Previously I tried a small 4lb bone in butt and for some reason, despite smoking it for half a day, couldn't get the temp over 180 or so. So instead of pulled pork, we ended up having pork roast. It was great tasting but I really had a desire to make an awesome batch of pulled pork.
I thought maybe the problem was the heat diffuser was causing a temp variance or something. What it actually ended up being was I didn't notice the butt was tied up with butcher's string and cooked it with the strings on it. Well those strings had it so tightly wound, the heat just couldn't penetrate enough get all that fat and connective tissue rendered out.
I know this because today I tossed on a 6lb bone in butt. I made sure there were no strings attached. :) I also learned with the first butt that I should have added a bit more sugar to my rub for a long cook like this. Since the first butt's bark was kind of stout and not as smooth since the sugar burned off quick and it was a lot of heat and no real sweet. I did a big batch of homemade rub when I first built the smoker. The wife felt it was a bit too sweet after I made us some ribs. So I added some more heat and a tad more salt to it. I think it's the perfect rib rub because once I foil the ribs and add the Parkay, honey, brown sugar, apple juice and tiger sauce, that heat will not be near as stout as if I left the ribs dry. So this time I cut the rub with some brown sugar.
I ended up waking up at 5am for some reason, so I figured why not get the butt out, toss another coating of rub on it and let it set while I get the smoker going. I also injected a little apple juice with some of the rub mixed in. It smoked about 8 hours and had an internal temp of 180deg. So I let it set another hour and took it out the UDS. The fat cap was really thick and had built up an awesome layer of bark with some hidden nuggets of pork meat chunks in some of the pockets of fat. Since I got it done earlier than expected, I foiled it up, bundled it in some towers and it's sitting in my cooler waiting to be pulled and served on some cheddar jalapeno bagels along with some baked potatoes.
I took the bark that formed on the fat cap, scrapped all the fat off, and it's basically a slice of meat candy. A lil sweet with a lil heat. The meat was literally so moist, juicy and ridiculously tender. I can't wait to shred that bad boy up and dig in.
Here's some pre-shredding Q-View.....
I am hoping there is some marrow left in the bone when I pull it. Now pork bone marrow is truly the food of the gods. I used to see people eating it on those food network shows and thought it looked nasty. Then the wife started making ham and bean soup from scratch and she pulled all the meat off the bone and I saw the marrow sort of just sitting inside it, calling out to me. I tried it and it was so flavorful, it was unreal. I like beef marrow too but the pork marrow is on another level.
Just before foiling it up.....
HIGH FIVE!
I thought maybe the problem was the heat diffuser was causing a temp variance or something. What it actually ended up being was I didn't notice the butt was tied up with butcher's string and cooked it with the strings on it. Well those strings had it so tightly wound, the heat just couldn't penetrate enough get all that fat and connective tissue rendered out.
I know this because today I tossed on a 6lb bone in butt. I made sure there were no strings attached. :) I also learned with the first butt that I should have added a bit more sugar to my rub for a long cook like this. Since the first butt's bark was kind of stout and not as smooth since the sugar burned off quick and it was a lot of heat and no real sweet. I did a big batch of homemade rub when I first built the smoker. The wife felt it was a bit too sweet after I made us some ribs. So I added some more heat and a tad more salt to it. I think it's the perfect rib rub because once I foil the ribs and add the Parkay, honey, brown sugar, apple juice and tiger sauce, that heat will not be near as stout as if I left the ribs dry. So this time I cut the rub with some brown sugar.
I ended up waking up at 5am for some reason, so I figured why not get the butt out, toss another coating of rub on it and let it set while I get the smoker going. I also injected a little apple juice with some of the rub mixed in. It smoked about 8 hours and had an internal temp of 180deg. So I let it set another hour and took it out the UDS. The fat cap was really thick and had built up an awesome layer of bark with some hidden nuggets of pork meat chunks in some of the pockets of fat. Since I got it done earlier than expected, I foiled it up, bundled it in some towers and it's sitting in my cooler waiting to be pulled and served on some cheddar jalapeno bagels along with some baked potatoes.
I took the bark that formed on the fat cap, scrapped all the fat off, and it's basically a slice of meat candy. A lil sweet with a lil heat. The meat was literally so moist, juicy and ridiculously tender. I can't wait to shred that bad boy up and dig in.
Here's some pre-shredding Q-View.....
I am hoping there is some marrow left in the bone when I pull it. Now pork bone marrow is truly the food of the gods. I used to see people eating it on those food network shows and thought it looked nasty. Then the wife started making ham and bean soup from scratch and she pulled all the meat off the bone and I saw the marrow sort of just sitting inside it, calling out to me. I tried it and it was so flavorful, it was unreal. I like beef marrow too but the pork marrow is on another level.
Just before foiling it up.....
HIGH FIVE!
