Sous vide and smoked pork butt.

[mdboatbum]

Decided to try a little experiment and combine sous vide and smoking.

Got a little 3lb butt on sale, seasoned it up with salt, pepper and some low salt rub I found at the store. I think it’s called “Original Back yard BBQ seasoning”. Prettt good stuff.

Thursday evening I vacuum sealed it and let it stew in it’s own juices in the fridge for about 24 hours.

Then Friday evening I put it in the water bath at 160° around 6pm. My thinking was I wanted the connective tissue to be able to start to break down, but I didn’t want to have to let it go for 30 hours.

Then the next morning about 9 I re-rubbed it and put it in the smoker with Pecan at 225° for what turned out to be about 7 hours until it probed tender. It was averaging about 200° throughout the piece of meat.

Then I rested it and pulled it, adding the defatted juices from the sous vide bag. There wasn’t much fat, and my plan to let the collagen render seems to have worked, as the juice was a solid block of gelatin after a few hours in the fridge. I added some vinegar and some more rub to it after melting it in the microwave, and used it as a finishing sauce.

It was really juicy and had a nice bark and flavor though it was a bit subtle. I would’ve liked a bit more smoke.

I think next time I’ll either smoke it to 140° before the sous vide bath, or I’ll just use a stronger wood like hickory or mesquite.

All in all it’s a win. The texture was incredibly tender without being mushy, and it was really moist. I’ve done a lot of pulled pork in the smoker, and texture wise this was the best I’ve ever done. Just have to amp up the flavor a little bit.

 

[Co4ch D4ve]

I’ve combined Smoker and sous vide before and found if I smoke it first, then SV, I get a good smoke flavor.

 

[crazymoon]

MBB, Your PP looks incrediblely moist and quite delicious. Did you SV for about 13 hours ?

 

[The Smokin' Canuck]

First I've heard of the SV + smoking method, end result looks awesome

 

[Rafter H BBQ]

Looks like a successful experiment md, nice job!

 

[mdboatbum]

MBB, Your PP looks incrediblely moist and quite delicious. Did you SV for about 13 hours ?

Yes it was just about 13 hours. Thanks, it was quite moist.

 

[mdboatbum]

I’ve combined Smoker and sous vide before and found if I smoke it first, then SV, I get a good smoke flavor.

Thanks, I’ll try it that way next time.

 

[S-met]

I’ve combined Smoker and sous vide before and found if I smoke it first, then SV, I get a good smoke flavor.

What temp do you you pull from the smoker and what time/temp to sous vide? I'm thinking smoke till I hit the stall, then sous vide 165 for 14-18 hrs for pulled.

And did you rest between smoke and sous vide or did you bag hot and go straight to the water bath?

 

[Co4ch D4ve]

I’ve smoked until the stall, then immediately into the SV, I’ve gone into the fridge and even into the freezer before SV. I usually don’t smoke to finished temp as to keep moisture in the meat.