1st on the Bradley - Pork Butt

[BuyLowSellHigh]

Today begins the culmination of two weeks of preparation and anticipation with my first smoke on my new Bradley Six Rack.  If this works as well as I hope it will be because of the counsel and guidance so freely and graciously provided by the many experienced members.  Sincerely, Thank You! gentlemen.  And if this doesn't quite work out it will be because I goofed somewhere.  So here goes, first time on the Bradley, a smoked pork butt.

Let's begin with the meat - after my final trimming an 8 lb 6 oz butt.


Next was a 12 hour brine soak under refrigeration


While soaking in the brine it was time to make the rub, my own toasted fennel spice rub (inspired by Michael Chiarello).  First there are seeds to be toasted - fennel, black pepper and coriander


After cooling to room temp, grind those and then blend with brown sugar, Ancho chili powder, smoked Spanish paprika, onion powder, garlic powder and Coleman's mustard and this is the result


After 12 hrs in the brine, a rinse and blot dry, some air-drying time in the fridge, a first rub, wrapped and back in the fridge for 10 hrs, then out to room temp to warm up, a final rub and I hope we're ready to go.  Here's the final prepared butt headed for the Bradley


And here was the start at 4:00 pm Central time this afternoon.


The plan is to be eating this thing tomorrow night somewhere around 5-6 pm.
More to come once it's done.

[FLBentRider]

Looks good. I like the rub ingredients.

With that size butt (and only one of them) you will probably be done late morning/early afternoon.

I have FTC'd butts in a 5-day cooler for up to 7 hours.

You can put in a heating pad if the cooler insulation is not up to the task.

[classicrockgriller]

Can already see, this ain't your first Rodeo.

Very nice presentation and explanation.

Never did see what temp you plan on smoking/cooking at.

Like FBLR said the rub ingredients looks nice.

[BuyLowSellHigh]

Thanks, Gents. 

CRG, temp plan is 3-step.  Start @ 250 for 1st hr, then down to 225 to IT = 180. then back to 250 to IT = 195.  After 2 hrs at 225 it feels to me like IT is rising too fast, so I backed off to 210.  I should emphasize it's a feel thing for me. I surely don't have an IT/time profile I am looking for, but I am looking for something like 16-18 hrs for IT = 195.   I may kick it back up a tad in a few hours if I get the feeling it's slowed too much.  I should have mentioned - 4 hours of smoke, 2:1 Pecan:Apple.

[squirtthecat]

Somebody has been doing their homework!

Looks like a great plan...   I love the Pecan/Apple combo.   That's about all I buy now for my OBS.

[classicrockgriller]

That has become one of my fav's too along with Hickory/Apple.

[Niesa]

thats looking pretty good, i may just have to try that rub out myself!! Let us know how it turns out!

[DTAggie]

Man you are kicking butt (pun intended) on your first smoke.  Can't wait to see and hear about results

[BuyLowSellHigh]

Twenty-two hours later, here's what I found.



I probably kicked it back a bit too much after the initial rise.  Next time I will know better (got notes).  Still, the taster that stuck to the frogmat was delicious and quite moist!  It's in the cooler doing the FTC thing for the next couple of hours.  Everything else is ready, now it's just wait (aka nap) and eat (appropriate frosty beverages to be included).

[Mr Walleye]

That's a mighty fine lookin' butt!  :D

Great job!  8)

Mike

[BuyLowSellHigh]

Thanks, Mike!

Now for the last chapter ...
Out of 2.5 hrs in FTC I stuck an instant read thermometer though the foil, 156 F.  Wow!  This really works.  So let's pull some pork.
The start - I grabbed the blade bone and I barely tugged - out it came and cleanly, and showed a well developed but very thin bark layer.  Here's the pic at the start.



The final product with bark chopped and added to the shredded pork.  I included the blade bone to show how cleanly it came out (and I didn't even try to clean it).


Time to eat -- topped with the style of sauce I grew up with in the pork capital of the U.S. (southeast VA), I call in three-way barbecue sauce, along with green apple coleslaw and potato salad with herbed buttermilk dressing (note frosty beverage to accompany everything).


Oh yeah, let's not forget the dessert -- homemade peach cobbler.


It's done. 

Again many thanks to the regular experts who made this first run with the Bradley an overwhelming success.  The key sign was after all was done the wife asked, with a smile, "what's next?"

[Mr Walleye]

Awesome lookin' meal BLSH!

Sounds like you and your wife are hooked!  :D

Ya gotta tell us more about the three way BBQ sauce. Looks very interesting.

Mike

[FLBentRider]

That looks great.

I too want to know about the sauce.

I though DC was the pork capital.  ;D

[Mr Walleye]

That looks great.

I too want to know about the sauce.

I though DC was the pork capital.  ;D

And all this time I thought is was Saskatchewan!  :D

Mike

[BuyLowSellHigh]

Don't get me started on DC and pork!  I can vent for week, make that months ,  uh  ... never mind.  BTW, my Congressman is Ron Paul and he lives right here in the same town as I do.  Enough said!

Three-Way Barbecue sauce exists because in VA pork country (most of the state),  where the only real barbecue is pork, they could never resolve the age-old debate on the proper sauce.  Should it be seasoned vinegar, or a mustard base, or a tomato base?  So instead of wasting time debating a sauce, somebody came up with Three-Way, which attempts to fuse the basic elements of all three major types into one fine sauce, intended for use on pork.  Recipe follows.

In VA pork country the occasional chicken makes it into the barbecue fray, but never beef.  Beef is for steaks and roasts.  If the beef you have isn't good enough for that, give it to someone less fortunate than you.  Pork is king and whole-hog is the main.  Ribs get modest attention.

Three-Way Barbecue Sauce

•   ½ cup yellow onion, diced
•   1 Tbl vegetable oil
•   2 garlic cloves, smashed
•    1 1/2 cups cider vinegar
•   1 cup yellow or brown mustard
•   1/2 cup ketchup
•   1/3 cup packed brown sugar
•   1 teaspoon kosher salt
•   1 teaspoon cayenne
•   1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

In a 3 qt saucepan over medium heat, cook the onion in the vegetable oil until soft and translucent without browning, about 5-6 minutes.  Add the crushed garlic and continue cooking until it is fragrant, about one minute more. Add the vinegar, mustard, ketchup, brown sugar,  salt, cayenne, and black pepper. Simmer gently over medium heat with constant stirring until the sugar dissolves.  Continue to simmer gently for 10-15 minutes. Take it off the heat and optionally strain to remove the onion and garlic solids or use as is.