chimney starter to start about half of a chimney’s worth of charcoal. I usually do this work either before I inject or after I inject.
· I put the pork butts on when the thermometer shows a smoker temp of around 225 – 250 degrees. 5 minutes before I put the butts on, I add about 8 to 9 of the largest chunks of wood I have, to the burning charcoal. For pork butts, I predominantly use Applewood chunks for the cook. I try and match it with the apple juice based injection, and I used an apple based BBQ sauce afterwards, to tie it all together.
· You can use whichever wood you think goes will with how you like it. Hickory is a very popular wood choice, as is cherry wood.
· My smoker is a water cooker, which means I have a giant water pan the acts as the heat shield between the charcoal/wood and the meat. I put about 40 cups of hot water in the water pan while the smoker is coming up to temperature. If you do not have a water pan, I highly recommend getting a spray bottle to be used during the cook.
· For the actual cook, I place both pork butts in my smoker on the top grate (I have 2 levels) and place them fat cap up, so that the fat is exposed to the most amount of the circulating heat.
· I smoke the pork butts exposed to the smoke and heat, until they reach an internal temp of 170 degrees. At 170 degrees, I wrap the butts in foil.
· If you do not have a water cooker, I would use a spray bottle with water or a water/vinegar mixture, every 30 minutes, misting down the butts to ensure that you are not losing all the moisture.
· At 170 degrees, I wrap the butts, fat side down, in either 1 or 2 sheets of foil. In the foil, on top of the butt, I drizzle the squeeze butter (room temperature, or as close as you can get it), the honey, the brown sugar and the BBQ sauce. I also usually sprinkle on more rub, just to add a little more of that flavor.
· Return the wrapped butts to the smoker and cook them to 205 degrees internal temp. At 205 degrees, I wrap the pork butt, still in the foil, with a towel (don’t use a towel that you will be upset as getting stained) and then place the towel wrapped foil wrapped butt in a cooler for at least an hour to rest.
· After at least an hour, pull the butt out of the cooler and open the foil wrapping to vent out any remaining heat (there will be a lot) and let it vent for about 15 minutes. Afterwards, shred and enjoy!
