Jul 12 2014
I had a 6 ¾ pound part of pork butt thawed to do for this week-end. For this one I wanted a little different than I usually do. I borrowed from two members for it. I don’t usually inject but Smoker Junky’s injection from Steve Raichlen sounded good. I used 1 cup of organic apple cider vinegar, 1 ½ TBS ketchup, 1 TBS. coarse salt, 1 TBS Cholula hot sauce and 1 TBS. brown sugar. I injected it Thursday night, covered and in the fridge overnight.
For cooking it I would follow Old Hickory’s method of taking it to 155 deg. IT on the smoker. Then double wrap in foil, place in a roaster with 1 inch of water and cover and finish it overnight in the oven at 200 deg. F. Like Old Hickory I don’t do long cooks anymore on my smoker if I have to leave my smoker unattended for safety reasons. My smoker is on a covered wood deck close to the house. It sets on a fireproof mat and has good clearance from any wood but I want to keep a close eye on it while cooking.
Friday at noon I wet the butt some with red wine vinegar and put a good coat of rub on it and back in the fridge. My rub was a combination of Bone Suckin rub and Stubbs pork rub.
I got the butt on my Traeger on smoke mode 170 to 180 deg. for 2 hours. I had also added my 6 inch amazin tube and was using oak pellets. After 3 hours I went to 250 to 270 deg. grill level for the rest of the cook. The last hour it was up to about 290 deg. but that was fine for me. At 7:40 it was up to 156 deg. IT so I double wrapped in foil and in a covered roaster pan, with water added, in my oven at 200 deg. Total cook on the smoker was 5 hours 40 minutes.
I was up at 7:00 am and took the pork butt out of the oven at 7:40; it had been in just 12 hours. I let it sit for a half hour and then uncovered and let cool some more. It was very moist and fall apart tender. I used tongs to move it to a pan for pulling and it came out small pieces at a time. I went through it and removed bones and excess fat. I just did a rough pull and I don’t think it needs any of the juice added back in. I saved all the liquid and in the fridge. I will skim off the fat tomorrow and freeze for future use.
It tasted great, I ate enough while pulling for my breakfast! I love the flavor of the injection and will use it again when I plan on using it all for sandwiches. I will also use the oven to finish any large butts I do in the future.
I am having pulled pork sandwiches, coleslaw, and salt vinegar potatoes for our supper and will post pics later.
Two hours of smoke
Four hours in
Done
Smokin Don
