OK, need more help with butts....

Hi Vanzo,

In regards to tenderness:
How easy was it to pull? If it was cooked enough it should pull apart fairly easily. 9 hours does seem a little on the short side. Maybe the probe temp was reading high.

As far as taste I think that is more personal preference. I personally find that a single coating of rub gives me enough flavor. I too like a vinegar based sauce because it really soaks in the meat. If you want more flavor throughout you could always just shake some rub on the pulled meat. I wouldn't think rubbing ahead of time would make all that much difference. The dry run isn't going to "soak in" far if you know what I mean.

there are lots of ways to cook them, you just need to figure out what you want the end product to be. notice how heavey the bark is, there was no fat cap on that butt.

you could always try a brine, or buy a but that has that 12% solution added....that may get the saltiness you are looking for...

 
It is odd to me when I read these types of posts. I don't think I have ever had a bad pulled pork cook.

The amount of salt is pretty subjective you might enjoy more of a Montreal Seasoning which will add a lot of salt to the cook.

I can't tell much difference between mustard and evoo before seasoning the butt. I tend to use a good coat of mustard then seasoning. I have left seasoned overnight and refreshed the seasoning before the cook. There is a little more flavor but it isn't worth the effort IMO.

You used the word chopped above. If the but is cooked to tenderness (not time) I have never been able to chop. The meat falls apart and once in a while I will cut the strings to get shorter pieces in the mix.

My ET-73 will read off temperature from the thermapen. I will usually insert the meat probe in the meat and look at the reading while verifying with the thermapen. There is usually a 10° to 20° difference between the two. I add the difference to the 73 when monitoring the cook and always final check with the thermapen.

When the cut is close to the 190° - 200° mark I probe the meat. I am looking for a easy insert and no tug when slowly pulling the probe out. Member thirdeye makes some nice probes/plugs but you can use most anything from a fork to an ice pick. I like the probe as there is no taper on the shaft.

When the probe inserts and exits with no tug, the cut is done. You can also use the bone twist method or the fork twist method.

This 8# butt was cooked at 400° dome and done in 6.5 hours. Still moist and fall apart.




250° dome cook and there isn't much texture or taste difference between the two cooks. However, the 'tenderness' done temperature took this cook to 207° the meat was a titch dryer than I usually get. I just assumed it was that particular cut. Still great eats though.



GG

gdenby wrote:

...Neither of those dissolve in EVOO, and so the coat of EVOO blocked those from penetrating into the butt.

Interesting, I never thought about that possibility. Thanks for the information.

GG

Vanzo, I never apply anything but rub, no oil of any kind and absolutely no mustard!

This is what I use...

1 Tbls salt
1 Tbls sugar
1 Tbls brown sugar
1 Tbls ground cumin
1 Tbls chili powder
1 Tbls cracked black pepper
1 Tbls paprika
1 tspn cayenne pepper

Rub it on thick so you can't see the meat. Use hickory for smoke. Very tasty. Looks like this... every time.



Good luck!

yeah. waste of extra virgin, for one thing. that's a subtle oil that should be tasted alone, in my book.

what was the internal temp of the meat when you took it off?

for what it is worth, this must be said. it is a pork roast. you can't get any flavor INTO it other than maybe by brining. all smoke, rubs, etc. are going to be ON the meat, and will be introduced across all the meat only by mixing after pulling it.

i don't buy the idea that salt in rubs will cure it. i have two hams dry-curing now, and it is just not possible to cure them with anything less than about four pounds of salt, which is obviously far more than what is in rub.

smoke the hell out of it, because no smoke is going to get INTO the meat. when you mix it all, while pulling the meat, some of that excess will flavor the rest of the meat. you can then salt or flavor the meat to your own heart's content by sprinkling as much as you want into the pulled meat.

some add a little sauce even (i do, maybe half the time). up here (north) we grew up with sweet sauce. but the traditional NC way is a fine, wonderful, thin sauce. check out elder ward's method on the Naked Whiz site. if you don't like the way it turns out when you follow that method, then you just don't like pulled pork . and that would be ok too.

but i'm saying it expecting backlash: you can't get any other flavor OUT of the meat than what god and the farmer put into it (unless you brine it). at the end of the day, it's a pork roast, flavored with whatever is put ONTO the meat (Rub, smoke, mop, sauce, etc.)

A note.

If I understood something in Modernist Cuisine correctly, the "spice" elements of the smoke do penetrate the meat, just as the nitrates penetrate to form the smoke ring. The penetration continues as long as there is moisture in the flesh. In most situations, there will eventually be a dry zone under the surface, and the flavor penetration will stop.

i'm not quite sure that's correct, or maybe it's an over-simplification. no disrespect.

my point is that many are convinced that meat 'penetrates' considerably. as in, to the center of or very deeplyinto the meat. it doesn't happen, or even come close. does it enter the meat to some degree? possibly. but it isn't 'penetrating' by any means.

nitric acid (to form the smoke ring) gets into the meat by wicking. that's what their reference to moisture probably means. it doesn't mean, as some have described it, that the surface of the meat needs to be wet in order for smoke to 'stick'. it means that if there is moisture IN the meat, osmosis will drag in whatever is on the meat (just as it does salt).

but there's a limit. with the smoke ring, it is temperature. the smoke ring doesn't stop forming when it hits dry meat, because we have all had smoke rings on pork chops, brisket, even hamburgers, and the meat has still been moist. it stops at a pretty fixed temp of 140.

one needs to define 'penetrate'. i'm saying that, effectively, nothing gets below the surface to any great degree. if a sixteenth of an inch is 'penetration', then so be it. i think, though, the more common belief is that the center of one's pulled pork should be nice and smoky. that's not possible. no way, no how. unless brined with liquid smoke or something.

I was using "penetrates" in a broad sense, just "getting into."

I'm not entirely sure I understood what was in MC, but it seemed to be that the vanillin and phenol created by lignin decomposition would theoretically enter the meat as long as there was a continuous water content. But practically, an area just under the surface usually dries out, especially with higher temperatures, and so the transmission stops.

MC talks about the virtues of high end smokers that maintain 100% humidity at hot smoking temps. (Got a spare 10K $?) I suppose, based on various statements that these would possibly allow flavor compounds to completely suffuse ribs.

With all the great information provided above, and all you took from it was your slap in the face in reply, you might want to eat out more.