Dry Aged Pulled Pork

[Schwarzwald Metzger]

I've alluded to this in one of my other threads, but I could not find anything on dry aged pulled pork and really wanted to try it.

I tried one 25 days, one 35 days, and one at 45 days - all on 8 lbs duroc pork butts. These were done back in January - March timeframe and I am just posting now. Luckily I took decent notes.

Unfortunately I didn't photograph every one of them, but here is a picture of the 45 day dry aged butt.

All three were aged at 35 degrees fahrenheit and 82 % humidity.

Cutting off the pellicle was hardest on the 45 day butt and took about 10 minutes.





After chopping the 45 day up I weighed it and found I had lost 4 pounds between the aging and cutting.

The smell was amazing on all 3.... like prosciutto.

I went with a simple rub of SPG and turbinado on all three so that I didn't overpower the meat.

I smoked all three at 225. The longer they aged the shorter the cook time. The 25 day took a total of 8 hrs before it hit 198. The 35 took 7 hrs and the 45 day took 5 hours. All three were wrapped in foil with butter when they hit an internal of 160.

I took pictures of the pull, but they didn't come out very well....and frankly just looked like, well, pulled pork. So I won't be posting those.

All three were awesome, but I preferred the 25 day age the most. It was moist, nutty, and had lost the subtle sour swiney taste that I didn't even knew existed until I had tried dry aged pork. The flavor of all three was that of prosciutto, and that flavor only became more intense with age.

After having dry aged pulled pork, it is hard to go back to regular pulled pork. I highly recommend trying it.... it would likely work in umai bags.

I wish I had more pics. Sorry. I will do a more thorough documentation on my next project.

-Brad

 

[JLeonard]

Sounds interesting. Not sure I'd have the patience to wait it out that long.

Jim

 

[indaswamp]

Well now I'm interested....thanks for posting.

 

[Schwarzwald Metzger]

Well now I'm interested....thanks for posting.

I'm not sure how I missed this, but I saw Max the meat guy on YouTube actually did dry age pulled pork about 10 months ago. His conclusions were the same as mine.

 

[gmc2003]

Looks and sounds really good, but like Jim. I don't think I'd have the patience to give it a try. Nicely done Brad.

Point for sure
Chris

 

[Schwarzwald Metzger]

Looks and sounds really good, but like Jim. I don't think I'd have the patience to give it a try. Nicely done Brad.

Point for sure
Chris

Haha, understandable.

 

[Brokenhandle]

Looks like a cool idea, I would have never have thought of thar!
I love your avatar pic!

Ryan

 

[Schwarzwald Metzger]

Looks like a cool idea, I would have never have thought of thar!
I love your avatar pic!

Ryan

Thanks Ryan. He was a great dog.

 

[Schwarzwald Metzger]

Thanks first off to your responses and advise, really made me research a LOT!. Put my first NY strip to age today in a dry bag after many 14 day cheesecloth primals and can’t wait. Getting the biggest Boston butt I can find in the morning for pulled pork and gonna dry bag that baby too. The dry aging of pork is almost the same as beef with the exception of smoking for pork, and the butt will be smoked at 12 hour cooking so there you go! I’ve read a few posts here about aging pork and “good mold”…this isn’t cheese. Will post all results.

That's awesome brother, super excited to see results. You are correct that temp and humidity is the same for both beef and pork. Additionally, I didn't have much mold form until after 40 days.....

Be particularly careful about mold / bacteria around the bone..... I had to toss one of my experiments because of bacteria around the bone. Clean the butt to the best of your ability under cold water and especially focus on any nooks...... ensure it is all dry before wrapping.

Hit me up with any questions.

Good luck!