Cooking a Boston Butt for BBQ

[Highbeam]

Folks, all this boston butt talk and the long and rainy holiday weekend ahead has got me motivated to do a butt (read that in a very straight sort of way). So I know there are regional names for meat cuts and I want to get this right. A boston butt is a piece of pork no? Also, what is another common name for it? Like is it a pork shoulder? I am guessing pork shoulder but not positive. I like to pick put a good piece of meat, can I assume that the marbled fat is better than huge fat chunks? I'll start at first light on Saturday if all goes well with charcoal in my vertical barbecue. Pics to follow.

Thanks

 

[anojones]

Pork Butt is a chunk of the shoulder. The shoulder is usually sold in two cuts- the "Picnic" (with shoulder blade in it) and the "Butt"- usually boneless. The picnic has a bit more ham flavor to me, maybe due to the bone in- and I prefer a butt, both are good. The picnic will often have hide left on it- I usally trim this off, but many folks just cook it and eat it apart from the meat. Neither cut usually has a fat pad so picking one out isn't a bit deal. The best thing you can do to improve your pork is to buy it from a butcher rather than the supermarket. Almost all pork you buy these days at wal-mart etc has been brined- the meat is soaked in a salt solution to "enhance" flavor. In my opinion, this detracts from the meat, adds water weight and chemicals I don't want. It is brined to try to reintroduce flavor lost by leaner pork due to factory farming and consumer driven demand for lean meat. Lean meat has it's place, just not in low and slow BBQ. Often cost-co or sams club will have non-brined butts packaged in two packs, you can freeze one and cook it another time. If you can only get the brined pork, it will still turn out excellent.

 

[RobertN]

Please be very careful with that crock pot. They are not intended for those that don't like to cook. Crockpots are dangerous appliances and should be used with great caution ... next thing you know, you'll be ... umm ... cooking all the time ... Possibly doing ribs or maybe sausage in the dam crock ... then there's the leftovers that you'll dump in there with a can of soup and vegatables or something ... with a layer of cheese on the top or ... well, and then there's beans, maybe all kinds of different beans and some garlic and onions to go with them. ... I'd refuse delivery of the crockpot ... your life will change
Enjoy!

What changed our life is that camp Dutch Oven. Kids is in Boy Scouts; our first campout after bridging from Cub Scout, the ScoutMaster whips up a blackberry cobbler and a peach cobbler. Those were TASTY!. Then, on a campout, one of our other leaders cooked up 15lbs of lamb with a few heads of garlic; slow cooked for about 4 hours. My kid, for his 1st class cooking requirement slow cooked a 5lb pork roast, adding some taters and carrots towards the end; he hit it good with garlic, and some salt and pepper...

We have a couple of our own now, a 12' and 10". I'm roasting a whole chicken in the 12' tonite. Toss it in there with a head of garlic, a sliced oniion, some brown mushrooms, and a couple taters and carrots. Add a little soy sauce, worcestershire, and a shot of balsamic vinegar. Get the lid on it, set it on 8010 Kinsfords, and another 16 or so on top. Yum!

 

[RobertN]

This is about pork butt, but I will toss in another idea.

I have a little electric Luhr-Jensen smoker(not a "real" smoker, but...).

A recipe I like to do is smoke chicken breast. I'll take a few skinless chicken breasts, and squeeze lemon juice over them . Then, sprinkle them liberally with garlic powder. Now, sprinkle them with some fresh cracked pepper. Once that is done, it's straight to the smoker. Use some Alder or Apple chips. While they are smoking, I'll drizzle 'em with lemon juice now and then to keep them from drying out.

 

[RobertN]

I'm roasting a whole chicken in the 12' tonite. Toss it in there with a head of garlic, a sliced oniion, some brown mushrooms, and a couple taters and carrots. Add a little soy sauce, worcestershire, and a shot of balsamic vinegar. Get the lid on it, set it on 8010 Kinsfords, and another 16 or so on top. Yum!

Pictures... It was yummy

 

[HomeBrew2]

OH, my gawd!!! Sure glad I just finished eating or I'd be there ... in 4 hours ... after it was gone ... never mind
Cheers!

 

[Highbeam]

Ok, here we go. I'm now about 5 hours into the 11 or so to roast the boston butt. I bought a 7.5 lber which included a chunk of shoulder blade. The market had both picnic shoulders and what they called boston shoulders. At one dollar per lb I will spend more money on charcoal. I whacked it in half and then coated with dijon mustard, then a dry rub mix with all of the essentials like brown sugar, garlic powder, paprika, pepper, salt, etc. The meat quickly took on a deep mahogany color for the bark.

Now she's roasting in a 225-250 degree smoker. I don't intend to eat it for dinner since it will be late before it is finished. Maybe a late night snack.

Low and slow. Every hour and a half I restoke the fire with another chimney of charcoal. I use a seed of ignited charcoal from the smoker to start the cold ones. Speaking of cold ones.....

 

[MX5000]

<<<Drooling!>>>

 

[sherpa]

highbeam,
Did you make that smoker?
sherpa

 

[Glenn9643]

highbeam,
Did you make that smoker?
sherpa

It looks identical to my Great Smokey Mountains propane smoker (without the propane burner).
I favor the propane; I've found its easier to regulate the temperature, you don't have to add to the coals, etc., and it doesn't use much propane.

 

[Highbeam]

That was a commercial unit from walmart I bought for like 70$. I believe Glenn was right on the brand and I have seen a propane version. For me, if I was going to cook over propane I would just use my NG oven. The coals actually contribute a large amount of smoke flavor and are a bit of work. I consumed about 25 lbs of charcoal for this piece of pig.

I did build the cart since I needed a working surface and a place to build fires. The original pit came on four legs. Oh and the pit came with a simple pan to contain the fire so I made that basket to hold the coals up out of the ashes and allow some air to the fire.

I pulled the pig out after just over 12 hours and the internal temps were just past 170 on both pieces. I let them sit uncovered for an hour and then pulled one to pieces. My oh my, it turned out real tender and flavorful. I was hoping to run them up to 190 per this thread but I didn't want to stay up all night for it. The recipe I used actually called out 170 as the desired temp.

So today I have another group of friends stopping by for dinner and I will need to reheat this pile of sheredded pig. Any ideas on the best way to reheat without drying it out? Microwave, iron skillet with lid, etc? I have a batch of "texas" baked beans to make and bake so the oven will be fired up. I found some cornmeal Kaiser buns to be toasted for the pork.

 

[anojones]

Man that looks good! One way to re-heat is to package in a vacum pack and throw it in a pan of boiling water- heats well and without any drying out. May not be an option, but is partiuclary good if you have frozen left overs.

 

[Highbeam]

I looked at the picture and should clarify, the pink meat is from the outside just under the bark and is the "smoke ring", it is not raw. The inside to the center is a brown color of well done meat. I used nothing but Kingsford coals since I have found that the smoke flavor can be overdone and ruin the meat if I try and add wood chips.

 

[BTDT]

Since this thread has some smokers in it, I thought I would post pics of mine here. I've not had much luck before posting anyplace except the photos section. Hope this works, and sorry for borrowing your thread for the test.

 

[Glenn9643]

For me, if I was going to cook over propane I would just use my NG oven. The coals actually contribute a large amount of smoke flavor and are a bit of work. I consumed about 25 lbs of charcoal for this piece of pig.

You would have a bit of a problem producing any smoke in your NG oven.
The propane smoker has a iron wood box situated about where your coals are, between the propane burner and the water bowl. I've found that wood chips in the box burn out too fast for me, but oak, maple, or other suitable wood scraps from 1" thick boards around the shop placed in the box provide plenty of smoke for about four hours. I've used both charcoal and propane smokers and if done properly can't really tell a difference in the result, but the propane is much easier to regulate and you don't have to fuss with it during the day.