Jul 01 2015
I have had this recipe for a while and been wanting to try
it. It has been ages since I made a large pork butt. Monday I got one from my
butcher Kah Meats; it weighed 10.25 pounds. It would not fit the pot I do my
brining in so I cut a chunk off to make it fit. I have other pots but this one
fits my fridge nice. The chunk I cut off was 2.5 pounds and I vacuum sealed it and
froze for later.
I still cannot lift much after my back surgery so to get it
out in my garage fridge I put just the pork butt in; then mixed up the brine
and carried it out to add.
The brine recipe was ¾ cup of molasses, ½ cup coarse salt
and two quarts of water. I added two tablespoons of Blues Hog rub; the
seasoning I was going to use on it. It was in the brine for 48 hours.
I got up this AM at 5:30 to get the pork butt on. I rinsed
it well and dried then added a light coat of yellow mustard and plenty of the Blues
hog seasoning. I got the Traeger fired up and at 190 deg. I got the pork butt
in at 6:25. After 2 hours and 15 minutes I wanted to go to the grocery so I
upped it to 220 deg. and went to the grocery. When I got back at 9:30, 3 hours
in I went to 235 deg. and it was giving me 250 deg. at grill level.
At 11:30, 5 hours in I inserted a temp probe from my
Maverick ET732, it was at 154 deg. and went pretty quick to 164 deg. it started
it’s stall at 167 deg. I decided to try tenting it instead of wrapping in foil
like I usually do. I let it go until an IT of 185 deg. then I I placed it on a
broiler pan with some sliced onions on the bottom and added a cup of water and
went to 250 deg. on the Traeger. It slowly went to 189 deg. and set there for
at least an hour. I wanted to start checking and probing it at 195 deg. It went
to 192 deg. so I gave it my probe test and was looking good. At 4:00 PM it
finally went to 194 deg. so decided to pull it and place it tented in a heated 200
deg. oven to rest for an hour before pulling. It was in the smoker a total of
9.5 hours.
I made some potato salad while the pork was on. It was my favorite,
Justin Wilson’s Picnic Potato Salad.
I watched my Savannah Stoker V3 controller temps pretty
close after changing some parameters sent to me by Billy Merril, who makes it.
It worked just the way I would like. At 200 and 225 I was getting 8 to 10 deg.
above and below set point for some great smoke. After I went to 235 deg. it held within 5 deg.
never getting out of the 230 range. This gave me 250 to 255 deg. at grill
level. When I get time I will do a write up in the Savannah Stoker and my
latest thoughts on it.
I think this was the first pork butt I brined and not sure
if it was that much better. By tenting it and then removing and in the pan with
a little water the last couple of hours did give me some great bark. It pulled
nice and then I did a coarse chop to get the bark chopped smaller. I think it’s
agreed if you don’t wrap at all you get crispier bark; but I think unless you
are feeding most of it right away whatever you save and or freeze will end up
with the bark being soft when you serve it later. I think I still prefer
wrapping.
My wife had a sandwich with some of Kah’s BBQ sauce, it’s a
little like Sweet Baby Ray’s but a little more tangy. I had one sandwich with
some mustard and sprinkled on more Blues Hog rub, my other one was with some
Kah’s BBQ sauce I added some Penzey’s Galena St. rub and Blues Hog rub to. I liked
it but liked the one with mustard and Blues Hog Rub the best.
The potato salad was good, a little different picnic style with
more dill relish than sweet relish.
Brined seasoned and ready for the smoker
5 Hrs. in about ready to tent
Tented
Pellet usage, for 9.5 hrs. Filled about 1 inch from
the top at start. 10 Lb. capacity
My potato salad
About done
After a 1 hr. rest
Rough pull
Final pull and excess fat removed
Final chop and ready to serve
My supper
The word cookware is used to describe all utensils used for preparing and storage of food, to include bake ware, fry pans, roasters and pressure cookers. copper pots
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