Pork Shoulder - 12 hour smoke?

[txflyguy]

I ate at "Famous Dave's BBQ", yesterday in Denver. Established 1994.

Their pork is slow smoked for 12 hours. It was the best I have ever tasted! It melted in my mouth, super tender and juicy. Awesome flavor! Better than any shoulder that I have smoked.

They also have 6 BBQ sauces, all made from scratch.

I wonder how they do that? Any ideas? How do they get that super tender, juicy, flavorful pork shoulder? Is it the 12 hour smoke?

https://www.famousdaves.com/

 

[chilerelleno]

I've eaten at Famous Dave's several times before, my parents love the place.
I've had their BBQ range from mediocre to great.

Wonder how they do what?

Cook a Butt in 12 hours?
Contract with their supplier for an average sized butt, example 8lbs, and cook it at a temp that they know yields the desired cook times.

Get it so perfect?
A proven rub recipe designed to cover the widest range of tastes.
Enhanced meat, the supplier injects with a brine that includes flavor enhancers and tenderizers.
A half decent pit boss with a good digital probe thermometer testing IT and probe tenderness.
A good long rest in temperature controlled cambros.

Make their sauces from scratch?
They don't, you can buy it bottled in their restaurants or at the supermarket, it is mass produced in a factory.
I've a bottle of FD's Devil's Spit in the cabinet at home, bought it at WalMart.

Keep cooking Butts and you'll nail it down too.

 

[motocrash]

Well.... that pretty much sums it up.

 

[Rusty Long]

This is the key.

" the supplier injects with a brine that includes flavor enhancers and tenderizers."

its how they make it so different than what we do in our backyards :cool:

 

[chilerelleno]

This is the key.

" the supplier injects with a brine that includes flavor enhancers and tenderizers."

its how they make it so different than what we do in our backyards :cool:

Most of what is sold in supermarkets is 'Flavor Enhanced'' too, read your labels.

 

[gmc2003]

I've a bottle of FD's Devil's Spit in the cabinet at home, bought it at WalMart.

Now doesn't that just sound like the most appetizing sauce to put on a hunk of meat.:)

Chris

 

[chilerelleno]

Now doesn't that just sound like the most appetizing sauce to put on a hunk of meat.:)

Chris

LMAO... It's actually the best thing at Famous Dave's, one of my favorite sauces.

 

[txflyguy]

But...a 12 hour smoke?

All 6 of the sauces at my table, each one in a squeeze bottle, were awesome.

 

[motocrash]

12 to 14 is the usual here...

 

[Rusty Long]

Depends on the size of course. but yeah mine are 10-14 hours @ 225ish

 

[chilerelleno]

But...a 12 hour smoke?

All 6 of the sauces at my table, each one in a squeeze bottle, were awesome.

Sure, 10-12 hours is average for my Butts, averaging 1.5hrs per lb.
Even less time if you turn up the heat to 275°-325°.
Close the door and leave it closed and if you open to spritz or turn, do it quickly and get your temp back up as quick as possible.
A big commercial smoker or brick pit maintains it's temp much easier, this can mean a steadier and hence shorter cook.

Bulk container and a funnel equals refilled squeeze bottle on demand.
Yes, they've some good sauces, like I said, Devil's Spit is a favorite bottled sauce of mine.

 

[TomKnollRFV]

Also Famous Daves may not..exactly only smoke it. Not sure if it's true or not, but I suspect it is; they might get partially smoked stuff from another location, to basically heat in an oven. <We got one here and to this day, having eaten at it, and driven by it plenty, never smoked any wood smoke in the area..or seen signs of it>.

Honestly I don't feel Famous Daves is all that good; their sauces are like Baby Ray..alot of sugar. Of course food tastes good when it's just coated with sugar, seasoning, and flavour enhancers. You can easily do a pork butt in 12 hours. I wouldn't even be surprised if part of their method is to par boil the meat to partially cook and tenderize, then a trip in a smoker, then it's frozen and shipped to locations and just basically reheated.

 

[txflyguy]

12 to 14 is the usual here...

Time for me to adjust my smoking time!

 

[KrisUpInSmoke]

I agree with Tom.

 

[TomKnollRFV]

Heck Flyguy, I normally run at 225f for my pork butts, so I'm used to butts taking 14+ hours with ease. Even the 24 hour mark just makes me go 'guess I'll be taking it off later' .

 

[RiversideSm0ker]

I've eaten at Famous Dave's several times before, my parents love the place.
I've had their BBQ range from mediocre to great.

Wonder how they do what?

Cook a Butt in 12 hours?
Contract with their supplier for an average sized butt, example 8lbs, and cook it at a temp that they know yields the desired cook times.

Get it so perfect?
A proven rub recipe designed to cover the widest range of tastes.
Enhanced meat, the supplier injects with a brine that includes flavor enhancers and tenderizers.
A half decent pit boss with a good digital probe thermometer testing IT and probe tenderness.
A good long rest in temperature controlled cambros.

Make their sauces from scratch?
They don't, you can buy it bottled in their restaurants or at the supermarket, it is mass produced in a factory.
I've a bottle of FD's Devil's Spit in the cabinet at home, bought it at WalMart.

Keep cooking Butts and you'll nail it down too.

This

George

 

[RiversideSm0ker]

This is the key.

" the supplier injects with a brine that includes flavor enhancers and tenderizers."

its how they make it so different than what we do in our backyards :cool:

I’m not bragging when I say that my own bbq is far superior to the bbq joints I’ve visited. It wasn’t always that way but it is now. It just takes time and the right tools to perfect your craft. I love bbq so I try to put in the maximum effort every cook. Sometimes things happen but the vast majority of my cooks are spot on now. Don’t sell yourself short, you can produce restaurant quality bbq too and I would bet that you already have. Enjoy the time at your pit.

George

 

[mike5051]

This is the key.

" the supplier injects with a brine that includes flavor enhancers and tenderizers."

its how they make it so different than what we do in our backyards :cool:

I'll take what comes out of my backyard everytime!

Mike

 

[txflyguy]

My ribs are better than anything you can get in any restaurant. No brag, just fact. Same goes for my prime rib roast, salmon, etc. But my pork shoulder was not nearly as good as Dave's. I will address that in the near future.

In the restaurant, their signs claimed that their meat was smoked in house daily, and "chopped to order". Based on the quality of the pork I had, no reason to doubt them.

 

[zwiller]

Famous Dave's is good. As for 12hours, that's fast for me even at 275F. Average for me is about 15. One huge thing that separates the men from the boys is producing TBS for the smoke duration. I would say the average guy falls way short. Extremely important. AMNPS took care of that for me. Everyone seems to think it's some magic ingredient in a rub or sauce but in reality TBS and proper pull temp is like 80% of game.

Took me about 6-7 butts to get where I wanted. Did them about every other weekend for daughter's grad party. Made some changes each time and kept notes and eventually... The comments about injecting are a good place to explore. Mixon's book has a good recipe and there are several pre made that get rave reviews. That being said, the craziest thing that improved my PP was the pellet choice. I tried alot of things and a few blends and on a whim tried oak and halfway through the smoke I just knew it. I recall FD is all hickory.