What to do with $0.99 cent pork butts? (with photos of course)

[DWard51]

Well, the other day I was ambling through the local Kroger on a mission to pick up some bread, milk and eggs.  Lo and behold, they had some nice large pork buts in single cryo-vac packaging on sale for $0.99 a pound.  Being the BBQ geek that I am, there was no way I was walking out of there without buying any of those.  The freezer is full right now so I went with just two as I should be able to deal with them this weekend.  Snagged a 9.75 pounder and an 10.5 pounder.

The 10.5 pounder is going into the WSM for pulled pork.  Since it's just me and the wife after the last daughter moved out, I may vacuum pack what we don't eat this weekend as it reheats just great.

EDIT - plan change, invited the inlaws and oldest daughter for dinner tomorrow.  Somehow when you tell people you have fresh BBQ they seem to come-a-running.

Prepped the WSM with hickory and Jack Daniels oak barrel stave pieces mixed into the charcoal. No photos of the butt prep, but here it is just going on the smoker.  Running the WSM with a full load of charcoal, lit by about a 1/2 chimney spread over the top, empty water pan (2005 style) with a foiled 14.5" clay pot base in the water pan for thermal mass.  And running a BBQ Guru DigiQ-2 at 225* for pit control.

Going to de-bone the other butt and grind it for breakfast sausage (I'm out) and either some more summer sausage or whatever hit's my fancy until I run out of meat.

More to come....

[spuds]

Going to de-bone the other butt and grind it for breakfast sausage (I'm out) and either some more summer sausage or whatever hit's my fancy until I run out of meat.

My first thought too,hard to beat the price and you know whats in it.

[DWard51]

Well, it's a pork butt smoke.  Once it's in the smoker, ya' don't open the smoker.  So it's hard to post photos of the butt smoke.  However I did trim the 2nd butt into 1" x 1" strips so I can grind it tomorrow.  Here is a photo of the parts I kept.  That is a 6 quart container.  My current scales only go to 4 pounds, so I did not try to weigh it.  I should have a new set of 55 pounds scales next week.

[Sandman]

I was thinking cut the thing in half and cure the fat cap. Make BB bacon!

[akruckus]

Nice pick up, watching both processes.

[DWard51]

Yep, as I was cutting the 2nd butt up, that thought about bacon did cross my mind.  The marbling pattern was perfect for bacon.  But I want breakfast sausage for sure.

As to the smoke, well again.... It's a WSM and once you button it up with the meat, ya' just don't open it again until it's done or you run out of fuel.  Not there on either point yet, so no new photos yet.  Started the meat on the pit around 9:15pm last night.  It's 1:04pm the next day now and I'm still chugging along at 225* with the BBQ Guru barely puffing, so I assume I'm still good of fuel.  Meat internal temp is at 183* so I'm probably well into the stall by now.  Target is to serve it around 5:30pm or 6'ish.  I'd say we are well on schedule.

I'll post the grind photos later as I have not ground the other butt I cut up last night.  I've got one sleeved tube of hog casings left so I'm thinking it's time to use that for something.  Plan A is still to make breakfast sausage as I have the seasoning mixed in bulk in storage and I'm out of breakfast sausage in the freezer (which is the main reason).

[DWard51]

Ok, at 3PM I cranked the BBQ Guru up to 275* and headed to Kroger for the casserole ingredients I needed.  At 4:30pm, it's still at 186* internal so into the foil and oven it goes as we are eating in 1 to 1 1/2 hours.  Dang stall.......

And yes the temps in the Guru are accurate against my Thermapen and the dome Tel-Tru thermometer.  It's just a stall thing which happens.

I did take a picture of the butt as I pulled it. This is after 19 1/2 hours in the WSM (and I still have a little charcoal left, but not much).  You can see it's not quite pulling away from the bone.  It's cooked, but not to the pulled pork point where the fat and collagen has broken down.  Into the oven she goes.

Oh, and I checked to see if they had any more of the $0.99 butts at the Kroger. Nope, they were back up to $1.99 a pound.  Ain't gonna happen at that price.

[DWard51]

As promised, here is the "to die for casserole" recipe as baked.  I deivieated from the "8" in my original recipe to make it more grocery store friendly based on how the food is sold.

Final recipe:

• 1 bag of frozen hash brown (came in 30 ounce bags)
• 16 ounces of cream cheese - softened
• 8 ounces of sour cream
• 1/2 of a medium onion, diced
• 1 can of cream of celery soup, my can was 10.5 ounces of concentrate
• 8 ounces of casserole cheese, 1 bag of sharp cheddar, Monetary Jack, American, blend
• Salt to taste
• Pepper to taste

 For the crumble topping:

• 2 sticks of unsalted butter (I would reduce this to 1 1/2 sticks next time)
• crumbled cornbread, made a box mix in a 12 muffin tin and used 4 of the muffins crumbled

   
   
Waiting on the butt to finish in the oven before baking this at 350* for 20 minutes uncovered.  Butt is at 190* right now so I'm almost there.

[DWard51]

Here is the finished butt.  Yes, I do use a finishing sauce/juice when I pull it.





Here is the casserole.





Comments on the casserole.

The wife said the onions were not "done enough" for her taste, but then again she likes her onions totally cooked down.  But she does not like potato salad with onions in it either.  I liked them and her dad liked them.  Daughter and her fiance were neutral but they also do not like potato salad because of the onions. Wife also said the cream cheese was a little much.  I'm neutral on that point.   Might try it with 1 1/2 packages of cream cheese next time.  The casserole was rich and creamy as the original TV show described.

One issue which was probably of my own making was it took longer than 20 minutes at 350* as in the TV version.  Of course the hash browns were frozen when I mixed them.  After 20 minutes, the Thermapen said the middle of the casserole was only around 110*, which I felt was not done.  So I cranked the heat up to 400* and let it run a little while longer.  Middle was around 160* when I pulled it. I would recommend thawing the hash browns and perhaps letting them and all the other ingredients come up to room temp before hand.

I liked it and will be making it again, crunchy onions and all....

[muebe]

That casserole sure looked good to me!

And great bark on that butt!

[akruckus]

Everything looks spot on to me, nice cook!

[drholly]

It all looks good. I understand the differing tastes - we all live with that. But I am with you on reducing the cream cheese and liking the "crunchy onions." Great price and great results. I appreciated the running commentary - please keep posting! Thank you.