Somebody pork butted on my kitchen counter

They look good, probably even better in person. Any particular rub?

For commercial rubs on ribs I like Zero to Hero.
https://www.eatbarbecue.com/order/zero-to-hero-sweet-rub/

For sauce, Blues Hog Original and Tennessee Red are pretty good.
https://www.blueshog.com/Sauces-s/106.htm

I haven't made brisket for a while, I really need to get back to doing a couple of those. Rubs I like for brisket are John Henry's Mojave Garlic first, then Black Ops on top of that.
https://www.johnhenrysfoodproducts.com/product/mojave-garlic-pepper-gold-rub-12-oz/
https://www.oakridgebbq.com/product/signature-edition-black-ops-brisket-rub/

JH Texas Brisket is pretty good, too. (and my home rub always works)
https://www.johnhenrysfoodproducts.com/product/texas-brisket-rub-11-oz/
 
Matthew said:
They look good, probably even better in person. Any particular rub?
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Didn't have much around, so kept it simple. Rubbed with Byrons, smoked 2hrs at 250, then pulled and covered with Sweet Baby Rays, back in for 2.5hrs (basically until they're ready to fall off the bone). Threw some water soaked applewood hunks on the coals when starting, and kept a tin filled with apple juice in the smoker.
 
Matthew said:
I'm a Sweet Baby Ray's fan, too. I'm just about out right now, though.
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I really enjoy the two step prep on ribs, spicy dry rub for the first few hours, followed by a good sweet sauce for the final hours. Seems to give a great sweet/spicy combo on the finished food.
 
Bill Jennings said:
I really enjoy the two step prep on ribs, spicy dry rub for the first few hours, followed by a good sweet sauce for the final hours. Seems to give a great sweet/spicy combo on the finished food.
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Our general method is to smoke with a dry rub most of the way through, then add some honey and brown sugar and wrap in foil to finish. That gives the extra sweetness. In contests, a lot of teams then paint it with sauce and maybe put them back on the smoker for a little while to thicken the sauce before cutting and turning in for judging. They "candy" the ribs.
 
Matthew said:
I'm a Sweet Baby Ray's fan, too. I'm just about out right now, though.
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I used to like Sweet Baby Ray's... But now I find it too... sweet. :eek:

I like a little bit of smoke and a little bit of spice to BBQ sauce, and not so much sweet.
 
flyingcheesehead said:
I used to like Sweet Baby Ray's... But now I find it too... sweet. :eek:

I like a little bit of smoke and a little bit of spice to BBQ sauce, and not so much sweet.
Click to expand...
Another sauce I like is Stubb's Original. It's pretty good on brisket and is easy to find in most grocery stores.
http://www.stubbsbbq.com/product/original/

My own brisket sauce is pretty good, I need to make another batch of that. It's ketchup based, then gets a lot of other things and cooked to a simmer. Next time you're down here for BBQ I'll try to have some ready.

Now I'm getting BBQ withdrawal shakes.
 
For a change of pace, I'm thinking about doing a pork butt as puerco pibil. Any words of advice before I proceed?
 
I've done a number of butts on the gas grill, and have kind of refined what I do with them. If you have a gas grill with more than one burner you can make a pretty good pulled pork on it.

In addition to the grill and the meat, you'll need a smoker box:

nexgrill-smoker-boxes-680-0002-64_1000.jpg


Night before: Get the butt out of its packaging and rub liberally with a rub. It uses a lot, so I make my own. For a six pound butt, I used two tablespoons of onion powder, two tablespoons of garlic powder, two tablespoons of paprika, one tablespoon of salt, a half tablespoon each of pepper, coriander, and turmeric, and a generous pinch of cayenne. Once it's rubbed, wrap it in plastic wrap, put it on a plate, and refrigerate. Also the night before i fill a smoker box with pecan chips, and place it directly on the riser bars over the burner I'm going to light. I also put a pan with water on that same side, the meat will go on the other side.

Morning of: If you're going to cook a four pound half butt, you probably want to have it on the grill by 8:30, if you're going larger, start earlier. The one I did today was six pounds, and was on the grill for 11 hours, and got up to 185 degrees at 7 PM, which is when I pulled it. Start the one burner on the side where you put the smoker box and water pan, turn it up to medium. When you start to smell smoke, pull the roast out of the refrigerator and put it on the non-heated side of the grill, and turn the heat down a little. On my grill, when the dome thermometer is at 275 degrees, that's a good cooking temperature. While this is going on, I make breakfast and check on the dome temperature every few minutes. On my grill, I usually have the knob halfway between medium and low. Leave the roast alone for the next four hours.

At the four hour mark, I wrap the roast in foil, add more water to the pan, and put the roast back on. I took the temperature of the roast then, it was at 150 degrees. You can check the temperature every couple of hours but it's probably not going to move much for the next four hours. Also, in the middle of the day if the sun is beating down on your grill, the dome temperature will go up, don't worry about it.

At about the 8 hour mark, I start checking the internal temperature every hour. a four pound butt may be done in 8 or 9 hours, the six pound one I had today took 11, the last hour was with the dome temperature at 300 degrees. We pull them off at 185 to 190 degrees, they're still fork tender but I think a little juicier than if you run them up to 195. I put it in a cooler for a half hour to let it rest. It pulls very easily with a couple of forks.

This will not produce a very smoky butt, but no on in my house likes their food smoky. We've also found that leftover pork makes excellent tacos. I think I'm going to try making some with pulled pork and kimchi.

If you've ever wanted to make pulled pork but don't have a smoker, give this a try. The worst you can do it to ruin your butt.
 
I mentioned in another thread that I have another contest next weekend. One of the guys really wants to do back ribs, so we'll humor him and do those. Normally it's St Louis cut spares. Misc will be lamb chops we'lland do the sausage category. Then the briskets, butts, and chicken thighs will round out the competition entries.

We already have 2 brisk and 3 butts precooked, and we'll also do a pork loin, ribs, and chicken for the Fri night party.

Good times.
 
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