Mid-Week BUTT Experiment ...... The Madness Continues On

classicrockgriller · March 31, 2010, 04:06:02 PM

Last week this was done and was pretty good.

http://forum.bradleysmoker.com/index.php?topic=15123.0

During the week ronbreau made a post about smoking a Butt at 250* and finishing in approx 11 hrs.

http://forum.bradleysmoker.com/index.php?topic=15143.0

I thought that was very interesting, SOOOOOOOO..

I started this Tuesday Morning.

Butt #1:

Is a 5 1/2 lb'er. I made some Deep slice marks on each side.

Made a brine from this:

1 cup of the brine and 3 cups of water

Put it all in the tumble injector for a 20 minute ride.

The butt and left over brine went into a ziplock bag and in the fridge

Butt #2

It is a big Piggie. 10 1/2 lbs that got 23oz of Tony Chachere's Creole Butter Marinade injected into it and the remainder of the second bottle

got pour into a ziplock bag (2 gal) and into the fridge.

The plan is to put them on tonite around 10 at 260* and see what happens.

More to come .......

oakville smoker · March 31, 2010, 04:11:21 PM

Madness I say
MADNESS !

ronbeaux · March 31, 2010, 05:45:50 PM

You can kiss me if no one is looking. Jack it up to 270. Come on. Live a little.

Seriously though. I prefer 260(ish.) I've never stabbed one to death with a knife though. I hope it stays moist. It now has a lot of places to bleed out.........

PLUS. Brined ones will take less time.

You guys beat me up if you want to but here are my thoughts on brining.

Brining is great for a piece of meat that doesn't take long to cook. Like chicken or pork CHOPS. The faster cook time is inhibited by the brining and lets the meat hang on to the moisture during the brutal process of driving it out with high heat. Long slow cooks benefit from INJECTING. It stays more moist because there is more moisture in there.

classicrockgriller · March 31, 2010, 05:52:21 PM

Since these are experimental Butts, I did one each way.

The injected one did not go under the knife.

Thanks for sharing your info. All this is good info to know.

ronbeaux · March 31, 2010, 06:05:33 PM

I can't wait to see the results. I KNOW you will like it. Just pull it at 192 and wrap it and let it rest in a cooler to climb up to 195ish. (you know the bone pull drill) Pour a little liquid in the foil of your choice and when it starts cooling down it will suck it up and make it moist. With what you put on there for an injection and marinade I would suggest something like a watered down Sweet Baby Ray's bbq sauce with apple juice. You will need a little acid to brake up the oil of the butter type injection.

classicrockgriller · March 31, 2010, 09:48:51 PM

The Pork Bath that Butt #1 is getting is from Sweetwater Spice Company out of Austin, Texas.

www.sweetwaterspice.com

I called and talked to a guy named Scott.

He told me to make this an injectable marinade to strain off the solids in the part that is mixed up and save a cup

of the liquids. Dilute that down with 3 more cups of "juice or water".

Since I had already done what I did, I left it at that.

I did strain the liquids and make a wet rub for the piggie out of the solids.

For Butt #2 I used Tony Chachere's "More Spice" and cracked Black Malabar Pepper

This Butt started out at 10 1/2 lbs and with the injections it went into the sweat box weighing almost 12 lbs.

Got everything in the Smoker by 10:00 and am using a combination of pecan/apple/jim beam (8 hrs of smoke ;D)

Auber is set at 260* and it's SMOKIN.

classicrockgriller · March 31, 2010, 10:18:00 PM

Also with the discussion of smoking factory hotdogs I decided to do a few.

The Ball Park's (the long ones) just got wrapped in bacon.

Jalapeno Cheddar Smoked Sausage wrapped in Bacon and dashed with dried Jalapeno Pepper

And Johnsonville's "Andouille Spicy Smoked Sausage" with cracked Black Pepper.

Gonna make for a nice snack with they come out of the smoker.

Tenpoint5 · March 31, 2010, 10:28:20 PM

Those dog remind me of the Super Burger Dawgs. I will have to look around to see if I can find the pictures and recipe for them.

classicrockgriller · March 31, 2010, 11:34:33 PM

1:00

Time for these to come out.

Didn't have any Hotdog buns, So a Hamburger bun it is. The onions and cucumbers have been marinading in Rice vinegar with a gulp or two of garlic vinegar.

Man I hope the Butts taste as good as the dogs.

SnellySmokesEm · April 01, 2010, 07:22:36 AM

Nice dogs CRG - man them look good. Cant wait to see the how the butts turn out. Keep up the great work!

classicrockgriller · April 01, 2010, 08:11:50 AM

At 7 am.

I put them in FTC at the 11 hour mark. (9 am)

Unbelievable.

Big Butt

Little Butt

OU812 · April 01, 2010, 08:22:45 AM

Those look almost good enough to eat. ;D

I'll take the little but, I like little butts. :D

I love a good hot dog, them Ball Park Franks are pretty damn good aint they?

classicrockgriller · April 01, 2010, 08:27:47 AM

I had one each of the Jalapeno Cheddar and the Andouille

sausage dog and they were trippin good.

watchdog56 · April 01, 2010, 09:14:14 AM

It all looks good. Very nice job. Might have to try the hotdog thing some day.

sweetwaterspice · April 01, 2010, 10:08:54 AM

Quote from: ronbeaux on March 31, 2010, 05:45:50 PM
You can kiss me if no one is looking. Jack it up to 270. Come on. Live a little.

Seriously though. I prefer 260(ish.) I've never stabbed one to death with a knife though. I hope it stays moist. It now has a lot of places to bleed out.........

PLUS. Brined ones will take less time.

You guys beat me up if you want to but here are my thoughts on brining.

Brining is great for a piece of meat that doesn't take long to cook. Like chicken or pork CHOPS. The faster cook time is inhibited by the brining and lets the meat hang on to the moisture during the brutal process of driving it out with high heat. Long slow cooks benefit from INJECTING. It stays more moist because there is more moisture in there.

I'm obviously biased (and new to the board) but I wanted to add my two cents about brining for slow smoking.

The longer meat cooks the more time water has to evaporate out of the meat. The water in between the meat cells starts to evaporate at 120 degrees internal temp and the water inside the meat cells begins to evaporate at 140 degrees internal temp - this is when the meat begins to dry out. From 140 degrees to 195 degrees the meat continues to dry out.

When you brine large cuts of meat for slow smoking there are two benefits.

1) All of the proteins in the meat are denatured which produces tender meat.

2) When the proteins denature they have more surface area and thus more binding sites for the free floating water in the meat cells. Water that is bound to the protein will not break free until 170 degrees internal temp - meaning that the amount of time that the meat is losing water to evaporation has been reduced greatly, thus creating meat that is more moist.

It should be noted that the brining process works by pulling water out of the meat via osmosis - that is how the proteins become denatured in the first place. The water that is lost to brining is less than the water that is lost to evaporation so there is a net gain in moisture through the process of brining.

Injecting creates more avenues for liquid to escape through evaporation. Using a fat based injection will counter that to some effect and obviously adds flavor but it is not a method that prevents meat from drying out.

ronbeaux is correct in that brined meat can cook faster - water is a better conductor of heat than air and the additional water content in the meat means that heat will be conducted through the meat more effectively and thus cook faster - some experiments show that meat can cook up to 10% faster.