I’ve only been smoking foods since early March when my RT590 arrived. I’ve read a couple of BBQ cookbooks and watched a lot of videos to get a background on how to proceed. I followed recipes for the first 1 ½ months. If I have two or more of something such as ribs, or pork, I experiment using different applications on each. I’ve been a Certified Personal Chef since 2013 and have the culinary education behind me. I think it’s my background that make me so curious about the science of food.
After hearing so much about the different muscles in a pork butt, I decided to take it on and learn these muscles. In Culinary School, we learn about the different primal cuts of meat and their applications but never did any butchering, which I find fascinating.
I thought I would share my Pork Butt cook yesterday. Hope it’s not too long and boring.
I have done pork butts before but for this one I wanted to try and isolate the three different muscle groups that are generally displayed in competition boxes. Primarily so that I could taste each area separately.
I know many of you will cringe when I tell you I removed the fat cap and almost all visible fat, silver skin and the slimy connective tissue. There is so much fat running throughout the interior that I wanted to get as much flavor from the meat as possible.
I separate the money muscle from the body of the butt but left it attached. That was pretty easy to find. On the opposite side, I separate the horn where the chunks come from (the tubular muscles), but left attached. I left the center for the pulled pork. I don’t know about you all, but I love trimming red meat.
I injected it with Lambert’s Sweet Brine O’Mine which I made way too much of in error. Rookie move. Never used an injector before. I froze the extra brine in two 8-ounce baggies for a future use. It was messy at first, but once I figured out which needle to use and got the hang of it, it was really interesting to see how the meat absorbs the injection. You can see it actually plump up.
Rubbed it with RT Screaming Pig rub and let it sit a couple of hours.
Cooked it slow at 225 for 6 hours (156F) spritzing a couple of times once the bark was a nice mahogany color. Brushed it with a BBQ sauce I made (vinegar based). Put 4 pats of butter on it and wrapped it tight in foil. After two more hours the temp of the RT590 started to rise from the heat outside, so I took it up to 275 so that I could control it. It only took two hours to get through the stall and another ½ hour to get to 203F. I pulled it off the grill, and into the cooler for 40 minutes.
Results: The money muscle separates quite easily after being cooked. And WOW! What an amazing piece of meat. There are only about 6 slices cut from it, but it literally can be cut with a fork. The chunks came off really easily, full of bark and were moist and tasty. The pulled pork was very good, and I added more sauce to that before serving. However, there was a small part (smaller than a baseball) from the center that could have used more time. I tossed that. It was a really tough piece of meat. I could pull it but didn't need it.
My conclusion regarding moistness is that it was every bit as moist as past cooks when I left the fat on. But the meat had much more flavor. I don’t see the need for all the fat to remain on. My personal observation. Maybe if you cook it at 275F the whole time, the fat would protect the meat. But I like low and slow.
Next time…same process but I will see about letting it go unwrapped at 225 through the stall and possibly raise the temp towards the end (I’ll play that one by ear). I think I will need to remove the money muscle earlier.
One thing I started doing is when I have to remove meat to even out ribs or in this case, expose other areas of the pork, I put those scraps on the grill and cook them up. They are a fun little snack during the cook and I don’t feel like I am wasting anything.
The photo of the plate with the three different areas of the butt cooked is a bit sloppy, sorry. The money muscle is at 9:00, the chunks are at 1:00 and the pulled pork is at 5:00. I was hungry but wanted a photo! And you can see the different cuts. Apologize in advance for the lengthy post.
After hearing so much about the different muscles in a pork butt, I decided to take it on and learn these muscles. In Culinary School, we learn about the different primal cuts of meat and their applications but never did any butchering, which I find fascinating.
I thought I would share my Pork Butt cook yesterday. Hope it’s not too long and boring.
I have done pork butts before but for this one I wanted to try and isolate the three different muscle groups that are generally displayed in competition boxes. Primarily so that I could taste each area separately.
I know many of you will cringe when I tell you I removed the fat cap and almost all visible fat, silver skin and the slimy connective tissue. There is so much fat running throughout the interior that I wanted to get as much flavor from the meat as possible.
I separate the money muscle from the body of the butt but left it attached. That was pretty easy to find. On the opposite side, I separate the horn where the chunks come from (the tubular muscles), but left attached. I left the center for the pulled pork. I don’t know about you all, but I love trimming red meat.
I injected it with Lambert’s Sweet Brine O’Mine which I made way too much of in error. Rookie move. Never used an injector before. I froze the extra brine in two 8-ounce baggies for a future use. It was messy at first, but once I figured out which needle to use and got the hang of it, it was really interesting to see how the meat absorbs the injection. You can see it actually plump up.
Rubbed it with RT Screaming Pig rub and let it sit a couple of hours.
Cooked it slow at 225 for 6 hours (156F) spritzing a couple of times once the bark was a nice mahogany color. Brushed it with a BBQ sauce I made (vinegar based). Put 4 pats of butter on it and wrapped it tight in foil. After two more hours the temp of the RT590 started to rise from the heat outside, so I took it up to 275 so that I could control it. It only took two hours to get through the stall and another ½ hour to get to 203F. I pulled it off the grill, and into the cooler for 40 minutes.
Results: The money muscle separates quite easily after being cooked. And WOW! What an amazing piece of meat. There are only about 6 slices cut from it, but it literally can be cut with a fork. The chunks came off really easily, full of bark and were moist and tasty. The pulled pork was very good, and I added more sauce to that before serving. However, there was a small part (smaller than a baseball) from the center that could have used more time. I tossed that. It was a really tough piece of meat. I could pull it but didn't need it.
My conclusion regarding moistness is that it was every bit as moist as past cooks when I left the fat on. But the meat had much more flavor. I don’t see the need for all the fat to remain on. My personal observation. Maybe if you cook it at 275F the whole time, the fat would protect the meat. But I like low and slow.
Next time…same process but I will see about letting it go unwrapped at 225 through the stall and possibly raise the temp towards the end (I’ll play that one by ear). I think I will need to remove the money muscle earlier.
One thing I started doing is when I have to remove meat to even out ribs or in this case, expose other areas of the pork, I put those scraps on the grill and cook them up. They are a fun little snack during the cook and I don’t feel like I am wasting anything.
The photo of the plate with the three different areas of the butt cooked is a bit sloppy, sorry. The money muscle is at 9:00, the chunks are at 1:00 and the pulled pork is at 5:00. I was hungry but wanted a photo! And you can see the different cuts. Apologize in advance for the lengthy post.
