Hot and Fast Pork Butt on a Performer (pron)

[Aawa]

Going to bring some bbq over to my buddy that has the hip thing going on.  I figure a little bbq for some comfort food every once in a while can't hurt.

First thing, got my herbs and spices all measured out.  I felt the need to take a picture of all the cool textures and colors.  I tried to get all fancy with one of the angles also.



9lb pork butts from Food Lion.  I actually picked it up along with many others with a raincheck for 99cents/lb.


Pretrimmed pork butt.


Going hot and fast so I aggressively trimmed the fat away.



Rubbed up on my meat with a mustard slather and the rub.  Once again I went fancy angle on one of the pictures.


Setup the performer with the snake/ring of fire method.  I used Kingsford Competition Charcoal Briquettes with peach wood. Going to throw the 10 coals in the middle into a charcoal chimney and light them off till they are greyed over.  Foil in the middle to help direct the air into the coals as well as catch the drippings.  My snake was 3 layer ring (2 coals x 2 coals x 1 coal)


My doge making sure no squirrels come to try to take the pork butt away from the kettle.


260ish dome temp.  It is go time.  I like to put the meat on while the temperature is a little lower than target temperature.  The kettle was already putting out thin blue at this time.


300ish dome temp after 30mins.  Should creep up to maybe 325 dome temp sometime during the cook.


More to come as the cook goes along.

[Aawa]

About 3.5 hours in.  Still holding steady at about 300ish dome temp. 



The pork butt is coming along nicely.


I rotated my lid so that the lid vent was on the opposite side of the fire.

[Chasing_smoke]

Looking great like always!

Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Tapatalk 2

[wyd]

Looking good. Mouth is watering and making me think what I would like to grill for this Saturday.

[Jocool]

Cool.

[Aawa]

Well 5.5hrs into the cook, I checked the pork butt.  The color was exactly where I wanted it to be.  So I wrapped it up.





I went to go put it back onto the kettle and noticed that the temperature wasn't coming back up to 300.  It was only going up to 240-250ish degrees.  I need to have the pork butt done and resting by 4:30PM EST at the latest..  I decided to finish it in the oven at 325 degrees wrapped up.  It should only need 45mins-1hour to finish.

I also went into my pantry and pulled out my finishing sauce and gave it a good shaking.  I reused a jar of bbq sauce my sister gave me and I can't get the stinkin label off!


The finishing sauce is the following.

2 cups apple cider vinegar
1/8-1/4 cup crushed red pepper flakes
2 tablespoon salt
3 tablespoon turbinado sugar

When I pull the meat, I add some of the finishing sauce so you get the hint of the vinegar.  For the 9lb pork butt i'll use maybe 1/4-1/2 of this jar.

[pbe gummi bear]

Nice cook! I've had good luck with the hh butts too. Are you going with a pull or slice on it?

[Aawa]

Nice cook! I've had good luck with the hh butts too. Are you going with a pull or slice on it?

i am going to pull it.  .  I love me some pulled pork.

[MacEggs]

That is a fine looking cook-up!  Are we gonna see some pulled pics??

Don't worry about finishing it in the oven ... Sadly, I have done the same on a few occasions.
No worries, it always passes the smoked-outside-in-a-kettle test.  No one will be the wiser.   

[Aawa]

That is a fine looking cook-up!  Are we gonna see some pulled pics??

Don't worry about finishing it in the oven ... Sadly, I have done the same on a few occasions.
No worries, it always passes the smoked-outside-in-a-kettle test.  No one will be the wiser.   

Yep I'll have pictures of the pulled pork.  Won't be till later tonight though since I will be pulling it and immediately taking some to my buddy that is laid up.

[Aawa]

Some finished product from earlier.  I couldn't post them right when I pulled it as I had to take it over to my buddies house.  I'm trying to get all fancy with the angles but I don't think it is working too well.  :wacko:



Bone pulled out nice and clean.


A shot of the pork before I put in the finishing sauce. You can see how nice and moist it is.  Of course I had to taste test it for quality control before adding the finishing sauce.


And final shots with the finishing sauce on it.  You can see the crushed red pepper flakes throughout the meat.  I used 1/4 of the jar to finish it to have a nice balanced flavor.



Overall this pork butt turned out a B+ to an A-.  The experimental rub I made was good but needed some tweaking.  If you got just a piece of the bark, it was too salty.  But when mixed in with the rest of the meat, it was nicely balanced.   I have to probably just go a touch lighter with the salt.  The overall flavor though was fantastic.  My buddy and his girlfriend said that it was the best pulled pork that they have gotten from me.

My buddy is also doing so much better than when he initially got home.  He can't put weight on his hip, but is mobile with a walker.  He is able to sit up without a lot of pain.  Things are looking up for him.  The bad news is once he gets better from the infection in his hip, he will be at square 1 since he will have to have his hip replaced.  The infection ate all of the cartlidge in his hip away, so it is bone on bone.  :cry:

[kako5256]

That was a great write up. Thanks for the motivation. I am definitely going to follow you lead an cook something bright and early.

[Hottuna]

Nice cook up
After doing my first butt HH at just over 320f and 6hrs for a 9lber I don't think there is much use in stretching it out to 12 hrs low and slow?

Nice bark  - tell me what is in your rub?
Dan

[Aawa]

Nice cook up
After doing my first butt HH at just over 320f and 6hrs for a 9lber I don't think there is much use in stretching it out to 12 hrs low and slow?

Nice bark  - tell me what is in your rub?
Dan

Hot and fast is my go too, unless I'm doing a big cook and I need to do part of it overnight.  The overnight cook will go low and slow, and then when I switch out the meats I go hot and fast.

Here is my rub recipe.  It was an experimental rub.  If you use the rub on ribs, I would cut back on the salt as it is a salty rub.  On a pork butt or picnic or shoulder, once the roast is pulled the saltiness is balances out really well.

The rub I made is the following by volume.

4 parts kosher salt
4 parts course ground pepper (butchers grind)
1 part granulated garlic
1 part oregano
2 parts chili powder
3 parts paprika
1 part Lowery's season salt
1 part ground mustard
1 part cumin
2 part brown sugar
1/2 part cayenne
1/2 part nutmeg