Pulled Pork

Gator Bait · March 2009

Life smiled on me . . . I ran out of Pulled Pork and I had a great excuse to fire up the egg.
I gave the egg a good cleaning out and layered the lump with generous amounts of Char-Broils Whiskey Wood chips and fired her up.
I had not done low and slow since I had re-calibrated everything, previously I had about a 65ºF difference between my dome thermometer and the DigiQ. :S

This was with the pit probe clipped to the top of the food probe in a 6.24# Boston Butt. Close enough!

LOL, That's not the butt that ate Boston, I have a medium egg and the butt looks huge. I oiled the butt and rubbed generously with my homemade rub, wrapped in plastic wrap and let marinade for 6 hours in frig. When the fire was ready I got the butt out and slathered it generously with Gulden's Spicy Brown Mustard and hit it with plenty of rub and sent the butt to it's fate.
That was 7:00PM Saturday. This butt was hitting plateaus like a Maserati GranTurismo hits speed bumps! :pinch: Eighteen hours later internal temp was 185ºF so I bumped the pit temp up to 250ºF. At 19.75 hours internal finally hit 195º at 2:45PM on Sunday. The butt was so tender I had trouble lifting it from the egg, it was falling apart on me.

I wrapped it well in foil and let rest for an hour before pulling. This is the naked butt before dressing.

By now it's 4:30PM and I am due at my sister and brother in laws for dinner. They are eggheads and gave me my egg for Christmas (very nice people) so I put a large handful in a 1 qt. bag and dressed it with some of Sonny's Sweet BBQ Sauce for a sample. Sonny's is a chain of BBQ restaurants in the S.E. that has been around for many years. They recently started marketing their Sweet BBQ Sauce in the stores. The Pulled Pork got rave reviews.
My homemade rub is and probably always will be in the developmental stage.

The recipe for my rub is:

1/2 C paprika
1/4 C fine Sea salt
1 C Drk. Brown Sugar
2 T Dry Mustard
1/4 C Chilli powder
1/4 C Cumin
2 T Blk. Pepper
2 T Garlic powder
1 T Onion powder
1 T Cayenne pepper
1 T Nutmeg
1 T Cinnamon

Have a great day,

Gator

emilluca · March 2009

Might try your rub minus the sugar. I have a problem with foods with sugar in or on them. I did a 7 lb picnic on the large. Started it on Sunday at noon with a temp of 250. Went to 2 AM and I started to lose temp in the egg so I finished in the oven at 250.
I did not start with a good base of RO. I just added some to a previous 18 hour cook with new apple chips. I am guessing the airflow went bad on me and I didn't want to stay up and bring it back to temp.
Still came out great with 14 hours of smoke.
E

Tenn Smoker · March 2009

Man that looks good. I have noticed alot of pictures shows the pulled pork looking greasy and that is how mine turned out. Yours doesnt look greasy at all ?

Also I did buy Sonnys Sweet BBQ Sauce, I was afraid to mention it here thought that might be looked down upon. Plan on trying some Buddys next time.

Firetruck · March 2009

GB,

Looks great, thanks for sharing your rub recipe.

Joe,

One thing I've noticed here is, there's not a pat group mentality. You won't be looked down on for using any rub sauce or ingredient you want. Infact some folks like the new ideas no matter how simple. Just about the only thing that will raise the hair on peoples neck is blaspheming the egg :laugh:

Gator Bait · March 2009

Hi emilluca,

That recipe for my rub makes about 2 Cups, enough for a number of cooks, but I understand about the sugar, I'm severely diabetic. By the time I get to the finished product the sugar is not a problem for me. Oh boy, do I understand. I don't think the absence of the sugar will be that big deal. Good luck with it, I think a good sugar free rub would be well received around here. Let us know how it goes.
For this long a low and slow I give my medium BGE ever bit of help I can. I fill a clean egg to the top of the fire ring and if using lump from a previous cook will mix it with the fresh. I also use a Turbo Grate so air flow is not an issue (once I up ended an almost empty bag of lump into the egg and there was a ton of dust and very small bits that clogged the vents in the fire box, the only time I have ever had an air flow problem). With that much lump I use about 3/4 of it for a 20 hour cook. The DigiQ lets me sleep soundly, so far it has always held the temp perfectly.

Gator

I didn't get this posted where I wanted it.

Tenn Smoker · March 2009

Hey Firetruck,

I probably should have put a :laugh: after that. I was actually just testing the water. I have noticed people get very upset when downing the egg. I think I got caught up in that on my first post when I lost my felt. Thanks, I realy enjoy this forum.

Gator Bait · March 2009

Hi Tenn Smoker,

Thanks, my previous Boston Butts have been on the greasy side also. This one had a generous cap of fat on one side that I trimmed pretty close before I rubbed. I don't know if that helped keep the grease down or if it was because I had better control of my temps this time. It may have been a combination of the two. After it rested I checked for excess grease that may have accumulated under the butt that could be poured off but there wasn't any to speak of.
Sonny's sauce is good, I haven't had time to developed my own yet but that day will come. I don't worry about "branding" around here, after all the BGE is a brand as well as many other things discussed here. Talk down the forum or the BGE and you might wish you had been shot at sun up but everything else is just good old word of mouth sharing.

Gator

Gator Bait · March 2009

Thanks Joe,

I'm happy to share recipes, I have cooked for many years and more times then not will write my own. So far the people that I have shared it with like it a lot. I collected many recipes from the internet and filtered out what sounded good to me. It has enough heat to have a little zing but is not to hot for most people. It is a little on the sweet side but probably needs more sugar for ribs, although if using a sweet sauce it is probably fine. The chilli powder gives it some nice smoke flavor of it's own but not over powering.

Gator

Gator Bait · March 2009

LOL, I have yet to get one of these replies to go where I want them. I better go do something less technical like clean out the egg or brush the dog. :laugh:

Gator

WokOnMedium · March 2009

I did my first butts this weekend. When I read your line about cleaning out the egg I had an image in my head of me vaccuming out my egg and looking over my shoulder to see a gigantic cloud of gray ash dust plooming througout my yard. The egg gives me plenty of opportunity to laugh at myself and the food STILL comes out tasting great.

Nice looking butt. I think I'll try your rub on the next butts.

Tenn Smoker · March 2009

Gator,

You mentioned something I thought of, Im I suppose to cut the fat off my butt before I rub it. Anyone else please give me your answers.

Gator Bait · March 2009

Thanks wokonmedium,

This was my third and best butt. The practice must be paying off but if not I'll keep on trying again and again and again . . . :laugh:

I like your image with the vacuum just don't suck up any embers, you'd have about a 10' flame behind you. :blink:

I just made a batch of rub, all I had went into this butt. Just for the fun of it I doubled the brown sugar. It taste great and cuts the heat a little but I will have to see how it cooks.

Gator

Gator Bait · March 2009

LOL, I'm batting 1000, I don't think I have had a reply go where I expect it to all day. :silly:

Hi Joe,

I trimmed the fat off this one because it was about 3/8" or more thick all across the top/bottom(?). Naturally it was packaged that side down when I bought it. I trimmed it down to 1/16-1/8". When I pull it for pulled pork I lift the muscles apart and use the side of my fork to scrape out what is left of the veins of fat that run through the butt. There usually isn't much left but I figure I don't need the calories and/or cholesterol. After the way this one came out I will probably do the same in the future. This butt is so tender and moist and not greasy it is perfect.

Gator

Panhandle Smoker · March 2009

Looking good Gator. You keep cooking like that and you won't stay single. :laugh:

Panhandle Smoker · March 2009

Hey Tenn Smoker, I love Sonnys sauce too. But I have got to try and order some of Big uns Carnivor sauce. I like hot and spicy

.

Gator Bait · March 2009

Thanks Panhandle, That's a new trick this old dog ain't ready for just yet. :blink: :laugh:

Gator

Tuck · March 2009

I love Sonny's Sweet BBQ sauce. I get mine from Sam's Club. I wish they had their Smokin' Sauce too.

Wanabe · March 2009

Thanks for the rub specs. I have two 8lbs's on my large as I write. This is my third low and slow with butts, all have been great. Gota love the egg!

500 · March 2010

Thread resurection
Gator,
It's been a year since this last post. Have you improved on your pork butt rub and made a sauce recipe since then? Looking for some more tips before I go for my second Butt cook.

Pulled Pork

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