Matt2979
My dawg has the bluuues.
About 25 years ago I made some great tuna steaks on a gas grill. Those turned out nice, but since then, charcoal is the only type of grill that I've cooked on. This year, on Memorial Day Weekend, my wife and I bought our first gas grill. I've cooked LOTS of good food on it since then, but I missed that smokey flavor from the charcoal.
Several weeks ago I tried my first attempt at smoking a pork butt. (For those that don't know, a "pork butt" is actually part of the shoulder, aka boston butt). I started it at a few minutes shy of 0900 and at 1830 (aka dinner time) it still wasn't ready. I upped my temps to finish it up. Taste was great, but had to be sliced (I was after pulled pork).
Last Sunday I tried again with a 10.69 pork shoulder. Results were much better!
First of all, my recipe:
...really not much of a "recipe" to this. First ingredient is beer (to be explained later). Take your choice of seasonings (i.e. salt, pepper, chili powder, cumin, garlic, paprika, etc) and create a dry rub to suit your taste (I prefer mine to have a little bit of a bite so I prefer more hot pepper than some folks). Last night my wife cheated and used a product called "Butt Rub". I'll know this evening if I'm willing to recommend it or not.
Remove the meat from it's packaging, rinse well, pat down with a paper towel and then rub down with the seasonings. Don't be afraid to really apply some pressure and work the seasonings into the skin. (IMO) it's much better to cook with the most fat on top so orient it in the plate when rubbing it down. This helps the sleepy cook to put it on the grill in the dark!
Let the rubbed down meat sit in the fridge overnight (covered). In the morning (the bigger the meat, the earlier you'll want to start), it will be ready to slide directly onto the grill. Also, soak your wood chips in water overnight. For pork, I prefer to use apple wood, but again, whatever suits your preference (cherry, apple, mesquite, and hickory all do great, IMO). I've also found the bigger chunks smoke better, quicker and longer than the smaller chips.
This morning I put a 7.59 lb boston butt on the grill. I fired up the grill at 0530 (all burners), placed my pans of wood chips directly on the outer burners. I removed 1 of my 2 grill-grates and slid the 1 into the middle of the grill, covering burners #2 & #3 (it's a 4-burner grill). After letting it reach nearly 700 degrees (was only 10 minutes), I placed the butt on the grate, centered in the middle of the grill, and turned down the 2 burners beneath it, as low as they would go. After 10-15 minutes, I turned those 2 middle burners off, and then turned the 2 outer burners down to low (all the way down).
For the first couple of hours, I mopped the entire piece of meat with apple cider vinegar about every 15-20 minutes to help ensure that it didn't dry out too early. Pay special attention to the ends and any cracks developing, but coat the whole thing. Be careful not to apply too much pressure and remove your dry rub.
For the first 3-3 1/2 hours, I maintained my temps between 310-340. After that, I turned off 1 burner, and kept the best smoking pan of chips on the opposite burner (1 that was off). This helps to maintain more consistent smoke by having 1 of the 2 pans always smoking. It also produces some heat on the "off" side of the meat to keep things more even. The slower you cook this, the better.
Where I screwed up with my first roast was not letting it get hot enough. I got it to at least 175, which was a nice, safe temp to eat pork. But in order to make "pulled pork", you need to hit an internal temp of 190. At 190 the connective tissues start to break down and basically dissolve.
The shoulder last week smoked from 0430 until just after 1630 (just over 12 hours). I removed it from the grill and covered it with a couple of layers of foil, and let it "rest" for over half an hour. When I uncovered it and removed that big piece of skin (on the should, but the butt doesn't have the skin), everything beneath it just fell apart. No knife needed. Just reach in and grab meat and it comes apart! Even better, it melted in my mouth like nothing I had ever eaten. I put BBQ sauce on my plate out of habit, but ended up using it on my bread and homemade potato chips.
Below is a pic from the shoulder, and several of today's butt in progress.
Last week's 10.69 lb shoulder (only pic that I took of that one, right after placing it on the hot grill)
This morning after cooking for about 2 hours
About 4 hours and 10 minutes in
7 hours
Looks good enough to eat...right?
Not hardly ready yet! ...this is where the beer is added to the recipe!
More pics to come as this cut of meat continues to slowly cook and become more and more infused with the flavor of smoking apple wood!!
Several weeks ago I tried my first attempt at smoking a pork butt. (For those that don't know, a "pork butt" is actually part of the shoulder, aka boston butt). I started it at a few minutes shy of 0900 and at 1830 (aka dinner time) it still wasn't ready. I upped my temps to finish it up. Taste was great, but had to be sliced (I was after pulled pork).
Last Sunday I tried again with a 10.69 pork shoulder. Results were much better!
First of all, my recipe:
...really not much of a "recipe" to this. First ingredient is beer (to be explained later). Take your choice of seasonings (i.e. salt, pepper, chili powder, cumin, garlic, paprika, etc) and create a dry rub to suit your taste (I prefer mine to have a little bit of a bite so I prefer more hot pepper than some folks). Last night my wife cheated and used a product called "Butt Rub". I'll know this evening if I'm willing to recommend it or not.
Remove the meat from it's packaging, rinse well, pat down with a paper towel and then rub down with the seasonings. Don't be afraid to really apply some pressure and work the seasonings into the skin. (IMO) it's much better to cook with the most fat on top so orient it in the plate when rubbing it down. This helps the sleepy cook to put it on the grill in the dark!
Let the rubbed down meat sit in the fridge overnight (covered). In the morning (the bigger the meat, the earlier you'll want to start), it will be ready to slide directly onto the grill. Also, soak your wood chips in water overnight. For pork, I prefer to use apple wood, but again, whatever suits your preference (cherry, apple, mesquite, and hickory all do great, IMO). I've also found the bigger chunks smoke better, quicker and longer than the smaller chips.
This morning I put a 7.59 lb boston butt on the grill. I fired up the grill at 0530 (all burners), placed my pans of wood chips directly on the outer burners. I removed 1 of my 2 grill-grates and slid the 1 into the middle of the grill, covering burners #2 & #3 (it's a 4-burner grill). After letting it reach nearly 700 degrees (was only 10 minutes), I placed the butt on the grate, centered in the middle of the grill, and turned down the 2 burners beneath it, as low as they would go. After 10-15 minutes, I turned those 2 middle burners off, and then turned the 2 outer burners down to low (all the way down).
For the first couple of hours, I mopped the entire piece of meat with apple cider vinegar about every 15-20 minutes to help ensure that it didn't dry out too early. Pay special attention to the ends and any cracks developing, but coat the whole thing. Be careful not to apply too much pressure and remove your dry rub.
For the first 3-3 1/2 hours, I maintained my temps between 310-340. After that, I turned off 1 burner, and kept the best smoking pan of chips on the opposite burner (1 that was off). This helps to maintain more consistent smoke by having 1 of the 2 pans always smoking. It also produces some heat on the "off" side of the meat to keep things more even. The slower you cook this, the better.
Where I screwed up with my first roast was not letting it get hot enough. I got it to at least 175, which was a nice, safe temp to eat pork. But in order to make "pulled pork", you need to hit an internal temp of 190. At 190 the connective tissues start to break down and basically dissolve.
The shoulder last week smoked from 0430 until just after 1630 (just over 12 hours). I removed it from the grill and covered it with a couple of layers of foil, and let it "rest" for over half an hour. When I uncovered it and removed that big piece of skin (on the should, but the butt doesn't have the skin), everything beneath it just fell apart. No knife needed. Just reach in and grab meat and it comes apart! Even better, it melted in my mouth like nothing I had ever eaten. I put BBQ sauce on my plate out of habit, but ended up using it on my bread and homemade potato chips.
Below is a pic from the shoulder, and several of today's butt in progress.
Last week's 10.69 lb shoulder (only pic that I took of that one, right after placing it on the hot grill)
This morning after cooking for about 2 hours
About 4 hours and 10 minutes in
7 hours
Looks good enough to eat...right?
Not hardly ready yet! ...this is where the beer is added to the recipe!
More pics to come as this cut of meat continues to slowly cook and become more and more infused with the flavor of smoking apple wood!!
