Smoking: Pork Butt/Shoulder What do you do in your spare time, for fun, to relax, to join with others? Share some of your favorite hobbies and pastimes - maybe pick up some new ones and ask questions about them here.

[Neo]

Yesterday, I practiced smoking a 3lb pork shoulder in preparation for Christmas this year. I luckily found someone on Reddit who was also smoking a pork shoulder and asked for tips. I used a combination of these recipes/suggestions.

The Guide: Reddit Tips

Alright… you can cook it about 225F, 250F, or 275F. I normally go about 225 because I have a Smokey Mountain and it’s made to cook around that temp. Season with a pork rub or just use half kosher salt and pepper, some garlic powder, onion powder, and plenty of paprika. Rub all over, using mustard or olive oil as binder (I normally use oil). Cook fat side up until 170F (make sure you see a split in the fat) and then wrap and cook until about 203F. Let rest for an hour or so, pull apart and enjoy. Big sucker might take 10-11 hours. Get ready to eat good.

Mustard as a binder. Liberally season. Low and slow, 225-235 till it hits 205. Expect a stall at 165-180. Don’t give up and don’t raise the heat. Allow 12-14 hours. Wrap in foil. Or cooler. Pull, before serving and after resting. I like to inject with little apple cider vinegar, water and jalapeño juice from canned or bottled jalapeños. Use a temp probe, so you are not stabbing it every couple of hours. A drip pan is a good idea. Good luck! Enjoy.

Here’s the last set of pork butt instructions you’ll ever need. Trim your butt sparingly removing the thick hard fat. Leave a layer of 1/4-1/3” where there is fat (trust me, it will render). It’s easiest to trim straight out of the fridge.

Next slather a little bit of mustard coating every surface. Dry rub your butt liberally coating every surface with a brown sugar/paprika based rub (look up a recipe and pick your favorite). Sit your butt on a wire rack with a drip tray in the fridge uncovered for 24hrs or in your case as long as you can.

Next preheat your grill as close as you can get to 225° (my pellet grill has to be set to 220°). Once preheated, set your butt in the middle of the grill fat side up. Let it ride until it’s 202°-205° and probe tender (temp probe slides in and out like butter). No spritz, no looking, no nothing until you’re checking for probe tenderness. When I smoke a 7-8lb butt this way it usually takes 12-13 hours on the smoker. Rest for an hour or so on the counter at room temp before pulling.

This method is by far one of the easiest and will yield you the best pork butt bark you’ve ever had. I’ve easily cooked 30+ pork butts in the last two years and tried many different ways but this is the winner. Hope this helps, have fun and smoke on!

My Meat

• 3-ish lb Pork Shoulder (from the freezer)

My Steps: Rub

• 1/2 c Brown Sugar
• 1/4 c Pepper
• 1/4 c Kosher Salt
• 1 T Garlic Powder
• 1 T Onion Powder
• 1 T Paprika

My Rub Changes for Next Time

• Less Salt, More Sugar (or try a different recipe). This one was a bit salty, and didn't call for the Brown Sugar, which I added.

My Steps: Preparation

• No trimming necessary for this piece of meat.
• Coat the meat in yellow mustard, then liberally in the pork rub.
• Straight into the smoker (no resting, there was no time).

My Preparation Changes for Next Time

• Allow time for the rub to set in and absorb the salt. At least an hour, preferably longer, up to 24.

My Steps: Smoking

The smoke went from 9:20am to 8:00pm, around 10.5 hours for a 3-pound piece. This is mainly because I waited to wrap until it was too late. I could have wrapped after 4.5 hours and been done quicker.

• Preheat the smoker to 225 F.
• Place fat-side up, directly on the rack, middle of the smoker. (There really wasn't a fat-side on this piece.)
• Half-vent open.
• Smoker pellets check every 30 minutes.
• Remove at 178 F and wrap in foil.
• Increase heat to 275 F and finish.
• Eat immediately (because there was no time to rest)

My Smoking Changes for Next Time

• Follow the first Reddit tip, instead of the 3rd, and treat it like a brisket: Pull at 160 and wrap. Bump temp to 275 to finish.
• Let the meat rest appropriately.
• Keep vent at half-open the whole time, instead of changing back and forth. It didn't make a difference.

The Results

• The bark was nice and firm, maybe a little too firm as it was a bit difficult to cut through at places and came off in large chunks.
• The meat was juicy/tender in some parts, but dry/tough in other parts. None of it fell apart like pulled pork. This is probably because of a general lack of fat on the piece, failure to wrap early, and the length of the cook.
• Overall, the flavor was decent, but a bit salty from the poor rub recipe calling for equal parts salt/pepper. Need to find another recipe or treat it like a brisket and do a 1:4 ratio salt to pepper.

[Neo]

For Christmas, I smoked another pork shoulder, and it turned out perfectly, though also finished ahead of schedule.

My Meat

• 7 lb Pork Shoulder (thawed from Monday night for a Friday rub, and Saturday smoke).

My Rub

• I ended up using the same recipe as before, because I had enough left over, unchanged.

My Rub Changes for Next Time

• Now that I'm out of rub, I need to find a less salty recipe.

My Steps: Preparation

• No trimming necessary (or at least I didn't plan to trim anything and didn't learn about what should be trimmed).
• Coat the meat in less yellow mustard than last time.
• Liberally coat all sides of the meat in the dry rub.
• Let rest for 24 hours, uncovered on a drying rack over a drip pan. (placed the fridge baking soda box next to it to reduce the smell).

My Steps: Smoking

The smoke + final rest took 13 hours exactly; the cooking portion took about 11 hours. I started it into the smoker by 11, and it was ready to be pulled by midnight. I also used pellets instead of wood chips like normal: a BBQ Select Oak Blend. It was much better smelling during the day (like a fireplace).

Special thanks to @Hambone and @[wizard] for helping with advice on what to do about an early finish and how to reheat it.

• Preheat the smoker to 225 F.
• Place fat-side up, directly onto the rack, middle of the smoker.
• Vent closed.
• Smoker pellets every 30 minutes.
• Removed at 160 F internal (biggest section) and wrapped in butcher paper (to avoid interference with the probe signal).
• Increased heat to 275 F until 203 internal (biggest section).
• Rest to 160 F internal, on rack on cookie sheet at room temperature (because it finished early and would need to be pulled and reheated).
• Pulled the bone out, and used it to mash apart much of the meat.
• Split into 2 ziploc bags and put into the fridge.
• Reheated one bag in the crock-pot, by adding a bit of apple juice to maintain moisture.

My Smoking Changes for Next Time

• If it's raining, put a cookie sheet over the top of the smoker, because the umbrella is not entirely waterproof.
• Use a scoop for the wood, not the pellet drawer (it bent).

The Results

• The bark was nice and firm in most places, and the meat was completely juicy/tender everywhere. No complaints at all.
• The bark itself could be salty, but when mixed in with the rest of the meat it evened out.

I had to use my new cantilever I got myself for Christmas to cover the smoker, since it decided to rain all the way until it was time to eat.

Pulled out to wrap at 160 F. It's got a nice bark in spots, and some juices flowing, so it's not going to be dried out.

After unwrapping from its final rest, all the juices flowed out. I was surprised to see a crosshatch of grill marks.

I pulled the bone and used it to separate all the meat into the juices on the pan. I snuck a few nibbles, and it was really good.