We're having a little birthday party at my house for my daughter this weekend and I'm cooking a boston butt. I'm getting a little excited about it since there's not much else to do but dodge the heat lately. The plan is an overnight brine on Thursday to a dry rub on Friday and on the grill early Saturday morning. Charcoal on the Weber 22" with oak smoke. I do a "ring of fire" approach where I place the butt in the middle and the charcoal along the outside in a ring... pretty self explanatory. It allows for indirect heat and I don't have to keep adding charcoal. Almost set it and forget it. The last one was a little hot so I'll have to keep an eye on it. I have the dry rub figured out but I'm not sure whether to go with a sugary or salty brine. I'm interested to hear some brine ingredients you guys have tried. If it's a success I'll post pics, if not, we'll never speak of this again.
You did Clemmie, you just let me post it first. Thank you. And it sounds like a fine meal you're preparing.
If you're doing the low and slow I don't think you necessarily have to brine it. Having said that I have brined all kinds of meats in kosher salt sometimes with br. sugar or even in coka cola or Dr. pepper. Grill on.
Happy Birthday to yours Clem! Cook it up! Sorry I don't have any recipes for you to try. I'm not much of a cook.
sounds awesome. I always end up cubing pork shoulders and making carnitas. I've been wanting to try what you're talking about for a while but haven't taken a stab at it yet. Let us know how it goes and post some pics.
Smoke at 225F until internal temp of butt is 200F. No need to brine. If you do brine, don't worry about flavoring. This should be flavored by the rub and the smoke. The brine should just be 1 cup salt per gallon of water, with some sugar added (also around 1 cup per gallon). Get yourself some apple wood chunks, wrap them in aluminum foil, then poke holes around the foil. Place this on the hot coals to allow for some rolling smoke without flame ups. The butts I usually cook are around 8-10 lbs, and they end up smoking for about 12hours. My dry rub is mostly brown or maple sugar, with salt, pepper chili powder, onion powder, garlic powder, sage, paprika, and a touch or cumin. I sometimes like to use yellow mustard to bind it all to the pork and help create a nice crust. I take my BBQ seriously.
I usually just soak myself in the guiness overnight. I've tried all kinds of different methods and have yet to screw one up. Just got to give it plenty of time. I smoked one (Butt)a couple months back and it started to pour rain after a 1 1/2 hours so I brought it in and finished it in a slow cooker and it was pretty good. I soak the wood chips in water for 30 minutes or more before adding to fire and wrap some in tin foil and add as needed. I place a tin pan under the butt with water or apple juice in it to keep it moist and to catch the drippings from the roast which makes it easier to clean grill later on. Have a great weekend. peace
Thank you Mr. Q. I enjoy your rum. The butt is glazed with Paprika, lemon pepper, black pepper, salt, basil, brown sugar, honey, sage and a shot of Apple cider vinegar. My son was pumped to play with matches early this morning. Here's my ring of fire. Enjoy the view before I close her up.
Best one yet. The brown sugar glaze made all the difference. Ring of fire is where it's at. Just got done with a BBQ,pimiento, tomato sammich.
