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I'm not making it today, but wanted to get the thread started with some pics for you folks of what I've got going and if you can think of something I should use instead or along-with. :D
You have all the basics, just add a pork butt and you are off to the races. Will you be injecting any of the apple juice, or using it during a covered step? In addition to a coating of rub, have you considered grinding some very fine and adding it to the pulled meat, as in a 'finishing rub'. It also helps to give the pulled meat a light sprinkle of seasoned salt, or just plain salt.
The best tips for good quality pulled meat is to let the muscles tell you if they should be pulled, chunked, shredded, chopped or sometimes they need to be sliced. You are really taking the butt apart, not really pulling it apart. It's tempting to attack it with some forks, but if you force it and get too aggressive it can look like spaghetti and can dry out faster. Here is an example of breaking down a pork butt, I do it by (a gloved) hand so I can feel the tenderness and also remove any fatty veins. You can return some of the foil juices (de-fatted) to keep it moist, or a mix of apple juice and foil juices.
This photo is on a serving line, you can visualize what I'm working with, and what I'll wind up with. I'm selecting some bark, I'll remove that fatty area below, and the muscles on the right have sort of flaked themselves.
This is a cross section of a butt, use the blade bone as reference and you will know where the most tender and flavorful muscles are. The money muscle, tubes, and horn muscles are the best. The larger loin muscles will be tighter and whiter compared to the others.
When shopping, look for a nice money muscle, this is what to look out for in the packaging. It will have the distinctive veins of fat.
Couple of questions are you planning on cooking it in the aluminum pan or will the pan be on a grate underneath the butt. If on a grate underneath then disregard the next sentence.If your doing it in the pan then I would get something like a small rack, some cut up onions/carrots, or some crumbled up aluminum foil to elevate the butt. I don't like having them sit in the pan drippings. Also if your planning on wrapping then you'll need aluminum foil.
Couple of questions are you planning on cooking it in the aluminum pan or will the pan be on a grate underneath the butt. If on a grate underneath then disregard the next sentence.If your doing it in the pan then I would get something like a small rack, some cut up onions/carrots, or some crumbled up aluminum foil to elevate the butt. I don't like having them sit in the pan drippings. Also if your planning on wrapping then you'll need aluminum foil.
Yes, it's going to be on the grate underneath with water in it.
I'm going to attempt the snake method again. I've got some applewood wood chips that I'm going to space out like the pic above (chips, not chunks - stores don't have any chunkcs).
Going to start prepping the butt around 7am tomorrow and hope to have the grill warmed up and ready to go around 8. Have a thermometer for the butt and got that oven thermometer so I'd have an idea of what the temp in the grill is as well.
Just let it sit until the temp gets to 160 internal, correct?
Internal temp of 195-215 will be money. 165 will be done but not pull by a long shot. The meat must probe like butter. That can begin at around 195. Most often it will be 200, but can be 205, or 210. Settle in for the ride. It’s worth it.
Just checked on it - meat has heated up to about 65 degrees, snake is working great so far, and the grill temp is right around 215. Little cooler than I'd like, but it is snowing outside. lol
I think we've plateaued with the weather we have. The snake is working fine, with about 1/4 of it left, internal grill temp is right around that 225mark, but the internal temp isn't going past 149 right now.
Do I need to just add more coals and let it keep going or something else?
