Pork Butts

[Rapier]

Local grocer had pork butts on sale for $1.49. Bone in, which I prefer for a slow smoke. The two in a pack were 25-30 lbs so usually we get a couple packs, one to freeze and one to put on the Cook Shack smoker right off.
I use a dry rub that is very simple, 3-2-1, restaurant ground black pepper, garlic powder, cajun seasoning, I use Tone's commercial containers. Wash the butts real well to get the bone splinters and saw dust off, pat dry with paper towels, apply the well mixed rub with a shaker, liberally, and rub into the meat, all sides.
Load the smoker with debarked, dry, hickory chunks. Debarking gets rid of the bitter taste that bark can leave on meat.
Load the meat into the smoker separated and evenly stacked on racks, set the temp on 210 degrees, smoke for 21 - 22 hours. You will need two large meat forks to lift the butts off the grill as they will be falling apart otherwise.
Take out the butts and wrap in foil, allow to rest for 1 hour. We prefer pulled and chopped, with the outside meat bark mixed with the inside meat.
Wife was born in Marshall, Texas and raised in Memphis, me raised in the Everglades, so we have a mixture of styles in BBQ. We seal a meal the excess we do not eat right away in 1# packs pressed flat by hand then freeze. The stack well and make quick meals later.

A picture of course, fresh out of the smoker.

[G W Wade]

One of my favorite things! Wish I was closer so I could help you with those excess packages. GW

[Rapier]

Hard not to eat them when they come off. There is 1,001 ways to do BBQ pork butts but I have yet to find one way that was so wrong, I could not eat it. :-) Preferences, of course, but hickory smoked bone in pork butt is hard to beat, if you like smoked BBQ pork.

[Charlie Horse]

I just snagged one for $1.49. I don't have a smoker. It's just me and the wife, and she eats like a bird. I'll cook mine with just salt and pepper then divide it up and freeze. I make it into tacos and such. BBQ sandwiches are good. Add it to stir fry. I have cooked them whole on the Weber.

If you are ever up around Great Lakes Naval Base, up near Chicago, hit some of the local BBQ places. You will not be disappointed.

[jdgabbard]

Been doing BBQ for 30yrs now. My first job, back when I was just 10yrs old was working in a family friend's BBQ Shop making cajun style bbq. Of all the BBQ I've made over the years the pork butt and spare ribs are still my favorite. Brisket is ok, but just too dang expensive to do on a regular basis. But I also like to do whole chickens (spatchcock), wings and drum for ball games, and the occassional thanksgiving turkey.

As for pork butts, it's always with the dry rub without a binder. I typically use a mixture of Jalapeno Garlic Salt, Paprika, Cayenne, Onion Powder, Black Pepper, and Salt to taste. Once the pork butt is clean and patted dry I give a very liberal coating of the dry rub and make sure to get it rubbed well into the meat. Then it's back into the fridge for about 6-8hrs (typically overnight) to let the spices do their work. This is a common practice in both the BBQ and the Sausage making industries. It may be superstition, but I do feel allowing the spices to mingle with the meat for some time produces a better product.

After the meat has sat overnight I fire up the smoker, I prefer a side draft, with hickory and wait until the temperature stabilizes at about 225F. Once I've hit my desired temp I will place the pork butt on the cold end of the smoker, add a pan of water, and let it do it's thing for about 4hrs, only checking to make sure the temp is constant and adding wood as necessary. After that I'll add my digital temperature probe (one of the ones with the stainless braid so it can sit outside of the smoker), and begin spritzing every hour with a mixture of Apple Cider Vinegar, a little of my dry rub, and a small amount of a spicy BBQ sauce.

After 10-12hrs, depending on the size of the butt in question and after it has come up to my target temp 205F, I'll pull it, wrap it, and toss it in a cooler to rest for about an hour and thirty minutes. This gives me time to start getting all of the sides together, mac & cheese, vinegar based coleslaw, onions, pickles, jalapeno peppers (grilled), beans and bits (baked beans with chopped brisket - I typically freeze the left over briskets and use it to make this), Texas Toast, and usually some green beans with bacon and onions.

Once the rest is complete, I can just pull the bone right out of the brisket, and with a couple of quick mashes with my hands I can shred the pork. It's always a hit, and I only have left overs when I'm just cooking for myself and the boy. At parties it's the first thing to go...

[Txcowboy52]

Pork butts are definitely a favorite. So much cheaper per pound than brisket these days, and pound for pound more meat. Nothing better than good smoked pork butt imho !

[Gtrubicon]

Wow, some really good recipes here. I’m no pro at bbq but I try. On our pork buts I rub liberally with course salt and pepper, then completely cover all sides in yellow mustard. I let it sit in the fridge overnight prior to the cook. I pull when internal temp is 203 and let it rest for at least an hour. So good! The last few we’ve done my wife has warmed up the shredded/chopped leftover meat in a cast iron skillet. It browns and adds a slight crisp to the meat. Hard to beat.

[reloader28]

Must be our higher elevation here. If I pull from the smoker at 200-205 it is very mushy. I pull it out at 195 and its perfect.
Every year I put 5-6 in the smoker for pulled pork packages for the year.

[MaryB]

I would grab extras, debone, grind it and make hot Italian bulk sausage and breakfast sausage patties. I use commercial sausage seasoning mixes, Leggs #10 for breakfast patties, and Leggs #103 for hot Italian.

[jdgabbard]

Must be our higher elevation here. If I pull from the smoker at 200-205 it is very mushy. I pull it out at 195 and its perfect.
Every year I put 5-6 in the smoker for pulled pork packages for the year.

I'm in Oklahoma, we're only 720ish fee above sea level....


I would grab extras, debone, grind it and make hot Italian bulk sausage and breakfast sausage patties. I use commercial sausage seasoning mixes, Leggs #10 for breakfast patties, and Leggs #103 for hot Italian.

I do this a lot as well. I have a nice grinder, and a sausage press. Been meaning to get one of them fancy dancy jerky guns too. Just never got around to it... I don't know about you, but my sausage is far better than anything I can buy from the store. The biggest problem is finding enough room on the countertop to make it.

[danmat]

I going to try that when I get through making breakfast sausage.
Kroger had em on sale for 87 cents a pound this week I stocked up.
I also use the Leggs seasoning.
Gonna have to buy another freezer if I keep this up.
Thanks for the recipe.

[Rockindaddy]

I prefer to take pork butts and bone em out and mix about 20% with my ground venison. The venison burgers are so much better as the deer fat for the most part is unpalatable. The ground venison tends to be dry. But I still like smoked pork butt too!! Nice article on smoked pork butt!

[nannyhammer]

We use them along with A.C. Legg seasoning to make hot breakfast sausage since i cant find anyone local that makes good sausage.

[fourarmed]

I like to slice 3 or 4 thick steaks off the boneless end, marinate in adobo sauce, then grill on a super-hot lump charcoal fire until black and crusty on the outside but still a little pink in the center. It's the pork equivalent of a thick ribeye. The rest gets deboned and saved to go in venison sausage.

[Lance Boyle]

Smoking is fantastic but there is just so much you can do with it.....

I will make buckboard bacon with the all meat side and the other half with the bone I make sausage....
breakfast meat
big fat breakfast links
Italian hot sausage
polish sausage

I pick the fattiest ones I can find for making sausage. They’re still a tad lean fat content wise. some fat in the pan cooking links but not loads.

[Hogtamer]

Perhaps the finest cut of meat God ever made!

[jdgabbard]

Perhaps the finest cut of meat God ever made!

You must never have eaten a properly cooked Ribeye? :kidding:

[LenH]

Now you guys have flung a cravin on me.

I smoke pork butts using apple and pecan. I have used persimmon at times but
The combo of apple and pecan is my go to for smoke.

Try some pulled pork on pizza some time. It might surprise you hoe good it is.

I have several sausage cookbooks and have my own recipe for homemade
Sausage. I just might have to get that grinder out this weekend a make a batch
Of sausage.

[Good Cheer]

Think I'll try my hand at a pernil for something different.

[Good Cheer]

Ended up using orange/mango juice seeing as that's what I had, some white wine vinegar, olive oil, oregano, garlic, onion, black and red pepper, paprika, salt, cumin... forgot to use the mace. Will fire up the cooker tomorrow or the next day.

[phantom22]

Another good use is carnitas. An authentic recipe though. I haven't made it in a while, but it involves some unusual ingredients that seem very unusual to those used to throwing them on a smoker with a rub.

From what I can remember it includes something along the lines of a real sugar coke, evaporated milk, an orange, etc...

I know there's more to it, but you deep fat fry chunks of pork butt with lard and then basically braise it. Or maybe it's the other way around. All I know is that they are fall apart tender with a crisp outside and more flavor than can legally cross the border.

[captn-tin]

1 thing I would add to your dry ingredients is....Chinese 5-spice, to taste. Great flavored spice on charcoal grilled meats.

[Good Cheer]

When finding butts for cheap sometimes I process them into buckboard bacon with a mixture of brown sugar, black pepper and Morton's Tender Quick that we have several pounds of. The wife likes it that way, likes there being less fat. After curing a few days and soaking out it gets smoked a bit and then we vacuum package it and it's off to the freezer.

[Barry54]

You must never have eaten a properly cooked Ribeye? :kidding:

Eat the mushrooms and throw the beef away!

[Good Cheer]

We're having ham and a sirloin roast for the Easter Feaster. Think I'll slice up the roast, flour and brown each slice and then stack 'em back with garlic, butter and spices in between for cooking. With some mushrooms too! Pro'bly cook it on Saturday and warm it back up same time as the ham on Sunday. Humph, which means I'd best sequence the gravy for mashed taters into those plans somewhere or the other. Or are we doing baked taters? Reckon I'd better find out.

[MT Gianni]

Another good use is carnitas. An authentic recipe though. I haven't made it in a while, but it involves some unusual ingredients that seem very unusual to those used to throwing them on a smoker with a rub.

From what I can remember it includes something along the lines of a real sugar coke, evaporated milk, an orange, etc...

I know there's more to it, but you deep fat fry chunks of pork butt with lard and then basically braise it. Or maybe it's the other way around. All I know is that they are fall apart tender with a crisp outside and more flavor than can legally cross the border.

Learn something new all the time. Every time I have had carnitas is carnitas de chile verde, which has no oranges, coke or milk in it. It's usually done from boneless shoulder roast.