Can the butcher be right?

[SKSmoker]

Hey Griffy. I am a new DBS user. I have had my DBS for about 1.5 months now. Just really started to use it about 3 weeks to a month ago.

Your butcher is wrong. You will be able to get the internal temp high enough if you wait long enough. I looked for about 4 days on doing pulled pork. The information was scattered, opinions varied, and there was no "smoking gun" answer. Below I will outline my process, what I did when, and how it all turned out. Hopefully this will help you.

What did I purchase? Bone in Pork Butt
Weight: 7.5 LBS
Cooking temp: 210F-240F
Total cooking time: 19hrs

Rub:
1/2 cup dark brown sugar
1/2 cup paprika
1/3 cup garlic salt
2 tablespoons onion powder
2 tablespoons chili powder
1 tablespoon cayenne pepper
1 tablespoon black pepper
1 1/2 teaspoons dried oregano
1 1/2 teaspoons white pepper
1 teaspoon cumin

You can adjust the above to your taste. I did not put in any white pepper or cumin because I did not have any. This rub makes enough for 2 butts easily.

How I prepared my pork butt:

I took it out of the freezer at noon, 2 days before I wanted to start cooking. I left the meat frozen on a cookie sheet to defrost until about 7pm that night. I just left it out on the counter to defrost quicker at room temperature. It was still a little frozen which is the way I prefer to cut meat. It makes cutting the fat and veins out that much easier. My pork butt had a big fat cap on it. In my reading, the "hard" fat will not render off and it doesn't do much in the cooking process. I trimmed most of the fat cap down to about 1/4", less in places, so that the hard white fat was all gone, and all that was left was the soft squishy white fat. I also found a few veins and cut them out. Don't worry about what your pork butt will look like. In the end, it will all be in a big pile of shredded meat.

After I was done trimming, I washed up, then mixed up my rub. I then liberally rubbed the entire pork butt with this rub. I rubbed it into every nook and cranny I could find. When it wouldn't take anymore rub, I washed up again, then wrapped the butt snuggly in saran wrap and put in a new cookie sheet to put into my fridge in the garage. I sat my butt in the fridge until 3 hours before cooking.

How I cooked my butt:

I let my butt sit from Thursday night to Saturday evening. It sat for pretty close to exactly 2 days marinating with the rub on it.
I took my butt out of the fridge into the house and then unwrapped it slowly at 5pm on Saturday. I let it sit out for 3 hours, until 8pm <when I got back home> so that it would be close to room temperature. I pre-heated my DBS with the vent about 1/4 open.I also pre-heated my DBS to 235 from 5pm to 8pm using both the oven and the smoke generator <minus the maple pucks!>.I put in the water bowl with water as hot as I could get out of the tap. I live about 45 mins away from Mr.Walleye, and last saturday is was about 0(32F) when I left, and when I got back, the BS was all good and warmed up (the temp outside was about -7C(22F?). I know this is excessive to do a pre-heat, but I wanted to make sure it would come up to temp because it was cold, and there was about a 15mph wind that night. I took out the butt on the cookie sheet, and put in on the 3rd rack, right in the middle of the DBS. I replaced the water bowl full with hot water. I put my temp prob into the meat, down through the vent and put it on top of my smoker. I set the probe for 200F.  I then reset my timer on the oven and the smoke generator for 9:40.  I smoked my butt for 1 hour using maple.

Cooking my butt:

I used 3 pucks of maple for my first butt. That gives you 1 hour of smoke. After the 1 hour, I took off the unused pucks and put them back in the bag. I have to get some bubba pucks for sure.I used a spray while cooking my butt to keep it moist. I used 50% apple juice and 50% pure maple syrup combined in a spray bottle. After the first hour and half of cooking, I hosed the butt down, ever hour after that before I went to bed. Now, when you reset the DBS, you have to turn off the smoke generator and the oven or else it will turn off. I found this out the hard way. My unit turned off about 3am because I just reset the timer. Before you take a nap for the night, turn off the smoke generator, wait a few seconds, turn it back on, and reset the time to 9:40. Do the same for the oven, and set the oven temp as well. I used 210F for over night. I woke up at 6am because my wife was awake doing laundry and decided to check on the butt and go back to bed. What a surprise that the unit was off, and it was -10C outside! Anyways, lesson learned  ;D

When I woke back up at about 10 am, I had breakfast, went out and hosed the butt down with the spray. I continued on doing this until 6:30pm on Sunday. my butt reached the plateau <the proccess where all the fat and connective tissue breaks down. Temp I believe is from 140-160 when this happens>. My butt stayed at 156F for 4.5 hours. I lost about 4 hours of cooking time thanks to my mistake. Thank goodness I decided to put it in at 8pm the night before! So for the last 4 hours, at 2:30pm Sunday, I put the temp up to 240 in the box to help finish it off so we could eat before 10pm  :P. The butt reached 187F at 6:30pm. I pulled it out, wrapped it in tin foil, and old towels and let it sit on the counter for 45 mins. I do not have a clean cooler, so I just let it sit on the counter in the kitchen.

After that, there isn't much to say. I shredded the pork, the bone pulled out cleanly, took some of the leftover fat and uglies out, and ate supper at 7:30pm. If I wouldn't have lost my time in the night, it would have been done right around 3-4pm and then I could FTC until 6pm. I will know for next time :)

I also used the following sauce for my finishing sauce. I like the Kansas City style bbq sauce rather than the vinegar style sauces.

Paul Kirk's Kansas City-Style Barbecue Sauce

3/4 cup light brown sugar packed
1 tablespoon chili powder 
2 teaspoons dry mustard 
1 teaspoon ginger ground
1/2 teaspoon allspice ground
1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper 
1/4 teaspoon mace ground
1/4 teaspoon black pepper freshly ground
1 cup white distilled vinegar 
1/4 cup molasses 
1/4 cup water 
32 ounces ketchup 
3 teaspoons liquid smoke (optional)

Mix all the ingredients in a pot and simmer for 30 min.

Will keep 2 weeks in the refrigerator

Sorry for the long post, but being a newbie myself to smoking, I gathered as much info I could and dumped it all into one spot. That is my brain dump. Feel free to ask questions. I have been lurking for 4 months now and felt I could help another person out!

[CHUCKWAGON]

AFTER YOU GET IT DONE TAKE HIM A SAMMMICH ;D :o

[Griffy]

Hey Griffy. I am a new DBS user. I have had my DBS for about 1.5 months now. Just really started to use it about 3 weeks to a month ago.

Your butcher is wrong. You will be able to get the internal temp high enough if you wait long enough. I looked for about 4 days on doing pulled pork. The information was scattered, opinions varied, and there was no "smoking gun" answer. Below I will outline my process, what I did when, and how it all turned out. Hopefully this will help you.

SKSmoker,

Thanks this is AWESOME! Exactly what I was hoping for. Hopefully I can do someone else a proper like this in the future.

Smoke on brother, Smoke on!

Griffy

[SKSmoker]

Pork Butt out of freezer, partially dethawed


Pork butt all trimmed up


Pork butt all rubbed up


Pork Butt going into smoker at 8pm Sat night


Pork Butt in smoker at 12am - 4hrs of cooking time


Pork Butt in smoker at 1pm Sunday


Pork butt done at 6:30pm Sunday


Pork Butt spray


Pork Butt resting wrapped up


Shredding the pork butt


Pork Butt all shredded and ready to eat


Pulled pork sandwich with Paul Kirks KC Style sauce with baked fries


There is the entire 1st pulled pork history that I just did last weekend. Hopefully the pics will help you out with the cooking. I always wonder "what is it supposed to look like now?"

Ignore the olive oil on the counter. It had nothing to do with the pulled pork!  ;D

[CHUCKWAGON]

WE NEED SMELOVISION!!!!!!!!!!! ;D 11 :o

[iceman]

SKSmoker just broke rule number thirty three, chapter two, verse one!!!
Thou shall NOT post pictures like that when guys like me are stuck at the office with a lousy tuna samitch.
I'm gett real tired of replacing my drooled on keyboard!!!
That is some real fine looking grub there SKS. Good job!!! :P ;D

[LilSmoker]

Hi and welcome here SKSmoker, great posts, and the pork looks fantastic! very nicely done ;)

LilSmoker

[Mr Walleye]

Outstanding butt, post and pictures SKSmoker!

And welcome to forum. I see you are from Saskatchewan... Me Too!  ;D

Mike

[SKSmoker]

Getting thumbs up from you guys really does mean alot! I give you all the credit that allowed me to learn quickly how to use the machine. I am glad I did right by this group  :D

I had to get you guys back a little bit.. I have been at work and have seen some fantastic pics that I alsmost gnawed off my desk corner waiting to get home to eat!

[hillbillysmoker]

Wow SKSmoker that looks great.  You have great pics, good information, and instantly brought on a hunger pain.  It doesn't get any better than that.

[manxman]

Welcome SKSmoker, great post....... you have a lot to live up to here on the forum with a start like this!!   ;) :D

[IKnowWood]

dude.  Good job.  And Griffy  you will be there soon also.  This group helped me over a year ago to make some amazing things. 

Welcome SKS.  And don't be intimidated by these guys.  That comes later.  Griffy, SKS join us sometimes on Tuesday chat...

[West Coast Kansan]

Outstanding Post!  :)

[Wildcat]

Welcome SKSmoker!  Outstanding job!  You made a very good first impression!  Keep it up. ;)

[NePaSmoKer]

I'll baste myself in Wild Turkey every 30 minutes. ;)

Cheers~

if i did that  :P
my butt would be burnt

nepas