Just a little Butt Pron - Slap yo' Butcher version

Nothing fancy, just a couple butts on the WSM. About 13 pounds, combined. I started at 6:00am, and would like these to be ready for dinner. Typically, I go for 225 for 10-12 hours, but this time I've got the spurs out and we're blazing along at 275.

Also....
I've been real unhappy with the mess in the water pan in the past. I've tried foiling the pan, but that's not as mess free as I'd like it to be. It's still a pain.
Not sure why this basic concept has escaped me to date, but I bought a $0.88 aluminum pan to catch the mess ("liquid pork gold"). I also chopped up an onion, used a bit of apple juice and some chicken stock in the pan.

Injected with;
Apple Juice
Water
Worchester
Sugar
Kosher
(I think it's the Chris Lilly recipe)...and yes, I cut the salt in half.

I figure about halfway through, I'll flip the butts over to 'burn' the other side so it's not soggy. About an hour before they're done, I'll take them out of the pan altogether and try to bark them up.

For leftovers, I'm figuring I should end up with about six or seven quart ziplock baggies with about a pound of meat in each one. I'll give each bag their fair share of the leftover juice and put them in the freezer. I like to flatten the bag out as perfect as possible so they stack nice and neat in the freezer. It also helps when reheating a block of meat that's less than 1" thick, as opposed to a softball sized wad of meat.

On the left is Butchers BBQ rub ("Yes", I trust my butcher)
On the right is Slap yo' Daddy (Hi Henry)

This is 90 minutes in......

Thank you!

4 hours in...........
(the bamboo skewer is to mark which butt has which rub, so I can mark the ziplock baggies)

5 hours in....



After five hours, things were looking good on top and the bones were beginning to stick out and loosen up.
Seemed like time to flip them over.
Although, I don't think I'll go much longer before I remove the pan and let them "bark up" on both sides.

Here's the bottoms;

Thanks guys!

- gmag - So tell me about the MSG comment. I've seen guys specifically adding MSG, so please pardon my ignorance about what I'm doing here.
Please explain.

Ok, here's 7 hours in....maybe it's been eight. I don't know....I've been drinking.
(Notice what was the soggy looking bottom has now "barked up" quite a bit.)
Noted....the wife and I were "nibbling" so the presentation isn't as pretty as it would have been. It was for purely scientific reasons to taste the different brands of rub, or course.

I flipped the butts in the pan, just to help baste them in the juices.
Then, I removed them from the pan and got them some full frontal grate time to "bark them up" some more. Note, the top butt is starting to come apart. They were very hard to roll over and transport from the pan to the smoker. They're so soft at this point, that they're really finished, but I wanted them to harden up from the heat and get some of that "soggy' out of them from sitting in the juices.


The pan full of liquid pork and onions is coming inside with me to use later.

deguerre said:

The MSG only matters if you serve it to someone who is intolerant or allergic to it. Personally, I have no problems with MSG or it's use at all.

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Ohhhh...gotcha.
I guess I'm not allergic to it. At least it's not presented itself to me in a way ugly enough that caused me alarm.
Interestingly enough, I am allergic to apples....I just recently started using apple wood to smoke with. The last time I did ribs, I used a bit of apple sauce. I'm still alive, so I thought I'd tempt fate yet again, which is why I'm using apple juice.

If you don't see me post after tonight, then I'm probably dead. If I'm online tomorrow, then it's probably ok for me to smoke with apple wood, use apple juice to inject and marinade with. hahaha

10 hours in, and we're finished.
I foiled and coolered the butts, just because they got finished sooner than I predicted.
"Butchers BBQ" on the left, and "Slap Yo Daddy" on the right.



Pulled:



Eight, one pound bags of soon to be frozen future yummies:



Off to the freezer..........

deguerre said:

Fess up. You just HAD to sample off the one on the right. Just a morsel. A mere taste, as it were...

Click to expand...

Yip....busted..... We ate off of both.
It was an easy choice the left one (Butchers BBQ) was great.
The hard decision was whether the one on the right (Slap yo Daddy) was as good....so it got nibbled on more.

Thanks guys!

Yea, Guerry, it was very good. Halfway through eating I realized I'd forgotten to take a photo of "the presentation".
We had mac and cheese, corn, and corn bread from the cast iron skillet.

Oh....the cornbread was Jiffy mix. In honor of you Sir.

Yea, that sound awesome. I like it!
I did rub a stick of butter through the cheese grater into the mix. A couple tablespoons or so. That helped to "yum it up" a bit. The family though it was fantastic.