Cooking KCBS Money Muscle

billygbob · Oct 28, 2012

KCBS requires the money muscle in a pork butt be cooked attached to the rest of the butt. On a direct offset, do you cook a "trimmed out" (i.e., cut away from the butt but still attached) money muscle away from the heat to protect it? Or toward the heat to focus cooking on that muscle? Fat down so the muscle lays away from butt? Or fat side up to, again, protect the muscle? Or flip part way through he cook?

Thanks for sharing your approach. I don't compete but would love to be able to cook as well as the cooks who's meat I get to judge.

<billyg>

drbbq · Oct 28, 2012

Why not give it a try and see what you like?

columbia1 · Oct 28, 2012

drbbq said:
Why not give it a try and see what you like?

What he said. Every pit/cooker is different, what works good on one may not work on another.

jketron · Oct 28, 2012

The mm is easy to over cook when considering it to the rest of the meat. Consider slowing it down like a breast on a turkey.

Wampus · Oct 28, 2012

The EASIEST way to get perfectly cooked MM and the rest of the butt is to cook attached and cut the MM away when it gets done or just cook them seperate to start with. That's it allowed per KCBS rules at a comp. Therein lies the real challenge.

But if your just wanting to try at home, those rules don't apply.

billygbob · Oct 28, 2012

drbbq said:
Why not give it a try and see what you like?

That's what I'm doing today - with two butts, which still leaves unknowns. I've found that other's experience is valuable in understanding what variables are important versus dumb luck and my own misinterpretation.

Hawg Father of Seoul · Oct 28, 2012

Some teams pull their butts at different temps. I think the iceing like a turkey breast is a smart idea.

hogzgonewild · Oct 28, 2012

Wampus said:
The EASIEST way to get perfectly cooked MM and the rest of the butt is to cook attached and cut the MM away when it gets done or just cook them seperate to start with. That's it allowed per KCBS rules at a comp. Therein lies the real challenge.

But if your just wanting to try at home, those rules don't apply.

Per KCBS rules, pork has to stay as a whole butt while cooking. If any piece of that meat is completely separated, you cannot return it to the cooker.

That being said, we Trim the sides and ends of our money muscles so they are a long cylinder that is attached on one side by about 1/2" of meat, and put that away from the fire as it will cook faster than the thicker areas of the butt.

Once it's done, we slice the whole cylinder off and then make our medallions.

AZScott · Oct 28, 2012

Yep, Wampus, you CAN NOT separate the MM before or during the cook. If you remove it from the smoker and remove the MM you can not put the other portion back in the smoker. I've seen this rule broken a few times and I'm at the point now that when I see it or am cooking with a team that I know does it, I won't hesitate to tell the KCBS reps to go do a spot check. The rules are simple and if you can't cook the MM and have it finish with the rest of the butt, if you need it, you need to try something else to reach your goal.

Per KCBS 2012:
PORK: Pork is defined as Boston Butt, Picnic and/or Whole
Shoulder, weighing a minimum of five (5) pounds. Pork shall
be cooked whole (bone in or bone out) and shall not be
separated during the cooking process. At no time shall the
meat once separated be returned to a cooker.

Podge · Oct 28, 2012

I gave up on MM awhile back.

billygbob · Oct 28, 2012

hogzgonewild said:
Per KCBS rules, pork has to stay as a whole butt while cooking. If any piece of that meat is completely separated, you cannot return it to the cooker.

That being said, we Trim the sides and ends of our money muscles so they are a long cylinder that is attached on one side by about 1/2" of meat, and put that away from the fire as it will cook faster than the thicker areas of the butt.

Once it's done, we slice the whole cylinder off and then make our medallions.

Thanks for that info. I understood many teams "sacrifice" a good part of 1-2 butts (as far as turn-in for that contest) but wasn't sure about how (or how long) they were cooking when focused on the money muscle.

billygbob · Oct 28, 2012

Wampus said:
The EASIEST way to get perfectly cooked MM and the rest of the butt is to cook attached and cut the MM away when it gets done or just cook them seperate to start with. That's it allowed per KCBS rules at a comp. Therein lies the real challenge.

But if your just wanting to try at home, those rules don't apply.

Rules do NOT apply at home - I definitely drink while I judge there! :becky:

Just for learning and pretending to play like some of the big boys I did just as you describe. Injected one butt (and MM). Liked both. The injected one cooked quite a bit quicker that the other; that could be for many different reasons today. Its kind of nice to taste the distinct flavor of the one muscle compared to pulling and mixing all together. Will be interested in the comments of a couple of BBQers at work that do butts (on WSMs) but pull pull and mix the whole thing.

Thanks for your input. <billyg>

Wampus · Oct 29, 2012

hogzgonewild said:
Per KCBS rules, pork has to stay as a whole butt while cooking. If any piece of that meat is completely separated, you cannot return it to the cooker.

That being said, we Trim the sides and ends of our money muscles so they are a long cylinder that is attached on one side by about 1/2" of meat, and put that away from the fire as it will cook faster than the thicker areas of the butt.

Once it's done, we slice the whole cylinder off and then make our medallions.

AZScott said:
Yep, Wampus, you CAN NOT separate the MM before or during the cook. If you remove it from the smoker and remove the MM you can not put the other portion back in the smoker. I've seen this rule broken a few times and I'm at the point now that when I see it or am cooking with a team that I know does it, I won't hesitate to tell the KCBS reps to go do a spot check. The rules are simple and if you can't cook the MM and have it finish with the rest of the butt, if you need it, you need to try something else to reach your goal.

Per KCBS 2012:
PORK: Pork is defined as Boston Butt, Picnic and/or Whole
Shoulder, weighing a minimum of five (5) pounds. Pork shall
be cooked whole (bone in or bone out) and shall not be
separated during the cooking process. At no time shall the
meat once separated be returned to a cooker.

Agreed.

I posted the above on my phone yesterday and didn't notice that it "autocorrected" my comment. I MEANT to say "that's NOT allowed in KCBS".

I was trying to make a point to the OP that these rules don't apply for him, since he doesn't compete and that he could try that at home if he wanted great MM as well as the rest of the butt.

Sorry for the confusion.

Cooking KCBS Money Muscle

billygbob

Knows what a fatty is.

drbbq

is Blowin Smoke!

columbia1

is one Smokin' Farker

jketron

Full Fledged Farker

Wampus

somebody shut me the fark up.

billygbob

Knows what a fatty is.

Hawg Father of Seoul

is Blowin Smoke!

hogzgonewild

Full Fledged Farker

AZScott

Take a breath!

Podge

is Blowin Smoke!

billygbob

Knows what a fatty is.

billygbob

Knows what a fatty is.

Wampus

somebody shut me the fark up.

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