Well, 45 pounds went further than expected. I have learned a couple of things.
1. Kids eat sweet pork - I injected the butts with a mixture of Dr. Pepper and the juice from a jar of maraschino cherries. I didn't go crazy with it, but just enough to sweeten it a little. I only had one kid ask for a hot dog (and he is notoriously picky).
2. If injecting, get your drip pans ready- Did not think about the fact that whatever gets put in will most likely drain out. My grease can overflowed, lol.
3. Multiple smaller butts beats fewer larger ones - Obviously, larger butts make for more efficient cooking from a pure grill space perspective (taller butts take up vertical space). However, even when cooked to the same temp, I found I liked the flavor of the smaller (~6.5lb) butts better.
4. Local meat only - Unless there is a huge sale, I'm never going back to big box store meat. I smoked one butt from a local farm (whose meats have impressed me before) and it was night and day difference compared to the big chain meat. Price was close enough that it's not going to make a difference to me.
5. Coarse rubs make good texture, fine rubs make solid bark - I had substituted turbinado sugar into a rub recipe, but it made it difficult to properly blend the powdered ingredients. I appreciate the texture of coarse ground spices, but after blending my rub in a blender to more evenly mix it, I have to say that using the powdered rub to get in all the cracks and seeing how well the rub adhered to the meat, I may be a convert. I did mist the meat throughout, so that mat have made a difference, but I loved the bark from the powdered rub. Maybe not for everything, but this worked well.
That's all for today.
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