"Big Game" butt!!

[teebob2000]

Hi all - starting a 9 lb. butt for a "Big Game" party tomorrow.  She's a beaut!!  It's my first pulled pork smoke for people other than family so I'm a little nervous about it.  All my other butt pulls have been awesome so I think I'll be OK.  

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• teebob2000
• Feb 2, 2013

First injected with 2:1:1 apple juice/cider vinegar/dark rum.  It's my first try injecting a butt, we'll see how it goes.  I decided to inject because I removed it from the freezer last week Friday, so it had sat thawing wrapped in foil in the fridge for a week.  The outside was slightly desiccated so I was concerned about it drying out too much in the smoking process, and I could feel the inside was still slightly frosty and I wanted to enhance the heat conductivity of the center by saturating it so it didn't take so long to finish up.  Probably over-thinking it in both cases, but, oh well.

Next slathered in yellow mustard and given a nice coat of Jeff's rub with a little extra oregano added.

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• teebob2000
• Feb 2, 2013

Popped it into the 225F Weber bullet at 7 CST and then added apple and pecan chunks.  It's smoking up nice!!  I'm excited!  I'll finish it up later tonight with SoFlaQuer's AMAZING finishing sauce and will serve my homemade tomato-based 'que sauce on the side tomorrow for the party.  Last butt smoke was my first time NOT adding the 'que sauce to the finished pull, and I didn't think it even needed it, it was soooooo good "naked."

I'll update with more views later.  Wish me luck!!!  

 

[rgacat]

Looks great so far keep up the good work and Q views.

Ronnie G.

 

[pgsmoker64]

Looks like you're off to a good start TEEBOB!

Keep that Q-View comin'

Bill

 

[deltaphi216]

mmmmm, looking good.  I am gonna start mine around midnight tonight for tomorrow

 

[teebob2000]

7 hours in and we're hanging at 225F, MAN I love my Weber!!  

  Idiot-proof which makes it perfect for me!!

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• teebob2000
• Feb 2, 2013

It's looking good, man!  Smells like a giant hunk of smoky bacon!!  At 160F and in 5 degrees or so I'll foil it then into the oven.  Baby, it's COLD outside!!

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• teebob2000
• Feb 2, 2013

More to come!!!

 

[opsmokin]

Looking good.! I got 2 butts going and they are at 171. Going to try to get to 195 with no foil although wind is making things tough today. 

 

[teebob2000]

I didn't mention before that after about 5 hours on the smoker, I spritz every hour or so with 1:1 apple juice/dark rum as long as it's on the smoker.

Off the WSM at 168F, wrapped in foil with the remaining spritz (about a cup) and into a 250F oven until 205F IT, then toweled for 2 hours' rest.  Results below!

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• teebob2000
• Feb 3, 2013

When I set it in the pan to pull it, you can see it was already falling apart.  This is the point where my wife goes nuts and I have to practically beat her off with a stick to keep her hands off it!  (Now, it's for her own safety, folks, otherwise she'd burn her mouth!)  It pulled like a dream, used my Bear Claws.  If you don't have a pair of these, I highly recommend them.  It makes pulling absolutely brainless.  And (almost) effortless.  I know a lot of people make the effort to extract the fatty connective tissue while pulling, but I leave it it.  I just make sure it's chopped up really good so nobody gets a big chunk of it.  Halfway through the pull I splashed on the finishing sauce and into the fridge overnight she's done!  For now...

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• teebob2000
• Feb 3, 2013

This morning I defatted the reserved refrigerated oven pan drippings for that wonderful, amazing "pork jelly" as I call it.  (Should try some on my toast this morning!!  hehe)  I mixed about a 1/2 cup with 2 cups of my regular BBQ sauce and OH MY GOODNESS is THAT good!!  Never tried that before.  The rest I'll heat and mix back into the pork before reheating in the oven, and then off to the party tonight!!

Have a killer cheesecake in the oven now and I'm making 3-berry topping for it later.  I'm also going to try smoking a baloney roll today, one of Jeff's crazy newsletter recipes that looks REALLY good!!  If I get the chance I'll do a post with pix on it later.

 

[pgsmoker64]

TeeBob, fantastic job!  You better go ahead and make that chili now!  I can see why that PP doesn't last long in your house...If I were closer I'd be there to help!!!!!

Great job!

Bill

 

[brad455]

Yum that looks awesome

 

[rgacat]

If it taste 1/2 as good as it looks all will be happy. You did another good one.

Ronnie G.

 

[teebob2000]

The PP was a huge hit, thanks to ALL the great info and advice and support and inspiration from these forums.  Now I'm going to editorialize for a minute.

Everyone here who does stuff like this knows it's a lot of time and effort and love going into our smoking.  And when you smoke almost exclusively for family, like I've done over the years, it's gratifying to an extent, your family appreciates it and loves it and gobbles it down faithfully.  And even if something's a little bit off for some reason (though probably only YOU think so), they're still happy to clean their plates.

But this is really the first time I've smoked a big batch of anything for a group of strangers and it is SUCH a great feeling to have everyone raving about how good your smoke is.  Women who make the slowcooker/crockpot version of "pulled pork" (including my MIL who makes a relatively good one) are AMAZED when tasting "real" pulled pork, often for the first time.  One older fellow was beside himself, saying how he'd not tasted anything that good since his son, who used to smoke all the time, moved out on his own.

This is SUCH a good feeling and makes it worth ALL the money and time and effort and, yes, (sometimes) aggravation and frustration when things don't go 100% as planned.  So thanks again for all the advice and help we get from this community.

 

[smoke happens]

Well done, and yes that part is nice when strangers give you feedback like that. They'll be asking if "that guy with the smoked pork stuff" is coming when next year's get together starts to be planned.

 

[driedstick]

Looks good, and yep always good when almost strangers compliment ya, did some pork candy for Thanksgiving and one lady was very hesistent to try one but finally after they were almost gone and the smell in the house she tried one and it was like a light switch for her she could not get enought, she asked if she ever called if I could do some for her,,,,,,,Thats a nice feeling. And yes I told her I could.