Weekend butts

Well, they took 14 hours (two and a half hours per pound!), but they were done JUST in time for the party, and were juicy and delicious...here are the butt photos from the weekend.

Before:
The one on the left is rubbed with Dizzy Dust. The right has a jerk marinade. Both were in the fridge for about 24 hours before going on the egg. Hickory chunks were used.


After:
Shrinkage is noticeable


Money shots:
The jerked butt

I took several photos from during the pulling, but I didn't want to post a ton of them, so I picked this one which shows the great smoke ring, and the lip-smacking juicyness of the butt.


The egg ran cool most of the night. I set my et-73 and went to bed with it at 250, and about 4:00, the low temp alarm went off at 230. I fiddled with the vent occasionally for the next couple hours, but the temps remained mostly low. So the butts took quite a while to cook, but everything worked out in the end.

This was the first time I'd used a jerk marinade on a low 'n slow butt. I've done chicken, fish, and direct butterflied butt (for slicing), but never a slow smoking. I've got to say I was a bit disappointed. Most of the great flavor of the jerk marinade was killed by the long slow smoking. The only flavor that really seemed to survive was the soy sauce, which is odd, since in all the other jerk cooks, the soy sauce is almost un-noticable. But the herby flavors, the allspice and other spices' flavors, and even the chile heat (though I went easy on the scotch bonnets, because I wasn't sure how it would do with a low temp cook, and we were cooking for a crowd) were gone. It still tasted great, and was fall-apart tender and juicy, but I missed the jerk flavor I was hoping for. Next time I'll stick to direct.

The Dizzy Dust butt was fantastic, as expected, and the pork was a hit at the party.