LEARNING TO SMOKE A PORK BUTT 2019

Since we have technically lived in the south for 9 years, it was time to learn about one of their favorite past times-smoking meat.

It all started when I asked Mr. Thrifty if we could purchase a new grill with a newer feature which seared meat.  While at Sam's, I found a grill that not only seared and grilled meat, but it had a smoker too.


 One of the more popular fundraisers in the area is selling smoked pork butts. The usual price for a pork butt is between 30-$40.00. During the summer and fall months, you can buy a pork butt for less than $1.00 a lb.  But, if you aren't able to smoke your own, this fundraiser pork butt is the way to go.


 Now, smoking your  own meat takes patience and time-lots of  time.  It is a rewarding experience.

So, here is our new smoker grill.



Before we began, we watched multiple you tube videos on smoking pork butts.  Our favorite you tube videos were Mad Scientist BBQ for smoking pork butts. 

To make a long story short, Mr. Thrifty started the fire at 5:30 AM.  We really didn't know how long it was going to take.  Temperature needed to reach 250 degrees before we put the pork on the smoker.  It took 1 hour to reach that temperature, so it was 6:28 before we actually put the meat on the fire.


The most challenging aspect of smoking is keeping the temp regulated to a consistent point of 250 degrees.  Prior to smoking, we bought wood chips, and wood chunks. For long term cooking, it was obvious that the wood chunks worked much better. Mr. Thrifty was loading 2 or 3 chunks on the fire every 30 minutes.  My opinion was why not just use logs.  But this was our first time.


Another good suggestion was to purchase a wireless remote monitor to gage the temperature.  That allowed us to keep the times we opened the grill down.  The quote on one of these videos was, 'if you're lookin, it ain't cookin".  I'll warn you, most of these guys doing videos think they are comedians.  Maybe its just a guy thing. 




Loading the charcoal chimney.



The videos also recommended having a drip/water pan placed underneath the pork. The drip pan helps with cleanup too.

I'm sure that the next time we try to start the fire, it will take a third of its time.  The crumpled paper is lit and placed under the chimney. 

Once the briquets turn white, place them in your smoker and add your work chunks or log. We placed a grate under the charcoal and wood.  It makes for easier cleanup.

Once the temperature reaches 250 degrees, put your meat on the smoker.

The ideal temperature for a pork butt to reach is an internal 160 degrees.  At that point, you take off the pork and double wrap it in heavy duty foil and place it back on the grill.  This will make it cook faster and retain moisture.  I forgot to mention, but every 30 minutes, I spritzed the pork with unconcentrated apple juice. 

The Mr. glanced over this posting and mentioned that I had left out a few details, the apple juice being one.  The other point was, what kind of rub do you put on?  I decided to get a dry rub in the jar and mixed it half and half with brown sugar.  We were very surprised how tasty the finished pork butt was.  A few you tube videos recommend not using brown sugar because it was burn and char.  Well, as you can see, it turned out perfectly.

Isn't she a beauty?

This is what the pork looked like at 160 degrees.

Double wrap in heavy duty foil and return to the fire until the internal temperature reaches 196 degrees.  Now is the time to take it off the grill.  Place it on a platter and let it rest still in the foil for 1 hour.

After an hour, open the foil  You will find the juiciest, flavorful pork butt ever.

Down south, they use 'bear claws' to pull pork.  Mr. Thrifty and I used forks and it worked just as well.

Oh my goodness!  I think the Mr. and I couldn't get over how amazing our first attempt at smoking was. 

 Two points we came up with that led us to our success this time: using a wireless remote thermometer and keeping the fire at a consistent 250 degrees.  I will have to admit, keeping the wood fire at 250 was truly a challenge. Also,  I bought the Mr. a set of bellows and a fire poker.  Both tools came in very handy!

To serve the pork, we made sandwiches using Hawaiian sweet rolls cut in half with our favorite BBQ sauce, Sweet Baby Rays. 

We couldn't eat all of it, so using my food saver, I made 3 small packs of the meat.  It is simple to pull out of the freezer, warm it in the oven but DON'T warm the meat in the microwave.

To make this long story short, this was a great experience for us.  Our next smoking adventure, we will smoke a Texas brisket--my favorite.  Stay tuned for those directions.