My take on the Pork Rule

[Rookie'48]

Originally Posted by Hawg Father of Seoul

It was the intention of the board to allow pork to be separated to finish cooking.

In reality, my intention was to allow re-heating of parts that had been cooked and rested so that they would comply with Rule 17 (g) and (h). These are the sections that address the proper temps that the meats should be for food safety.

If we follow the current rule, once the money muscle is parted from the rest of the butt neither piece can return to the cooker. This causes two problems right away: 1) you can't bring the rest of the butt up to pulling temp; and 2) if the MM gets cold you cannot re-heat it. And we haven't even mentioned pulling, saucing and re-heating yet.

Remember, we still have lots of time to re-word, re-work or modify any rules prior to the 2014 season . I sure wish that I had waited for the season to start before making that motion . . . at least then the the cabin fever wouldn't be so strong .

[Rookie'48]

Originally Posted by Butcher BBQ

Pork: Pork is defined as Boston Butt, Picnic and/or Whole Shoulder, being one piece, weighing a minimum of five (5) pounds (bone in or bone out).

I have been reading and listening to everyone say they can part the pork out after inspection. Where does it say you can do that? If its not 5lbs its not a pork butt.

Thanx David, that's pretty much what I was trying for.

[Hawg Father of Seoul]

Originally Posted by Rookie'48

In reality, my intention was to allow re-heating of parts that had been cooked and rested so that they would comply with Rule 17 (g) and (h). These are the sections that address the proper temps that the meats should be for food safety.

If we follow the current rule, once the money muscle is parted from the rest of the butt neither piece can return to the cooker. This causes two problems right away: 1) you can't bring the rest of the butt up to pulling temp; and 2) if the MM gets cold you cannot re-heat it. And we haven't even mentioned pulling, saucing and re-heating yet.

Remember, we still have lots of time to re-word, re-work or modify any rules prior to the 2014 season . I sure wish that I had waited for the season to start before making that motion . . . at least then the the cabin fever wouldn't be so strong .

I kind of thought that "to finish cooking" and your words that I made red meant the same thing.

As far as food safety goes... shouldn't open Pandora's box.

"And we haven't even mentioned pulling, saucing and re-heating yet." (this speaks exactly to the point I was trying to make)

[Ron_L]

Originally Posted by Hawg Father of Seoul

RonL, do you disagree with my subsequent post?

Nope. I agree on both points.

[jrbBBQ]

I see what they were trying to do when the passed this rule, but everyone is throwing saying ALOT of "what-if's" I like the new rule for this reason. My pork boxes take the longest to build and that's because I have to wait to the last second (so everything stays as warm as possible) to pull, slice, chunk and arrange everything. With this, a person can now prep the meat after its cooked and hold it or reheat it in the cooker, or a person could now have the option of cooking one butt by removing the MM and finishing the rest. I'll continue to cook two butts because I have the cooker space and I like the option of the extra meat to choose from.

[Muzzlebrake]

I think all the change did was bring pork more into alignment with the rules for the other meats. You can tear all the other meats into whatever shapes or sizes you want and now you can do the same with pork albeit after it has been inspected and proven to be a butt, shoulder or picnic that is at least 5 pounds.

If someone wants to part it up and cook it, have at it. I don't see it being any different than separating a brisket, making spares into St Louis, or muffin pan chicken. If anything I think it allows some more options to cooks, which isn't a bad thing.

[Podge]

The best pork will still win regardless.

[McEvoy AZ]

Originally Posted by Wampus

The big question in my mind is.....IF teams start parting out the MM or tubes and start winning, then are those that do not part out missing the boat?

In other words, if parting DOES offer a distinct advantage (and I'm not necessarily saying it does), who'll follow the crowd? Is being a "purist" only leaving points on the table?

Not to offend anyone, but I part mine in another sanctioning class during the cook not to have over cooked product and get great scores. This just happens to be legal in that sanctioning class. I do not do this in KCBS, but I am a team who will part most of it only leaving a small part attached. I can say that KCBS is very tuff to have the perfect MM and the erfect chunck or pulled at the same time.

Agail I follow the rules in KCBS when competing in a KCBS event, but just knowing it is easier the other way to have great pulled and MM it has to be a temptation for teams to seperate the pork butt, With the fact that there is no way to police this, unless KCBS starts doing a pre turn in meat check, I would say to have peice of mind that everyone is on the same playing field, then they would need to allow the parting.

I know this might not be popular in here, but I am for it. It just gives us all peice of mind that no one is breaking a rule that I follow causing some form of unfair advantage.

[RX2006JE]

Originally Posted by Muzzlebrake

You can tear all the other meats into whatever shapes or sizes you want and now you can do the same with pork albeit after it has been inspected and proven to be a butt, shoulder or picnic that is at least 5 pounds.

If you trimmed at home which would be legal then if you parted out then how can you prove that it was 5lbs in the beginning or would you just have to bring say 5lbs of money muscle or tubes or whatever it is that you want to cook.

[jbrink01]

Originally Posted by RX2006JE

If you trimmed at home which would be legal then if you parted out then how can you prove that it was 5lbs in the beginning or would you just have to bring say 5lbs of money muscle or tubes or whatever it is that you want to cook.

I trim at home, it is over 5#'s and I could finish the parting job in about 12 seconds at a comp now if I wanted to cheat (I don't).

[Ron_L]

Originally Posted by jbrink01

I trim at home, it is over 5#'s and I could finish the parting job in about 12 seconds at a comp now if I wanted to cheat (I don't).

But it's not cheating since the rule doesn't say that it has to be cooked whole

[WineMaster]

If stores started selling Money Muscles, Tubes, Horns from butts would they take out the must be 5 lbs rule to be more in line with Chicken.

[Smokin' Gnome BBQ]

Originally Posted by WineMaster

If stores started selling Money Muscles, Tubes, Horns from butts would they take out the must be 5 lbs rule to be more in line with Chicken.

a butcher shop near me already does, the cut the MM off and grind the rest into sausage...I couldnt belive it when I first them there.

[landarc]

I thought the old rule was not at all vague, and not at all ill-advised. The new rule, which I recognize is a work in progress does need some more work, to make it more clear as to what is actually to be allowed. I don't see that as being a problem.

But, I thought the old rule worked fine too, and if you wanted to have medallions of money muscle, well, you had to cook at least two butts.

[MuleTuf]

<<bbq forum poll>>
Do you agree with the 2014 pork rule that KCBS just made?
Votes Ratio
Yes 33 12%
No 130 49%
What Rule? 73 27%
Doesn't matter to me 30 11%
266 votes total
Does this matter?