First Pork Butt In A While

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Rorschach
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First Pork Butt In A While

Postby Rorschach » Mon May 31, 2021 11:06 pm

My body's been throwing all sorts of curveballs at me for a while, so I've been out of the world of smoking meats for a few years. I cooked a rack of St. Louis spare ribs plus a rack of pork loin back ribs last month starting to get my feet wet again in this, they came out OK.

Today I smoked a 9 lb Boston Butt pork roast from HEB, from their house label HEB Natural label, minimally processed. I want control of what I adulterate the meat I cook with, and how much adulteration it receives. With that in mind, my first prep step Sunday was to crown the roast to produce more bark. Following that I injected it with a little solution mix using some Big Ron's Beef Injection I had on hand (it works fine for pork as well in my experience). I sprayed the roast lightly with some Sam's Club Members Mark cooking spray for my approach to a slather. Next I added some Florida Crystals turbinado sugar to some BBQ Rub #2 Brisket rub I had on hand and rubbed it down. I covered it with foil and put it back in the fridge.

I put the roast on my vertical bullet style smoker shortly before 9 AM today, using Frontier hardwood lump charcoal and some shagbark hickory chunks. I used a Minion Method approach to start things off.

Around 2 PM I gave the roast a mop session with some Everglades mopping sauce I had on hand. I also noticed I'd underestimated the amount of charcoal I needed for this cook session. In my experience lump charcoal is slower to light off and get the fire to spread than charcoal briquettes, which I attribute to the difference in porosity between lump charcoal and charcoal briquettes. So I added several pounds of Royal Oak All Natural 100% Charcoal Briquettes to the charcoal basket K.A.M. fabricated for me years ago, to light off from the remaining lit charcoal.

Here's the final product after resting.

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My wife had started cutting off some chunks to shred so we could refuel with some pulled pork sandwiches.

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Here's a photo of some of the shredded pork. My wife found some really nice Pepperidge Farm Onion & Poppyseed buns at HEB today, so I toasted up two of them in a skillet with some butter.

20210531_211603.jpg


For my finished sandwich, my pork was tossed with a dab of a mustard style BBQ sauce before being put on a bun. For some reason the photo I took of it isn't loading correctly so I'll have to take a new photo next time I put together a pulled pork sandwich from today's efforts.

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Re: First Pork Butt In A While

Postby Williep » Tue Jun 01, 2021 6:20 am

Look's pretty dang good to me. :salut: :cheers: :salut: :cheers: :texas:
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Re: First Pork Butt In A While

Postby Rambo » Tue Jun 01, 2021 6:45 am

Welcome back; mighty fine
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Re: First Pork Butt In A While

Postby k.a.m. » Tue Jun 01, 2021 8:54 am

Looks Awesome Robert! :salut: :salut: :salut:
Like riding a bike once you learn you never forget. You know we can add a few inches to that basket I am surprised its still hanging in there it has to be at least 13 years old now. :D
Always remember slow and steady wins the race.



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Re: First Pork Butt In A While

Postby Rorschach » Tue Jun 01, 2021 4:52 pm

k.a.m. wrote:Looks Awesome Robert! :salut: :salut: :salut:
Like riding a bike once you learn you never forget. You know we can add a few inches to that basket I am surprised its still hanging in there it has to be at least 13 years old now. :D


Thanks for the kind comments everyone!

Kevin, that charcoal basket you fabbed for me is hanging in there NP old friend, due to your work, and isn't anywhere near needing replacement yet!

I'd need to replace the water pan with something more shallow to make use of a taller basket Kevin. Even though I always run that pan dry in this smoker, just using it as a radiant heat shield, I like the depth because a disposable aluminum steam table half size pan from Sam's Club fits just right in this empty water pan. In fact, that water pan has a few pinholes these days but that doesn't affect the way I use it.

I only filled the charcoal basket about half full with lump when I started this cook session my being out of practice was the cause for me running out of fuel near the finish line, but I knew I could add more later. The pork butt IT was around 174°F internal temp when that happened so I didn't do too bad in terms of getting close, through the stall anyway. It was my error on the conservative side of "waste not want not" in the appropriate basket charcoal loading that caused this issue. I cooked 2 racks of pork ribs in this smoker in April and judged the amount of lump charcoal just right for those, which made me feel good. My guess is I forgot to take into account fuel for pushing through the stall on this pork butt.

This smoker has handles on the center section pieces and locking hold-downs between each piece so it's easy to lift off the bottom owl section if needed. For something I bought Memorial Day Weekend in 2008 for about $70 I've certainly obtained a lot of good use from it, especially with your deeper charcoal basket Kevin. I remember lots of folks on TSR speculating this cooker wouldn't last more than a year when I first purchased it.

https://m.sears.com/product-details/p-0 ... 115883000P

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I see it's latest iteration is the Fornetto Basso smoker and there's a more upscale version too now, the Fornetto Razzo smoker. If I had to replace mine, I'd buy the smaller size of one of those and the deeper charcoal basket you fabbed for me should work just fine in one of those!

https://fornetto.com/
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Re: First Pork Butt In A While

Postby bsooner75 » Tue Jun 01, 2021 9:10 pm

Really nice looking pork butt


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Re: First Pork Butt In A While

Postby Rorschach » Wed Jun 02, 2021 12:22 am

bsooner75 wrote:Really nice looking pork butt


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Thank you sir!
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Re: First Pork Butt In A While

Postby k.a.m. » Wed Jun 02, 2021 1:39 pm

Rorschach wrote:
k.a.m. wrote:Looks Awesome Robert! :salut: :salut: :salut:
Like riding a bike once you learn you never forget. You know we can add a few inches to that basket I am surprised its still hanging in there it has to be at least 13 years old now. :D


Thanks for the kind comments everyone!

Kevin, that charcoal basket you fabbed for me is hanging in there NP old friend, due to your work, and isn't anywhere near needing replacement yet!

I'd need to replace the water pan with something more shallow to make use of a taller basket Kevin. Even though I always run that pan dry in this smoker, just using it as a radiant heat shield, I like the depth because a disposable aluminum steam table half size pan from Sam's Club fits just right in this empty water pan. In fact, that water pan has a few pinholes these days but that doesn't affect the way I use it.

I only filled the charcoal basket about half full with lump when I started this cook session my being out of practice was the cause for me running out of fuel near the finish line, but I knew I could add more later. The pork butt IT was around 174°F internal temp when that happened so I didn't do too bad in terms of getting close, through the stall anyway. It was my error on the conservative side of "waste not want not" in the appropriate basket charcoal loading that caused this issue. I cooked 2 racks of pork ribs in this smoker in April and judged the amount of lump charcoal just right for those, which made me feel good. My guess is I forgot to take into account fuel for pushing through the stall on this pork butt.

This smoker has handles on the center section pieces and locking hold-downs between each piece so it's easy to lift off the bottom owl section if needed. For something I bought Memorial Day Weekend in 2008 for about $70 I've certainly obtained a lot of good use from it, especially with your deeper charcoal basket Kevin. I remember lots of folks on TSR speculating this cooker wouldn't last more than a year when I first purchased it.

https://m.sears.com/product-details/p-0 ... 115883000P

DCP_0035.jpg


DCP_0034.jpg


DCP_0029.jpg


DCP_0028.jpg


I see it's latest iteration is the Fornetto Basso smoker and there's a more upscale version too now, the Fornetto Razzo smoker. If I had to replace mine, I'd buy the smaller size of one of those and the deeper charcoal basket you fabbed for me should work just fine in one of those!

https://fornetto.com/

Oh how I miss the days on the ring when you and the dude from the UK would go at it about their rendition of the WSM. :lol: :lol: :lol:
Always remember slow and steady wins the race.



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Rorschach
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Re: First Pork Butt In A While

Postby Rorschach » Wed Jun 02, 2021 3:02 pm

He actually once asked if I had been offended by him somehow as he claimed I took every opportunity available to bash his products. I never responded as it was clearly baiting. Of interest, he didn't ever claim any post I made contained non-factual material. ;) Plus the truth was, he was the only one posting bashes - of his competition which gave me impetus to perform item by item comparisons between the two designs - and I honestly don't believe I ever posted one design being superior to the other, merely different - with significantly different price points here in the USA, along with photos of the results I obtained from the cooker I purchased, that he publicly posted as "cheap and nasty". It's still there in the electrons of TSR forums, I guess until Garry some day truly pulls the plug on that moribund forum.

I know he got his products into Costco at some point, I've never had a Costco membership, I do remember they were clearanced by Costco at some later point. Businesses like Fred's Music & BBQ that carried his products in the USA is no longer in business from what I can tell. Fred's had their own brand of lump charcoal too, the weblink on The Naked Whiz review page for it goes nowhere now.

All this discussion made me decide to treat myself a little, so I purchased a Fornetto Basso 18 as the doors, always a weak point in the design of the BBQ Pro smoker, are literally falling apart with no source for parts. I guess I got my $70 worth out of it over the last 13 years. :lol: I also purchased a Fireboard-2 remote therm system, and the Fornetto Basso has thermometer wire grommets from the factory. So I have a few new toys for this summer. 8)
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Re: First Pork Butt In A While

Postby bobcat1 » Wed Jun 02, 2021 7:27 pm

That's gorgeous!
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Re: First Pork Butt In A While

Postby Rorschach » Wed Jun 02, 2021 7:44 pm

Thank you bobcat1!
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Re: First Pork Butt In A While

Postby Sailor Kenshin » Thu Jun 03, 2021 2:40 pm

I would damage myself on that. :salut:
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Re: First Pork Butt In A While

Postby Norway Joe » Thu Jun 03, 2021 3:27 pm

I'd eat too much of that. Looks awesome.

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Re: First Pork Butt In A While

Postby Rorschach » Thu Jun 03, 2021 8:31 pm

Thank you Sailor Kenshin and Norway Joe!

I was introduced to shagbark hickory, and wild black cherry, smoking woods when we lived in North Ohio. In 2012 a derecho, also known as a land hurricane, tore through the area with a lot of tree damage. There was a large shagbark hickory knocked down in a set of yet uncleared lots in the neighborhoodwe lived in, and a wild black cherry tree was knocked down on property owned by my wife'sgreat uncle. So I made use of that just like I'd donewith mesquite when I lived in South Texas (too many storms to remember all their names), and later water oak, a vareity of red oak, when we lived in Southeast Louisiana (primarily in the aftermath of Hurricanes Katrina and Gustav).

I really like shagbark hickory, it's more mellow to some of the store bought hickory chunks I bought in the past. It's more similar to pecan, while still having it's own distinctive flavor and bouquet. I'm at an age and stage of life where I'm OK with ordering some cooking wood via the internet, vs my younger years of just making use of what was appropriate to use out of whatever was locally abundant where I lived.
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Re: First Pork Butt In A While

Postby Smoking Piney » Mon Jul 05, 2021 11:45 am

Loos delicious! :salut:
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