I saw a glaring gap in the July 4th picnic potluck signup, so a couple of 8lb boneless pork butts went on the smoker, even though I knew logistics were going to be difficult. I started by dry-brining them overnight with a rub that leaned hard on a couple varieties of ground pepper and herbs (I took this picture before I realized I had a better pan/grate option).
Smoked the pork at 250-270 until about 155ish, then wrapped and cooked at around 275 until tender (high 190s).
After it rested, I drained off the juices to complete a finishing sauce based on roasted garlic, Worcestershire, and molasses, with a touch of paprika. I had considered a lemon-blackberry-bourbon route, but figured that could wait until I had more time to experiment with dialing in the right proportions.
In the interest of speed, I did the pulling part with the dough hook of my stand mixer (cue the traditionalists' gasps and pearl-clutching). As long as you keep a close eye on it, you can get results indistinguishable from hand-pulling in considerably less time... even though it admittedly isn't as fun.
If it looks a little on the dry side, it's because I had to vac-seal the pork for transport on ice and re-wet with the finishing sauce later (juicy meat makes it hard to get a good seal on the vacuum bag). I cannot emphasize enough how none of this was ideal, but keeping the pork hot enough until the picnic was, sadly, just not feasible. Once on-site, I mixed the sauce and meat together in an aluminum tray (fortunately, the quantity of finishing sauce more than sufficed) and heated it back up to serving temperature on the grill. Held its own against the ribs, lamb shanks, and Moroccan chicken skewers that also showed up.
Smoked the pork at 250-270 until about 155ish, then wrapped and cooked at around 275 until tender (high 190s).
After it rested, I drained off the juices to complete a finishing sauce based on roasted garlic, Worcestershire, and molasses, with a touch of paprika. I had considered a lemon-blackberry-bourbon route, but figured that could wait until I had more time to experiment with dialing in the right proportions.
In the interest of speed, I did the pulling part with the dough hook of my stand mixer (cue the traditionalists' gasps and pearl-clutching). As long as you keep a close eye on it, you can get results indistinguishable from hand-pulling in considerably less time... even though it admittedly isn't as fun.
If it looks a little on the dry side, it's because I had to vac-seal the pork for transport on ice and re-wet with the finishing sauce later (juicy meat makes it hard to get a good seal on the vacuum bag). I cannot emphasize enough how none of this was ideal, but keeping the pork hot enough until the picnic was, sadly, just not feasible. Once on-site, I mixed the sauce and meat together in an aluminum tray (fortunately, the quantity of finishing sauce more than sufficed) and heated it back up to serving temperature on the grill. Held its own against the ribs, lamb shanks, and Moroccan chicken skewers that also showed up.
