pork butt

H

horn section

100+ Posts
I have smoked a lot of things but never a pork but for some reason. Today I am trying it. I used the same rub I use on ribs. I got a late start and am gonna have to do the unthinkable, put it in the oven at the end due to prior engagements.

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For a kick sometime google the YouTube of Robert Rodriguez cooking puerco pibil. It starts as pork butt. Johnny Depp likes it so much in the movie that he kills the chef (never understood that). I tried it and it is really good.
 
It came out very good. I took it off the pit after 4 hours and put it in the oven at 200 for a couple hours. The bone pulled right out. I pulled the meat apart and then mixed in a little bbq sauce I made. I made it thin with a little more vinegar than normal. I also cooked a pot of butter beans to go with it. Here are some pics. SOrry for the quality, I used my phone to take pics.

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Horn section, love your sig. "McClintock" was on Encore Westerns a few days ago and I watched it twice. That is one of the best movies the Duke ever made. Some great lines that will make you lol.

"Camille, you're on your own."

Oh, and to stay on topic, your butt looks really good.
 
McClintock! is a classic. It's actually my favorite Wayne film because of the humor. I love the part where he's effing with Fontleroy before the fight.

"None of this" (twists his nose)
 
I'm planning on smoking my first port butt on Saturday. I've got good rub and sauce recipies, but does anyone have tips on wood? Is pecan okay?

Also, any estimates on how long it will take to smoke a 5-7 pound butt? I've heard it can take a while, so I need to figure out how early I need to get up to make it in time for dinner.
 
If you are smoking a boston butt, then get one bone in, and for goodness sake use either hickory or apple. I suggest a combination of the two.
 
i second the hickory/cherry mix. Also, I've had good results mixing a spray bottle with apple juice, a bit of cider vinegar and some tabasco, and using it to wet the crust every so often.
 
Thanks for the tips guys. I'll pick up some apple or cherry wood. I've read several articles saying that mopping or basting is not necessary, but I may try the spray concoction.

After being a long-devouted poster on the Sports message boards, I recently ventured into Rusty's Grill and have not been disappointed in the good food information available here.
 
Mopping and misting are no more necessary on a pork butt than they are on a brisket, since both cuts contain plenty of fat and connective tissue to break down throughout the cooking process and keep the meat moist and tender. However, mopping and misting can add layers of flavor to the end product, so you should feel free to do so if you like. Personally, I prefer to keep the lid closed the whole time, so I never mop, sop, mist, or otherwise treat the meat during any of my BBQ cooking processes.

Apple, cherry, and other fruit woods are great for any BBQ. Hickory/pecan is too. But, there's nothing at all wrong with gool ol' oak, which is what I use primarily. It's plentiful and cheap here in Central Texas.
 
Sorry I don't have pictures, but here's my pork butt journey from last weekend.

Rub the 9lb. pork butt on Friday afternoon with salt, brown sugar, paprika, pepper, garlic powder, dried onion, and cayenne, and seal in plastic wrap in the fridge.

Wake up at 12:30 a.m. Saturday morning to soak wood chunks. Go back to sleep.

Wake up at 2:00 a.m. to get the grill started.

I put the butt in the smoker around 3:00 a.m. after I get a temperature I'm happy with (around 220F).

I'm still a novice, so it takes me a while to get to where I'm comfortable with a constant temperature. So, I take my remote thermometer receiver and lay on the couch to watch TV while making temperature adjustments every now and then. It's about 4:00 a.m., and a movie called Cleavagefield (a soft-porn satire of Cloverfield) is on one of the HBO channels. I highly recommend it.

At 4:30 a.m., I feel confident about the consistency of the internal temperature of the smoker and go to bed.

I wake up at around 7:30 a.m. I'm happy that I only need to make a slight adjustment in the temperature. I head out to get a haircut and make a grocery run.

I come back around 9:30 a.m. Mrs. South Austin monitored the temperature while I was out, and I'm still in the 220 - 230 range. Also, I'm keeping the lid closed the entire time. No mopping, no peaking.

10:00 a.m. I start drinking micheladas and making homemade cole slaw.

After taking a nap/passing out after lunch, I wake up around 2:30 p.m. to start making the sauce.

It's 4:30 p.m. and friends with their two young kids are heading over, so I need to start getting the meat ready. The butt is in the mid-180F range, and while I would have liked to reach 190F, I take it out, wrap it in heavy foil, and let it rest for about 30-45 minutes.

When it's all said and done, about 75% of the meat just falls off the bone. The remainder was not as tender, but still damn good. It had great flavor from the combination of smoke and rub. My four-year old daughter couldn't stop eating it. The pork was just as tasty the next day as leftovers.

Great tips and inspiration from this thread. My perfect weekend these days is spending the day smoking, drinking, and feeding friends and family (with Longhorn football added in a month from now).
 
"When it's all said and done, about 75% of the meat just falls off the bone. The remainder was not as tender, but still damn good. It had great flavor from the combination of smoke and rub."
-- I bought a smoker a couple of months ago, and have tried a couple of pork butts with the same results. Very good taste, mostly very tender, but part of it not tender. Wonder what we are doing wrong?
 
Sounds good, I love to make enchiladas with leftover pork butt and/or brisket, so I always make more than I need for the initial consumption.

Might need to cook longer to get it tender all the way through.

More importantly, how do you like to make your micheladas?
 
Pecan is always good wood for cooking ANYTHING. I would never rush out to buy any other wood if I had a box full of pecan on hand.

Pork butt and butter beans. All you need is some sliced yellow onion, some peppers, and some cornbread and you got it going on.
 
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