My first pork butt, ABSOLUTELY AMAZING!!!!!!!

[Consooger]

SO I went shopping a few months ago at my local Wegman's and decided to buy some brisket and pork butt. Did the brisket after I let it age a few weeks but couldn't get around to doing the pork butt due to moving, work schedule, etc etc etc. I have been asked numerous times "Can you PLEASE cook that pork butt already?!" So not to upset my future wife I said SURE and had her invite some friends over as well. Gives me a reason to entertain and have some people over and enjoy my weekend off. Anyways.....the plan was to have the butt ready for Saturday to eat around 7:00 PM. It was a 7.5 lb butt. Let it thaw out for 2 days and went to work at it Friday morning when I got home from work.

Gameplan:
trim fat cap off and season and wrap it up first thing on Friday morning. (This was around 8:30 am) I just got a package of goodies in the other week and got a new rub I wanted to try but was considering using Jan's rub well because that stuff is more addicting than crack, but after the taste test I decided to go with Shigs in Pit BBQ rub (a little more spicy than the traditional Jan's batch. I also injected this with some sweet pure Apple Cider as well. After keeping spiced up and wrapped in the fridge I will pull at around 9 PM and cover in molasses and put another dusting of Shigs in Pit for a very nice and tasty bark. I plan on smoking for 5 hours with a cabinet temp of 225-230 until IT is 190. I used my AMAZN pellet smoker and wood of choice was Pit Master's Choice (Hickory/Cherry/Maple) I am hoping that this will be ready to pull and FTC by 3:00 PM (I have to go out with the soon to be lovely wife and do our wedding registry) and hopefully I can pull and serve for around 6:30 - 7:00.

Since we all love pictures.....here we go

The players: Pure Sweet Apple Cider, Molasses, Shigs in Pit and Jan's Rub (which I did not use this time)


All trimmed and ready for some dusting


After the first dusting


All wrapped up and time for a nap

Sorry photobucket wouldn't let me rotate this one.

So I let it rest for the day and I went to take a nap myself and then wokr up and had some errands and such to do and go see the Mrs at her school's picinic and then I came home to get to work again. This time I wanted to pull and let sit at room temp for a little while after I rubbed with molasses and more rub. BUT before I did this I needed to tend to myself first.....   ;D ;D ;D

Since I couldn't decide I decided why not 2....   8)     The players


All ready to go....YUMMMMMMM!!!!!!


Now onto season and prep for 5 homes of smoke

All rubbed down and letting set for 60 mins while I set up shop outside. This smelled SOOOOOO GOOD!!!!!!


Now I thought of an idea when I was setting up the Bradley so move along the internal temp of the cabinet as to not let the temp drop drastically when I put the butt in. I put the butt in my oven on the warm setting while I had the temp building up to where I needed it to. I waited about an hour at max temp and it finally got to 240, I was impatient and I decided to throw the butt in. I had the AMAZN pellet smoker rolling some sweet smelling smoke (anyone who does not have one of these things I admit you need to check this thing out, WHAT AN AWESOME addition to anyone who does what we do. So in the butt goes, it is now 11:15 and I have 5 hours of smoke for it. Looks like I'm watching a few movies and setting an alarm so come take a peek after the smoke is done.

4:25 I pull the smoker out and rotate the butt and my IT is at 142 and cabinet is reading 244. All is good, I'M OFF TO BED!!!!!!!!!

Came downstairs around 10:30 (yay to sleeping in on my day off) here's what I found...MMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM smells good. Cabinet temp was reading 231 and IT was at 179, right on schedule...


So a few hours go by and I think at the time I woke up was during the stall. It did not increase in temp for a good 3 hours at least but the final last 12-14 degrees after this point did not take long to reach.

After pulling from the cabinet IT was at 190, ready to FTC....



Now I'm off to register for the wedding favors....FUN!!!!

Come home and it's 5:45, time to open up my present and start pulling!

My plan was this.......I made sauces a while back and they have been aging, I will have me and my company use them as a finishing sauce and setit up however they want. I have ten point's BBQ recipe that was posted earlier last week and I have the grapette sauce that I made up 2 months ago.

I used the drippings from the pork after defatting and threw that in the crock pot with some more cider and put on low heat while i pulled the butt apart. Bone slid right out, house smells amazing, my mouth is watering....

MONEY SHOT..................


#2


#3


This was by far the best pulled pork I have ever tasted, I may divert with a different rub next time but by no means will i stray away from the molasses, the bark is heaven and the pork was juicy as anything. Injecting with cider early in the am just made it melt. I have a boat load left over that I'm going to make a bbq pizza with this week......I'm hooked and so is my fiance, she wants to know when we can do this again and so does the company that was over. This is a dangerous hobby my friends........BUT I LOVE IT!!!!!

To all, Thanks for the wealth of wisdom floating around here. This truly is a great place!!!!!

- John (Sugar)

[squirtthecat]

Good job!

[muebe]

Great bark on that butt ;)

[SouthernSmoked]

Heck Yeah!! That really looks awesome!

[mikecorn.1]

That bark looks great.


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[Mr Walleye]

Definitely a home run Sugar!   8)

Great job on the post too. I absolutely love this comment...

"This is a dangerous hobby my friends........BUT I LOVE IT!!!!!"

Hahahaha.... Very true, very true!  ;)

Mike

[ghost9mm]

Now that is some great lookin bark on that butt....looks super good...

[rsherman24]

Looks perfect.  I am planning my first butt for the upcoming weekend.  Hope it comes out looking like that

[KyNola]

Nice going!  Looks like your plan worked according to schedule.

So you didn't use the Bradley pucks, just the AMAZN pellet smoker?  Interesting concept. 

You mentioned maybe trying a different Rub next time.  If you want to try a different rub with a little more zing you might consider the Salt Lick Rub clone.  Simple recipe: 1 part kosher salt, 1 part black pepper, 1/3 part cayenne, 1/3 part garlic powder.  Combine all ingredients and mix well.

Trim away the fat cap just like you did with the beauty you just made.  Paint with molasses and then add the Salt Lick Clone.  That has become my "go to" butt combination.

Once again, nice job man!

[Consooger]

Thanks everyone, it turned out AWESOME!!! Yeah I just used the AMAZN no bradley pucks and the smoke was SPOT ON!!!!!

I have a batch of Salt Lick Clone made up that I threw on ribs for my brother and he said he loved the heat and the flavor better than anything he ever tried. Unfortunately I did not use that on this butt because I was afraid it would be too hot for my fiance and I wanted it to be "JUST RIGHT" instead of sleeping down on the couch again 2 nights in a row. I will try the salt lick on the next butt when my brother comes down from Boston for my bachelor party. He said that was the best rub/flavor he ever tasted.

- Sugar

Nice going!  Looks like your plan worked according to schedule.

So you didn't use the Bradley pucks, just the AMAZN pellet smoker?  Interesting concept. 

You mentioned maybe trying a different Rub next time.  If you want to try a different rub with a little more zing you might consider the Salt Lick Rub clone.  Simple recipe: 1 part kosher salt, 1 part black pepper, 1/3 part cayenne, 1/3 part garlic powder.  Combine all ingredients and mix well.

Trim away the fat cap just like you did with the beauty you just made.  Paint with molasses and then add the Salt Lick Clone.  That has become my "go to" butt combination.

Once again, nice job man!

[Smoker John]

Oh yeah that's good lookin' eats right there, nice bark on that

[Peborg]

Hope my first try turns out as good as that looks.

[slowpoke]

Way to go,Looks fabulous.

[Mani]

Excellent looking swine, and excellent choice in Gin!

Didn't know anyone drank outside the UK?

[Consooger]

Excellent looking swine, and excellent choice in Gin!

Didn't know anyone drank outside the UK?

My favorite gin

second is Blue Coat followed by Greylock