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I'm back! Now doing my first butt.

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RichardBronosky
RichardBronosky Posts: 213
in EggHead Forum
So, It's been over a year since I've used my egg. My wife said she didn't like the taste of food off the egg, but I got the feeling she was just being contrarian. We were divorced last month and now it's time to smoke like crazy!

First up is pulled pork. I have been reading up on every post here with the word butt in it. If you have any posts that you find to be particularly valuable, please link to them. (I'm NOT going to ask anyone to repeat their sage advice. I know it's been said somewhere already.)

This is what I have so far...
* 19lb 2 pack of Pork Butts from Sam's Club
* Bag of apple wood chunks
* Bag of hickory wood chunks
* About 8lbs of Weekend Warrior hardwood mix lump charcoal with some huge chunks.
(see image)
* 6.6lb bag of Best of the West mesquite lump charcoal
* 6.6lb bag of VaQuero mesquite lump charcoal
(see image)
Wal-Mart had both of these for $4.97 and the VaQuero brand seemed to have a much larger pieces inside while the Best of the West had a lot more shake shifting around. I figured I'd get both and compare.

Here are my evolving recipes and plans. At this moment it looks like so...

Rub:

1/2 cup kosher salt (*not* table salt)
1/2 cup dark brown sugar
2 tbsp dry mustard
2 tbsp garlic powder
2 tbsp onion powder
2 tbsp paprika
2 tbsp chili powder
3 tbsp ground black pepper
1 tbsp ground ginger
1 tbsp rubbed thyme
1 tbsp cumin
1 tsp nutmeg

Sauce:

1 cup ketchup
1/2 cup cider vinegar
1/3 cup brown sugar
1 tablespoon worchestershire sauce
1 tablespoon rub
1/4 cup meat drippings
hot sauce to taste

Simmer to marry the flavors and thicken as desired.

Math:

1. Assume that 1/4lb is a serving and women/children will eat 1 and men will eat 2. (Add an extra man or child below to account for people you know to be big eaters.)
2. Bone-in pork sholder/butt has about a 60% yield. Therefore, 1lb yields 2.4 servings
3. Estimate raw meat to buy as: Buy = (2*Men+1*Women)/2.4 Therefore for 15 men and 10 women/children: (2*15+1*10)/2.4 = Buy 16.66 lbs


If you have any suggestions as to the ratio of charcoals and woods, I'm open to advice.
I finally took the plunge and bought my large Big Green Easter Egg from Roswell Hardware in Roswell, GA 03/31/2012
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Comments

  • SmokeyPitt
    SmokeyPitt Posts: 10,490
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    I have seen a few folks post that their wives complain about the smokey taste of food of the egg.  I see you found one good solution to that problem! ;) 

    Welcome back!  Good luck on your smoking endeavors and finding yourself a woman with good taste ;). 

    The plans look good from here.  My only advise is to consider skimming some of the fat from the drippings, and go easy on them.  I might start with less than 1/4 cup and taste.  I screwed up a batch of sauce once by over-doing it on the drippings. 

    Charcoal and wood ratio is a matter of preference, but I usually do the equivalent of about 3-4 fist sized chunks in a load of charcoal.  


    Which came first the chicken or the egg?  I egged the chicken and then I ate his leg. 

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  • henapple
    henapple Posts: 16,025
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    Sorry about the divorce... Sounds likeyyou're back in the saddle.
    Green egg, dead animal and alcohol. The "Boro".. TN 
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  • Charlesmaneri
    Charlesmaneri Posts: 1,295
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    the only thing I would do in addition to what you are doing is I would inject the Butt with apple juice  I'v done butts with and without injection and found it to come better with  .Good luck and let me know what you decide and how it turns out 
    2 Large Eggs and a Mini 2 Pit Bulls and a Pork shoulder or butt nearby and 100% SICILIAN
    Long Island N.Y.
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  • Chubbs
    Chubbs Posts: 6,929
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    Her loss.... but sorry.

    Glad to have you back.

    Columbia, SC --- LBGE 2011 -- MINI BGE 2013
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  • TexanOfTheNorth
    TexanOfTheNorth Posts: 3,951
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    Bet we can go another year before another post tops your opening paragraph!

    Enjoy getting back to using your Egg.
    ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------
    Well, "spa-Peggy" is kind of like spaghetti. I'm not sure what Peggy does different, if anything. But it's the one dish she's kind of made her own.
    ____________________
    Aurora, Ontario, Canada
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  • The Cen-Tex Smoker
    The Cen-Tex Smoker Posts: 22,970
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    My wife told me if I didn't quit cooking on my egg that she was going to leave me.......I'm sure gonna miss her. :))

    Great opening paragraph. Welcome back.




    Keepin' It Weird in The ATX FBTX
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  • lousubcap
    lousubcap Posts: 32,393
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    Welcome back-SWMBO's who have departed are kindly referred to as "training wife".   Jumpin' in with a great sounding cook!
    Louisville; Rolling smoke in the neighbourhood. # 38 for the win.  Life is too short for light/lite beer!  Seems I'm livin in a transitional period.
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  • RichardBronosky
    RichardBronosky Posts: 213
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    I hate when people don't give updates! Here are mine.

    I was doing 2 shoulders so I thought I'd try something scientific! I trimmed one (a lot) and left the other virgin. Here they are rubbed down and ready to go on at 3:20am:
    image

    Here they are on the grill after 6 hours:
    image

    After 9 1/2 hours I pulled off a sample.
    image

    That was a big mistake!
    I finally took the plunge and bought my large Big Green Easter Egg from Roswell Hardware in Roswell, GA 03/31/2012
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