Cajun Apple Butter Pulled Pork

[chilerelleno]

Got up early and made a hearty Saturday morning breakfast, then I decided to run out to one of our independent local butchers, South Alabama Custom Meats.
I purchased some fresh and frozen meats, a nice bone-in Pork Butt, two skin-on sections of Pork Belly and a nice hunk of Goat.
One pork belly and the goat went into the freezer for next weekend.

I came home and defrosted one hunk of pork belly, I prepped the skin by scoring and salting, now it's air drying and I'm gonna cook it up tomorrow and will be aiming for some cracklin skin.
The Butt I immediately prepped for the smoker with a rinse/pat down, injected with homemade 'Cajun Apple Butter' and rubbed with my homemade Pork Rub.
Into the smoker at 12:30pm/cst, smoking it at 225°-250° over Cherry.
Gonna be up late to catch this one when it's done and ready to pull.
I'm also going to whip up some 'SoFlaquer's Finishing Sauce'.

Homemade Cajun Apple Butter Injection
2 sticks of butter
3T Cajun spice
2T granulated garlic
1C Apple juice

Inject, Rub and Smoke

Smoker settled in at 235°-240°, that works for me.
I expect to report back sometime early tomorrow morning with the Qview.

 

[Rafter H BBQ]

Looking good John, that injection sounds awesome! Gonna have to give er a go on the next butt. Have one smoking now (minus the coppa muscle) for a capicola! We're having some PP nachos tonite... tossed on some BB's & beef shorties for some snacks!

Looking forward to more pics of your smoke!

 

[chilerelleno]

Cracklin Pork Belly

I prepped the skin by scoring and salting, now it's air drying.
I'm not sure how I'm going to cook this yet, braise or smoke, or smoke then braise.
But I do know that at the end it's going to end up in a 475°-500° oven to turn that score/salted skin into cracklins.
A lot of salt you're thinking, no worries, the excess will be brush off.

 

[chilerelleno]

Looking good John, that injection sounds awesome! Gonna have to give er a go on the next butt. Have one smoking now (minus the coppa muscle) for a capicola! We're having some PP nachos tonite... tossed on some BB's & beef shorties for some snacks!

Looking forward to more pics of your smoke!

Thanks Justin,
Capicola sounds delish, some nice cheese-n-crakers to go with it, oh yeah!
I'm about to throw on some spicy Italian sausage for some chef's snacks.
Check back in the AM for the PP Qview, afternoon for the Cracklin PB.

 

[ksblazer]

Both of these sound great and I look forward to seeing how they turn out.

Im going to have to give that apple/Cajun injection a try one of these days. Been looking for one to use on a turkey breast.

 

[chilerelleno]

Both of these sound great and I look forward to seeing how they turn out.

Im going to have to give that apple/Cajun injection a try one of these days. Been looking for one to use on a turkey breast.

Thanks, catch the PP finale in the morning and the Cracklin PB tomorrow afternoon.
For regular 'Cajun Butter Injection' just drop the apple juice.

 

[chilerelleno]

7 hours in and this Butt has been stalled at 148-149° for the last 2.5-3 hours.
I just nudged the heat up towards 250° to give a lil'kick in the pants.

I was continuing to contemplate my PB and have come to a decision.
I'm scoring the meat, rubbing it, smoking it on a rack over a steam tray and finishing in the oven.

 

[chilerelleno]

Booyah! Climbed 2° in half an hour and broke 151°.
Gonna be sometime in the wee hours of the morning.
C'mon pork butt, go baby go!

 

[jaxgatorz]

Watching for sure !:D

 

[motocrash]

¡Despierta! ¡El cerdo está listo!

 

[chilerelleno]

¡Despierta! ¡El cerdo está listo!

No, no está listo. Este cerdo está tomando su tiempo dulce.

Man, I do believe this is going to be my longest Butt cook ever.
11.5 hours in and it's only at 167°.
Temp has averaged 140°, I nudged it up to 260°.
So far it's averaging two hours per pound, at this rate it'll be an eighteen hour cook and done at 630am.
Hopefully the temp will come up faster after it climbs past 170°.

 

[motocrash]

Yeah,my experience with injecting roasts is that they can take longer.Sometimes a lot longer.
Yardbird not so much...

 

[chilerelleno]

Decided to get some sack time at 0100am, tapped it back down to 240°.
Got up just now to check it, 242°/183°, back to bed and snuggle up to Mama.

 

[yankee2bbq]

Waiting.....

 

[chilerelleno]

Waiting.....

LOL... Me too :rolleyes:
Gonna be a twenty hour cook, I'm eighteen hours in, at 193° and it's not exactly probe tender or bone wiggly yet.
That's being measured by two different therms, and yes they've been tested recently.
:eek: SLOOOOW PIG! :p

 

[gmc2003]

Sitting in my chair waiting.
Chris

 

[HalfSmoked]

HOOOO Hum how long is it till Christmas??

Warren

 

[chilerelleno]

Well okeydokey, it's finally done and resting.
At 19 hours/197° it probed butter tender, tried to pick it up off the grate by hand and the muscle groups were coming apart.
Grabbed my BIG spatula and got that baby inside, performed the mandatory, chef certified, taste testimg (yummy!) and wrapped up it.
Pulled pics in a hour or so.

Whipped up a batch of, link >>> Soflaquer's Finishing Sauce for Pulled Pork

Here in a lil'while I'll get the pork belly in the smoker and around 12:00pm I'll start a pan of my,
link >>> Green Bean Casserole
Aiming to have a late lunch ready for everyone at around 1:30pm

 

[chilerelleno]

Sitting in my chair waiting.
Chris

HOOOO Hum how long is it till Christmas??

Warren

Sure am glad I had the wisdom to start this sucker yesterday as soon as I got it home.
I usually put a Butt on at 4am/5am and in 12hrs +/- have it ready for dinner at 6pm.
19hr injected pork butt, it's so tender and juicy, lunch is gonna rock!

 

[HalfSmoked]

Now we're getting somewhere. Great looking cook.

Warren