I picked up a very pretty 7.75 pork butt and did a simple marinade injection, followed by a thorough massage with my homemade Sweet Heat spice rub. After another twelve hours in the fridge, I loaded it into a cold smoker with exactly 6.0 ounces of apple wood at 225 degrees. I also used a hanging reservoir filled 2/3 with room temperature apple juice.
Once it was in the smoker it sat untouched (no checking, no door opening, no spritzing, no foiling) for exactly 12 hours on an overnight smoke. By 10:30 a.m. it hit 171 where it was removed from the smoker, wrapped and held in a cooler for 45 minutes. I sliced a few test slices (this cook was for a sliced preparation rather than pulled) and half the butt was portioned for friends, most of the remainder was portioned for vacuum sealing and freezing, and the remainder for lunch and dinner tonight.
As a side note, the juice reservoir (positioned on a low rack very close to the smoker box) reduced by roughly half over those 12 hours; the final product was exceptionally moist despite a very heavy hand trimming the surface fat on the pork butt.
Sweet Heat Rub Recipe
1/2 cup demerara sugar (can sub turbinado)
1/2 cup sweet paprika
1/3 cup honey powder (can dark brown sugar for a molasses flavor instead)
3 tbsp kosher salt
3 tbsp ancho chili powder
2 tbsp garlic powder
2 tbsp onion powder
2 tbsp ground black pepper
1 tbsp ground white pepper
4 tsp cayenne pepper
1 tsp ground thyme
[attachment deleted by admin]
