My Pork Butts

[rexster]

I've cooked a bunch of them over the last several years, wife takes the pulled pork to her bingo buddies once a month or so. I've go to where I just don't like the flavor of the pork when it gets pulled. I've used different kinds of rubs, sauces, and I just can't get past the barnyard taste of some of that pork. It seems it's the darker parts of meat that are more "gamier" than the other parts. Anyone else notice this difference??

[Saber 4]

I haven't done enough of them to notice a difference, of course we eat a lot of wild hog and love it so I may not be the best judge. I have done some taste test's with the wife recently and we have decided on the country style pork ribs we like them better when I marinate them overnight in apple juice, soy sauce, lime juice with some crushed garlic then patted dry and apply my favorite dry rub and into the Bradley instead of just doing the rub overnight and into the Bradley. Just food for thought on something that has worked for us.

[beefmann]

try something different ,,, next time you  do a  pulled pork,,, brine it the night before with the following

1 gal apple juice
2 cups brown sugar
1 cup salt
3 tbsp garlic powder
3 tbsp onion powder
3 tbsp black pepper
3 tbsp ground mustard

dissolve all dry ingredients into the  liquid , place pork  shoulder into brine over night , then apply your favorite rub .

let us know  how it turns out, it may be comming out to dry.   

[rexster]

Thanks Beefman, I'll give it a try, but the meat is coming out tender and juicy. I remember I used to soak deer and wild hog cuts in sprite or 7up to kill the gamey taste.

[Habanero Smoker]

I've tasted a lot of pork shoulder prepared in many ways, I can't say that I have ever picked up a gamey taste, but taste is subjective. It seems it is the flavor of the bark that you are not liking. I know several people who do not like the bark. If the rubs you have tried are high in sugars, try reducing or removing the amount of sugars in the rub. I often find that using cumin in your rub or injection will give meat a gamey taste.

Use less smoke, and foil earlier into the cook. Google Cuban pork roast, and prepare your butts that way. A lot of Cuban pork recipes call for high heat at the end, you may want to skip that part. When I prepare my butts Cuban style, I get very little bark, and the citrus used in these recipes may tame down that gamey taste you are picking up.