Do you rub your butts the night before

laserdoc85

I have 3 butts about 5 to 5.5 lbs a piece. Have to cook tomorrow for a party tomorrow night. Will do two on my medium egg starting a 6 am ( party at 6:30 PM) and the other on my master built electric smoker.
Should I rub down with rub tonight or a hour before I throw them on the cook?
Should have more than enough time starting when the sun comes up don't ya think??

johnkitchens

I usually rub mine the night before. The only reason is that I had rather have it done and over with so the next day I can light my lump, get it to temp, and put the meat on. 

theyolksonyou

I've done it both. No discernible difference. Like John, if I have time, I like to get it over with. 

Ladeback69

theyolksonyou said:

I've done it both. No discernible difference. Like John, if I have time, I like to get it over with. 

Now if you are going to marinade or brine it I would do that over night.  I only do the night before if I am putting it on early the next morning, but if I have time I wait tell about an hour before it goes on to smoke.  You do want to put it on a little before so it sweats a little.  That seems to help with getting a good bark. 

laserdoc85

Never have brined pork butts. Should I ??? I do have a brine mix and have the time

Carolina Q

I always heard that a brined butt would taste like ham. Never tried it though. It's definitely not necessary!

As for when to rub, I never do until right before the meat goes on the egg. And no mustard. It is not needed and you are depriving a whole package of hot dogs of their best condiment!

DoubleEgger

I put the rub on and then fire up the egg. Seems to work fine.  

gdenby

Brining doesn't do much for butts. Low fat meats like poultry breasts do the best. A "dry" brine of salt on the surface a day or so in advance retains a little more moisture.

When I've rubbed ribs a few days before, they ended up tasting a little "hammy," but butts not much.

DoofusOfTheDay

johnkitchens said:

I usually rub mine the night before. The only reason is that I had rather have it done and over with so the next day I can light my lump, get it to temp, and put the meat on. 

Same strategy for me.  Have rubbed the same day, didn't notice a difference so do the night before to break up tasks.

xiphoid007

I light the egg, then prep the meat. While I'm prepping, the egg is stabilizing. Once stabilized I throw on my wood and wait for the appropriate thin blue smoke and throw on the meat. Seems to work well for me and I don't have multiple pounds of raw meat taking up space and trying to leak raw fluid through my fridge.

aukerns08

Usually nowadays I'm just starting to prep as the Egg is coming to temp and getting clean smoke so I'm putting the rub during that time and throwing it on, especially if I'm just cooking one pork butt.  If I'm cooking more than one that's going to require more prep time so I'll go ahead and get them prepped the night before or at least before I fire up the egg just to save some time.

cul-de-sac-er

Everglades seasoning and granulated garlic, the night before. Place in kitchen garbage bag tie them up
delicious

GATraveller

I try and rub 24hrs. in advance if I can.  Last butt I did, I rubbed then wound up waiting 2 days before cooking.  No discernible difference that I could tell.

Ladeback69

laserdoc85 said:

Never have brined pork butts. Should I ??? I do have a brine mix and have the time

Carolina Q said:

I always heard that a brined butt would taste like ham. Never tried it though. It's definitely not necessary!

As for when to rub, I never do until right before the meat goes on the egg. And no mustard. It is not needed and you are depriving a whole package of hot dogs of their best condiment!

Brining, injecting or marinading are not necessary I just that they add more flavor to me.  As for brining it, I would only brine it over night and to really get it to taste like ham you need to leave it in for about 4 to 5 days and use curing salt to help it out.  I have done this and it is fantastic.  I also like to inject.  I use about 2 cups of apple cider or apple juice mix with about a 1/4 cup of my rub I use.  It seems to give it more flavor to me.  If you don't have an injector you can marinade it in the same mix.  I marinaded some pork butts in OJ and garlic recently and it came out well when making carnitas.

laserdoc85

I like the idea about the night before and all of them in a garbage bag since I have 3 of them. Think I will inject some apple juice before I put them on in the morning .
Using oak ridge BBQ secret weapon for my rub
cul-de-sac-er said:

Everglades seasoning and granulated garlic, the night before. Place in kitchen garbage bag tie them up
delicious