Smoked Boston pork butt

[steve]

This is how I start my charcoal fast & easy. I never use lighter fluid for anything. You can also just put the charcoal chimney on a couple of bricks or concrete & stuff news paper under the chimney & that will get it started also. IMHO none of the best grill or smoker cooks use lighter fluid. I have seen people lose competitions because the smoker they used had had lighter fluid used in it previously & people can taste that.



Here's the roast right before I put it on the grill. I brushed it down with mustard & sprinkled my rub on top of that. You won't taste the mustard cause it will cook off & form a nice crust with the rub. More to come later.

[steve]

Just to be clear I put my rub on before the mustard & then on top of the mustard.

Rub

1/4 cup Dark Brown Sugar
1 cup Paprika
1/2 cup Celery Salt
2 Tbsps. Granulated Garlic
1/2 Tbsp. Mustard Powder
1/2 Tbsp. White Pepper
1 tsp. Cayenne Pepper
2 tsps. Ground Thyme
1/2 tsp. Salt

just mix all that up in a bowl & rub down the roast real good. Wrap it up & keep it in the frig over night.


Carolina smokey Sauce

1 cup Apple Cider Vinegar
1 cup Ketchup
1/2 cup Ketchipotle (chipotle ketchup)
3 Tbsp. Brown Sugar
1/4 tsp. Salt
2 Tbsps. Yellow Mustard

Mix all ingredients together and simmer for 10 minutes

I am not gonna mix the sauce & the meat. Just gonna put sauce on the top of the meat. If you can't find chipotle Ketchup, which was the case for me, I just added some chipotle sauce to 1.5 cups of ketchup

[Valerie]

Yum! Looks good enough to eat even before it's cooked!

[steve]

bout half way through. First time I have peeked.



This one is 10 lbs & the bone is in it. I think the bone gives it some more flavor but you can still get the picnic if ya don't want one as big. I am cooking it fat side up for obvious reasons.

[steve]

I pulled it 190 degrees. For pork shoulder some say 165 & some say up to 200 degrees. Another way to figure out when its ready is if you can pull the bone straight out. Smoking is about experience. Find the temp that gives you the product you desire. I will let it rest for an hour & then have me a sammich!

Before I could even get the camera some nameless person already was starting to pick at it. That's ok though cause I didn't even announce its arrival into the kitchen. The aroma was incredible! I just nibbled on a few left overs for dinner so I could enjoy some of this.

I made the sauce after I tented the shoulder. Its a first time try for me & it was pretty good. I rate it 6.9 on the 10 meter. There are a few other sauces posted on the forum for Carolina BBQ. I will not toss the bark as lots of people might do. It may look burnt but there is a ton of flavor in there & it adds some texture & color to the pulled pork. I will just chop it up & throw it in with all the rest.



Next week is brisket

[steve]

Here is the finished product.





You can see how moist the meat is after resting an hour. Smoke ring about 5/8". After tasting the meat one thing was really clear. There was quite a bit of flavor in the meat & the bark really was nice. I thought it tasted better with just a tiny bit of sauce. Like the amount of ketchup you would put on a bun. The chipotle in the sauce gave it a nice kick so leave it out if you want sweeter taste. I stopped adding wood after 6 hours so not to have the smoke overwhelm the meat & seasoning. I give the rub an 8.

I do not have a numbered thermometer on 2 of my smokers. I just try to keep the temp right at "Ideal" as consistently as possible. That's probably 225-235 degrees. Some go higher & have great success for speed but that's all up to your style or needs & what is getting smoked. I used one 20lb bag of Kingsford & one mesquite log 3" thick & 16 " long cut into 2" chunks aged for 9 months adding a couple chunks every hour or so. It was 45 degrees out & lil wind. I added 3/4 a chimney of charcoal after 5 hours but threw in about 6 coals with my chunks prior. I added more than I needed at the end & still had a lil charcoal left over.

You can buy that smoker for 60-70 bucks. I am doing any smoking in the near future on the barrel smoker cause its cheap, transportable & very simple to use. Those of you that haven't messed around with it before can see how easy it is or even do something better.....you can buy one for your husband for Christmas & you are the one that uses it! Kinda like payback for when you got a new vacuum cleaner for Xmas & he got a new fishing pole.

Later I will do some larger pieces of meat or quantity on an offset smoker. Its harder to control plus you might be cooking a lot more so you need to have bit more experience to get the same consistent results as a barrel smoker. You can even make your own or learn a few techniques to accomplish similar results on a regular charcoal or gas grill. Depending on your abilities you can make one outta something like an old oven. I know a guy that made one from a 1941 refrigerator & only uses that for smokin fish. FYI ya prolly wanna do your fish smokin on its own smoker cause the taste will get into other things.

[Valerie]

OK, Steve, you got me wantin' to smoke some meat. I feel it comin' on. Be ready for me to ask 10 million questions when I get to that point. It might have to wait til after Christmas, though.

[steve]

MUHAHAHAHAHA! I have lured in another smokin zombie! This is only the beginning of my plan to take over the world with BBQ!

Seriously though I will be glad to help. I will even give you my number if that's ok with your husband if you need a life line. I bet you will do just fine though.

The results are in from family & friends that tried the pulled pork. Everyone said it was awesome & 5 people said it was the best they ever had. Our friend that's visiting said she has never had BBQ that she liked & was just blown away with the flavor & tenderness.

I tend to be a very harsh critic of my cooking. Tonight I sat down & made me a sandwich & thought again about the results. It seemed like the sauce was better today & complimented the meat nicely. There really is a smokey flavor to the sauce. The meat was tender & juicy & the flavor of that alone was very nice. So I am gonna raise my rating. Sauce & pork combo I give it an 8.3 overall.

[michelle]

I can't wait until it is warm enough again to smoke

[steve]

michelle that is actually another reason why I made that pork in my barrel smoker to show what you can do with it. They actually make insulation jackets for those types of smokers. I am way too redneck for that. I just get a giant cardboard box that the barrel smoker will fit into. Keep it off the ground for air flow with a couple pieces of 1x4 or something....bout 3/4". Cut a circle outta the top of the box for top venting. If you have some bricks or whatever lying around you can build up an enclosure so to speak for heat retention also. Block wind & retain heat & you are still smokin in the winter.

[doris]

oh that looks very yummy. I can't wait to have an appartment on the ground floor so I can get myself an appropriate grill. We now have an electric grill, cause open fire is not allowed on a balcony.

[steve]

Doris electric smokers do a good job too. They make temperature control really easy. There are some really nice ones out there.

[doris]

no, its not an electric smoker, its a little electric grill nothing fancy.....

something like this....