Butt Injection?

My go to injection is apple juice and worcestershire sauce, 3 : 1 ratio, taste good.

I have used both but since my parents are from NC and I grew up on chopped BBQ, I prefer the vinegar injection. I usually use Chris Lilly's injection for backyard cooks.

North Carolina makes a Muscadine wine, and yes, it works well with pork!

Chris Lilly's is very heavy on the salt. Cutting it to its simplest, Ol' Joe has you hooked up with teh AJ and woosy. For years I did the same but added in some of my rub to help merge/blend the flavors. Later I found that if I mix in a little creole butter in there it really has it POP.

I've been using the Chris Lily recipe, salt cut in half, and smoked pork stock subbed for the water. I adjust a little bit from there till I like it - not too sweet, not too bitter/umami.

I'm not fond of sweet injections in pork. I use beef stock, then kick it up with garlic powder, onion powder, cayenne, and anything else that sounds good at the time.
I do the pinky finger taste test before injecting.

I inject with a modified version of Chris Lilly's pork injection EVERY SINGLE TIME I cook pork butts.

All I do is use Kosher salt instead of table salt, which cuts down on the salt.
Smoked a case of butts last weekend. DANG it was good! :thumb:

A modified Chris Lilly for me, less salt is really all I change. If I get a good quality butt then I won't even inject and they often times come out better.

I used to brine, and had good results. Then I started injecting which made the task easier and less clean up. I used Chris Lilly's Injection but found it to be salty to my tastes, I cut back to almost half the amount of salt and it is still good. last year I switched to OakRidge Game Changer Brine as my Injection and have nothing less than great results with it.

I now, always use OakRidge Game Changer Brine as an injection. I Use fruit juice (Peach, Pear, Apple, or White Grape) for added flavors. For every 8 ounces of juice add 1 Tablespoon of OakRidge Game Changer Brine and then inject into the pork. I inject right through the cyro-packaging to save with cleanup, using different angles through the same hole to prevent leaking. I used to rub and let the pork sit overnight, but now I'll rub a few hours before smoking depending upon my time constraints.

When cooking injected pork butts I find the bone begins to wiggle at about 187°, I pull and rest the pork in a cambro/cooler for 3 to 4 hours, and pull the pork just before serving. I find the OakRidge Game Changer Brine keeps the pork exceptionally tender, moist, flavorful, and it pulls in very long strands which is great for sandwiches.

I might be the only one who doesn't think Lilly's injection isn't salty :-D. But I love my salt. Haven't used that one in a while though. For home when I do inject I actually go pretty intense on my injections because the flavors all seem to mellow out during the cook and I like them to be bold when I inject. So if you like mild flavors you might not need as much, but if you want more then give it more seasoning, hot sauce, sweet, vinegar, etc :biggrin1:.

I don't have a go to injection since I like to change it up. But Lilly's injection is a good place to start and then modify.

I like the flavor of pork so I use a simple brine injection. 2% salt ( 2 gms salt per 100cc)
4.64 gm per cup There is 5.69 gm salt per tsp. So a slight tsp of salt per cup would give you an approx 2% sol.. You can always add salt to the final product if you need more.
I always wrap so I can save the juice. After chilling and removing the solid fat you are left with pure pork nirvana which can be heated and added to the pulled pork. Wonderful.

I've just started using a mixture of the rub that I'm using on the pork and water or chicken stock to a porpotion of (1/3rd cup of BBQ Rub) to (32 oz. of the water or chicken stock). I really like it as it gives my pork a consistent taste inside and out...