When I want to satisfy a hungry crowd without much hassle, I always turn to a smoked pork butt (aka boston butt) or a pork shoulder. This easy to follow guide will give you step by step directions to cook delicious and flavorful BBQ! I discuss the steps I take to smoke an amazing pork butt and the products I find helpful along the way!
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Butt Selection
Opt for a hefty bone-in or boneless butt. I always thought bone-in was the only way to go, but I've gotten really good results using the Swift brand boneless butts from Costco. You can use any brand, but pay attention to the label of the butt to make sure that it isn't packaged in a salt water solution. When pork is packaged in these solutions, the meat cures and the final result tastes more like ham, and that isn't what we want! Aim for that 7 to 9-pound sweet spot. Smaller butts are fine, but they can dry out much quicker than a larger one. Make sure to pick a butt that has good marbling. Marbling is the visible white streaks of fat that run throughout the meat. This intramuscular fat renders while cooking and adds a ton of flavor and moisture to the final product.
Trimming Your Butt
It's time to trim some fat off of that butt. Leave some fat, but don't go wild! It's better to have more fat than trim off too much. Most of the fat will render down and the parts that don't render will slide right off when it comes time to serve. When trimming, I like to use a curved boning knife to remove fat. A sharp knife will really help with this process! The link is below for a Mercer Curved Boning Knife. They make great products that are inexpensive if you are looking for a good, sharp knife that isn't flashy.
Let's talk fat cap. You do want to trim some of the fat cap off, but not all of it! That precious fat cap can help your meat from drying out. Think of it as a heat barrier that protects the meat from too much heat. And again, when a pork butt is cooked properly, most of the fat cap will render down. The part that doesn't render will slide right off of the butt when it comes time to serve.
Pork Butt Injection
We just talked about trimming fat off the butt, but now lets make that butt juicy and plump again. Injecting is an absolute game changer, and you don't need any fancy ingredients for an injection. My favorite injection is... WATER. That's right. Good ol' H20. The end goal is to add moisture to the meat and what else is better than water? I like keeping the flavor profile of my injections neutral. I want to taste the meat, the rub, and the smoke. Not some weird pineapple flavored injection. I guess I'm just simple! I aim to inject about 1 cup of injection for every 3-4 pounds of meat. For an 8lb butt, inject it with at least 2 cups of water and always inject before you season the meat! You don't want to wash the rub off with your injection! I recently purchased the Milagroso Meat Injector from Amazon, and it made meat injecting so much easier. I've bought the plastic injectors and the injectors that look like needles from an insane asylum, but they don't work near as good as this one. The price is a little higher than other injectors, but it's made with steel unlike other injectors that are made with plastic. I highly recommend it!
The Rub
This is the longest section for a reason. Let's discuss meat rubbing. My favorite store bought rub at the moment is Lane's Spellbound Rub. It is packed with flavor and is great on pork butts. I recommend this rub if it's your first time or if you don't feel like making your own rub. You can always go simple with salt and pepper as well! Here is a step by step for applying the rub:
Step 1: Binder - You can add a binder if you'd like, but it isn't necessary if you've injected the meat. The injection that didn't make it into the pork will moisten the outside of the butt and that will act as your binder. If you didn't inject (shame on you), add a light coat of yellow mustard to the pork butt, but don't overdo it. You'll need just enough so that the rub "binds" to the meat. Again, a binder may not be needed if there's enough moisture on the outside of the meat already.
Step 2: Rub it up - When it comes to the rub, don't be shy. Apply your rub liberally. The goal? Even coverage across the pork butt. You want a good bit of rub, but not so much that the rub begins to cake up. Make sure to "pat" and "rub" the seasoning into the meat. This truly makes a difference. Pat it just enough to make sure that the rub adheres to the meat. You want the rub to look a bit moistened to "activate" the flavors, as I like to say.
Step 3: Let it rest - Look, you've been rubbing and handling your meat for a while now. Give your pork some time to rest. Let the flavors mingle and dance while you get your smoker ready. You'll begin to see the meat sweating a bit as the rub sets. After it sets (usually in about 30 minutes), it's ready for the smoker!
Wood Options
Navigating the plethora of wood options for smoking meat can be very overwhelming, but the decision ultimately boils down to personal preference. I tend to use lighter and more subtle woods like Oak and Pecan. I occasionally use fruit woods, especially cherry, when I'm in the mood for smoked ribs. However, when it comes to pork butt, I stick to milder woods to let its natural richness shine. While Hickory is an option for a stronger, smokier flavor, Mesquite is firmly off limits in my smoker due to how overpowering it can be. Check out the below table if you want to know which wood to smoke with.
If you're using a stick burner, a crucial tip is to ensure the wood is dry and seasoned. Otherwise, you'll end up with unwanted bitter flavors due to creosote. Opting for a pellet grill can eliminate the concern for bitter flavors, allowing you to focus on perfecting your smoke game without worrying about managing a fire.
Smoker Prep
Preheat your smoker to 275°F. This is the sweet spot for me and a ton of the BBQ community agrees. It cuts out on smoking time and you get a very flavorful bark. There seems to be an argument that 225-250 is the only temp to smoke pork butts. The people who tell you this are wrong. Bump it up to 275. You can even get up to 325 degrees without messing things up, but I wouldn't go much higher than that or you may end up with dry meat. But, the great thing about a pork butt is that it's a really forgiving piece of meat as long as you keep your temperature consistent.
It's Smokin' Time!
Place your butt on the smoker. A rough guide is to smoke for 1 hour for every pound of meat at 275°F, but you'll want to purchase a good digital thermometer to read the internal temperature so you know exactly when it's done. For pulled or chopped pork butt, we want to shoot for an internal temperature of 197-200°F. Reading the internal temperature is a crucial part of smoking a butt, but even more important than that is checking for probe tenderness. I've had pork butts that were fall apart tender at 195°F and I've had some that were like shoe leather at the same internal temperature. Each pork butt will cook differently. That's why I think it's very important to have a probe thermometer to test for probe tenderness. When the temp probe slides in and out of the pork butt like it's warm butter, you know it's ready. You should feel no resistance at all. I have recommendations listed below of the thermometers that I use and recommend. Whether you decide on the ThermoPro Wireless or the MEATER Plus, I recommend you still purchase the Thermopro TP03 to use to probe the meat at random intervals to check for probe tenderness and doneness.
Fat cap up or down? The style of smoker you are using will determine if you need to place the fat cap of the pork butt up or down. Again, think of the fat cap as a heat barrier and aim the fat cap towards the source of the heat so that it protects the meat and renders into a nice crisp. If I'm smoking on a kettle style grill or my Big Green Egg, using my heat deflector plate, I always put the fat cap down. A lot of people argue against this, but the heat deflector plate radiates a ton of heat, and you don't want bare meat towards the plate or it will be dry. If I'm smoking on a reverse flow style offset smoker, I put the fat cap up. All smokers are different, and this is one of those things where you just have to test it out and figure out your smoker!
The ThermoPro Wireless Meat thermometer uses a Bluetooth connection to pair with your phone to provide internal temperature readings of your meat.
The Thermopro TP03 is an instant read probe thermometer that can be used to probe the meat for the internal temperature if you are looking for something less fancy.
The MEATER Plus is what I consider the Cadillac out of the three items. It also uses a Bluetooth connection to pair with your phone. It is capable of reading internal temperature readings and reading the ambient temperature of your smoker, which is extremely helpful. All 3 can get the job done and are great tools to have while smoking meats!
Where Do I Probe a Boston Butt or Pork Shoulder?
A question that I hear all the time is "Where do I probe the meat?" The answer is fairly simple. If you're smoking a bone-in butt, insert the probe in the thickest part of the meat without touching the bone. If you're smoking a boneless butt, treat it the same way and insert the probe into the thickest part of the meat. When probing a boneless butt, be mindful not to push it through the meat and into the cavity where the butcher removed the bone. This will result in an incorrect internal temperature reading. A picture is provided below to show where I probe my butts.
The Stall
At some point during your cook (again, all pork butts are different), your pork butt will hit a stall. This means that the internal temperature of your pork butt will suddenly stop rising. When you begin cooking a butt, the internal temperature can get up to 145°F fairly quickly. Usually within a 4-5 hours. After 145°F, the temperature will suddenly slow dramatically. Your butt can even drop a few degrees during the stall. The stall usually happens in the 150°F-175°F range. At this temperature, the meat fibers begin to tighten up and the meat will release juices, almost as if it's sweating. As a result, the meat cools off a bit, thus "stalling" the cook. The great thing about cooking at a higher pit temperature of 275°F, is the stall won't last as long as it would if you were cooking at 225°F. Eventually, the stall will break, the temperature will rise, and your pork butt will continue to cook until it's juicy and tender!
Should I Wrap?
Another debate in the BBQ world. Wrapping your pork butt highly depends on what your goal is for the end product. There is no right or wrong way. If you want more of a "barky" texture, don't wrap. If you want a softer texture, wrap!
If you do decide to wrap, a good rule of thumb is to wrap somewhere around the 155°F-165°F mark when your pork butt hits the stall. But don't wrap too early! You want a good color and bark. If you wrap too early, you'll miss out on forming a good bark and the meat won't soak up as much smoky flavor that we all crave.
Pro tip: Instead of wrapping with tin foil, an even better option is wrapping your meat in Pink Butcher Paper! It allows the meat to "breathe" a bit more so that you get the benefits of wrapping, while saving that beautiful bark that you have worked so hard for!
The Wait Is Almost Over
When your pork butt is in the 197-200°F (using internal temperature as a rough guide for doneness), start checking to see if it's probe tender through all parts of the meat. Once probe tender (the probe will slide into the meat with no resistance) it's time to take it off of the smoker for the rest! Carryover temperature will put the pork butt in the 202-207°F range during this rest. Wrap it in aluminum foil or butcher paper, or place it in an aluminum pan for the rest. Let it rest for at least 1 hour, or longer if you can stand it!
Serve It Up!
You can serve the pork butt in a variety of ways. My favorite is chopped, but there are many people that like it pulled. If you are going for pulled pork, bear claws work great. If you want it chopped, opt for a meat cleaver on a cutting board. The links provided below are what I recommend to use for chopping or pulling the pork butts.
Serve it up in sandwiches or on a platter. The decision is in your hands!
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