Tayho - Pork Butt Question

[BraggSurvivor]

Tayho, when do you glaze (if you do) your pork, at what internal temp do you do it? With my BGE, it tends to turn very dark but does not burn. Any suggestions?

I'm threw two on the grille this morning at 6:00am.

[Tahyo]

Bragg,
I do pork shoulders the way the do in the Carolinas for pulled pork sandwiches. I try to keep the smoker temperature as close to 225 degrees F. as I can and use one of those remote thermometers that tells me both the internal and external temperature of the meat.
I just keep it going till the internal temp hits 180 - 190 degrees F. Usually takes 14 - 18 hours.

I never put sauce on my pork shoulders while in the smoker. I shred the meat and mix a "cider vinegar, butter, brown sugar, red pepper flakes" mixture to it, but sparingly. I keep some to the side to add later to my sandwiches.
There is another sauce I make that is more traditional bbq sauce which I like better than anything.

A couple of very important things that you probably already know, but just in case.
Before you put the meat in your smoker (pork shoulders, ribs etc), make sure they have come up to room temperature, or close to it. The other thing is make sure you have dabbed all the moisture off the outside. I usually use a little fan. What this does is allows the smoke to penetrate better as well as prevent getting that bitter taste you sometimes get.

Sometimes I get lazy and use my cabinet smoker for my pork shoulders where I load up the cast iron chip holder with as much wood chips/chunks as it will hold. I set a hot plate under it (you'll have to improvise) and set the chip holder right on it. Get it going and only use that for about the first hour after it starts smoking. Then you can remove the hot plate and fire up the propane and smoke it like you would anything else.
There is the argument that meat will only obsorb the smoke for about the first few hours and then it is just a waste of wood, but I usually keep that box filled for 5 to 6 hours at first.

I don't use a water tray, although I do put a large aluminum pan under to catch the drippings.. there is usually a lot.

I have to do something here right now, but I'll get the two recipes I have for the sauces I use as well as see if I have any pictures of the pork shoulders. I know I have some of ribs.

[BraggSurvivor]

Check...check...check...all is good.


I found these in the freezers while pulling out all the beef roasts a couple days ago. After the jerky was done I threw these on the smoker for the night and put them on the BGE to finish them off this morning at 6:00am. I glazed them at 11:00 with internal of 168 degrees. I should be able to pull out in an hour or so.

I want to just pull the bone on one and slice it for sandwich meat for the kids. The other I'm gonna drop off at the neighbors as they have been sick the last few days.

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[Rick]

(cough)(sputter)(sneeeeeeeze). I'm not feeling to good either......(cough).

[Tahyo]

Oh man... that's some pretty looking stuff!!!
Here's the recipes I use for my sauces. I wished I could take credit for inventing them, but I can't. The first one I've used for as long as I can remember. The "finishing sauce" is just the typical one used in the Carolinas, the "cradle of pulled pork"

This bbq sauce is great for pork and buffalo wings as well as bbq beef. What you never want to do is put this sauce on until the last 20 minutes of cooking if you are using a pit. Due to the tomato product and brown sugar it will burn. I always put the sauce on at serving time. I've used this recipe for almost 25 years.


Single Recipe

1 cup of catsup
1/2 cup +1 TBSP of Cider Vinegar
1/4 cup of Worchestire sauce
1/3 cup of dark brown sugar
1 heaping TBSP of cornstarch (sometimes I don't put much cornstarch if I don't want it thick)
2 tsp of steak sauce
Cayenne and Black pepper and salt to taste.

Put it all in a pot and slow simmer very low heat for 45 minutes stirring often to make sure it does not scorch. I always mix the cornstarch with the vinegar while it's cold so it disolves and then pour in the pot. I triple this recipe up and put in an empty clean plastic catsup bottle. Real nice to squirt out and it'll keep a long time in the ice box. If you do double or triple the recipe, leave the cornstarch at the same amount as above. After you make it a few times you'll know the consistency you want and can adjust it. I use a metal wisk to stir this so it smoothes out any lumps.

I usually multiply this recipe and make batches to put in mason jars for the summer.

Pulled pork finishing sauce

INGREDIENTS:

* 1 cup cider vinegar
* 2 tablespoons salt
* 1 tablespoon brown sugar
* 1 teaspoon cayenne
* 1 teaspoon red pepper flakes

PREPARATION:
Mix all ingredients together. Let stand as long as possible, at least 1/2 a day, but the longer the better.

[Tahyo]

Some of my ribs, unfortunately not today.

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[BraggSurvivor]

Your first recipe sounds good for jerky. I'm gonna try both next time.

After smoking I painted them with butter and generously dumped on Dizzy Pig dry rub. The glaze is just an old apple sauce recipe I've used for years. It could be the cause of the dark color when finishing.

I cancelled the weekend brisket cook (not enough people confirmed) so I'm go with pork ribs.

On your ribs Tayho, do you separate at the end of the cook and throw them back on for a few minutes?

[BraggSurvivor]

Your pictire answered my question.

Looks frikken awsome!

[Tahyo]

On your ribs Tayho, do you separate at the end of the cook and throw them back on for a few minutes?

No Bragg, what you see there goes right to the plate. Those bones pull right out. The other thing, and I think I mentioned this the other day, I do not boil my ribs before smoking them. Some people do and to me that has got to be one of the nastiest tasting style of ribs to put in one's mouth. I know a lot of restaurants do that because of the time to "properly" do ribs. That's one of the reasons I never eat bbq ribs in restaurants unless I know they don't boil.

Will be back later. Need to get my chores done.

[Alpine_Sapper]

No Bragg, what you see there goes right to the plate. Those bones pull right out. The other thing, and I think I mentioned this the other day, I do not boil my ribs before smoking them. Some people do and to me that has got to be one of the nastiest tasting style of ribs to put in one's mouth. I know a lot of restaurants do that because of the time to "properly" do ribs. That's one of the reasons I never eat bbq ribs in restaurants unless I know they don't boil.

Will be back later. Need to get my chores done.

I've never seen anybody boil ribs...Ugh. Are you sure you don't mean braise?

[BraggSurvivor]

Boiling ribs should be illegal and is most certainly immoral. The last couple minutes of cooking I separate on the grill and brush with light butter and turn them on their sides very quickly. My kids like them better that way as they are already cut up when they come off the grille.

Here is a pic of ribs I done last summer. It was a 2am thing after a few wobbley pops. Some of my best cooks were when I was half corked.


I got to head out and slice up more jerky and get some work done around here too.

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[Tahyo]

Alpine... No.. I mean boil. It is a common practice in restaurants. They don't boil them for long. Very few people want to take the time to do ribs the way "hard core "qu-ers" do them, so the short cut to tenderness for them is to par boil or boil, which ever term you want to use.

Bragg... think you were right the other day that if you and I lived next door to each other, we'd be pretty fat. haha

[crashdive123]

OK, now I need some ribs. - cough, cough - I think I'm catching what Rick has. Bragg?

[BraggSurvivor]

Here is a pic of my ribs done with no glazing, just a dry rub (Dizzy Pig - Swam Venom) and real unsalted butter. Alder, apple and cherry wood was used to smoke these ribs on my coverted rib rack.

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[Tahyo]

Here is a pic of my ribs done with no glazing, just a dry rub (Dizzy Pig - Swam Venom) and real unsalted butter. Alder, apple and cherry wood was used to smoke these ribs on my coverted rib rack.

I see you mix your woods up too. I don't use Alder all that much unless I'm smoking salmon. I mostly use hickory, white oak, cherry, apple, and pecan depending on what I have a taste for. All in all for pork, my favorite is usually hickory or white oak. Can't say I like one better than the other.

I make "back bacon" or as they call it down here Canadian bacon which I usually just mix different woods up and use that.

[Tahyo]

Some chicken on my homemade barrel pit. This is the only pit I use for chicken.

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[BraggSurvivor]

How is it to control the temperature?

[Tahyo]

Here's a picture of it in it's 3 pieces. Bottom, barrel and lid. There's about a 2 or 3 inch lip on the bottom piece I left. I drilled holes in the bottom, which is raised and then there are some bricks in the bottom which I have a grill sitting on. I usually build little fires from a mixture of lump charcoal and my choice of hardwood, in the case of chicken I use just a little mesquite, but burn it down to coals.
It can get really hot, so I have a metal deflector about midways down that the drippings fall on and pass to the sides. A few holes in it so some drippings fall in the fire, but not many. The trick is to use a lot of coals and add as you think you need. This is the only kind of pit we ever used when I was growing up. Never knew what Webers or anything else was.
Hopefully you can make out some detail on this pic.


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[BraggSurvivor]

Other than my smokers, I use my BGE for everything. Best smoker/grille I have ever owned. I have a 8K DCS stainless grille that I only use for hotdogs....no comparison to flavor. I'd like to buy a mini BGE and convert my Large Egg into a cold smoker using the mini as the source of heat and smoke. Just hook up a metal dryer vent and connect the two together.

With the US dollar dropping the BGE's have dropped 45% in the last year alone. For normal gilling I make my own lump coal in a 55 gallon drum using Hemlock from my land and old hardwood pallets that I get from my buddies business.

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[BraggSurvivor]

Here's a picture of it in it's 3 pieces. Bottom, barrel and lid. There's about a 2 or 3 inch lip on the bottom piece I left. I drilled holes in the bottom, which is raised and then there are some bricks in the bottom which I have a grill sitting on. I usually build little fires from a mixture of lump charcoal and my choice of hardwood, in the case of chicken I use just a little mesquite, but burn it down to coals.
It can get really hot, so I have a metal deflector about midways down that the drippings fall on and pass to the sides. A few holes in it so some drippings fall in the fire, but not many. The trick is to use a lot of coals and add as you think you need. This is the only kind of pit we ever used when I was growing up. Never knew what Webers or anything else was.
Hopefully you can make out some detail on this pic.


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That looks great! Love to do a suckling pig in your system, it would turn out fantastic.

You got my wheels turning now.......be nice to have one of those by my fire pit for parties.