How to smoke a butt...
 

I thought that I would take some pictures over the last few days to show how I make my pulled pork bbq. The process started on Thursday. I went to a local store and bought a butt that was almost 8 1/2 pounds.

http://i48.tinypic.com/20rojs5.jpg

The first step I make differs from many other people. I trim some of the fat off the butt. I think one that hasn't been trimmed can be a little greasy. Some people say to not touch the fat since it adds flavor, but it hasn't been an issue for me. I've trimmed the fat off of almost every single one that I've cooked. I've never had it be dry or have a lack of flavor.

The next step to take is cover the butt liberally with a rub/seasoning of your choice. This makes the bark (aka crust) of the meat and adds some serious flavor. The rub that I use is a homemade concoction which has a little bit of everything in it.

http://i48.tinypic.com/105aa9y.jpg

After I rubbed the butt I wrapped it tightly in plastic wrap. This helps lock in all the seasonings. I placed the butt (fat side up) in the fridge until last night. You want to use a pan to put the meat on, because no matter how good you think you've wrapped it, it is going to leak into the pan. It's much easier to rinse that out than to clean your refrigerator.

http://i46.tinypic.com/2h7gkcl.jpg

I started a fire in my BGE about 6:00 last night. At that time I pulled the butt out of the fridge and began to unwrap it. Once I had gotten the BGE to the proper temp (225*-250* on the dome thermometer) and placed some apple chunks on the fire I placed the meat fat side up on the grid. You want to make sure it is fat side up when cooking so the fat that is on there can drip through and season the meat. You can see in the picture below that the dry rub has turned almost into a glaze from being in the plastic wrap. Just after the below picture was taken I dumped a little more rub on for good measure.

http://i48.tinypic.com/30wscv6.jpg

Here it is around 12 hours in. You can see that it has formed a nice bark and has shrunk just a bit. At this point (usually happens a bit earlier, but I had a hard time waking up this morning) I sprayed it with a vinegar/salt solution. This helps to keep it moist. It was sprayed a couple of more times later on.

http://i50.tinypic.com/2ed5ogo.jpg

Here it is after 18 hours and the meat has reached 195*-200*

http://i49.tinypic.com/x25ohe.jpg

Other cuts of pork are done around 160*degrees, but it's important to get the butt up to the 195*-200* range to help break the fat and connective tissue down. After I took the picture above I immediately wrapped the butt tightly in aluminum foil and placed it into an empty cooler and covered it with towels. This maintains the temperature in the meat, but doesn't overcook it. Maintaining the temperature is helping break down the meat even more.

After about two hours in the cooler/towel setup the pork is ready to remove and begin the pulling process. Most of the time I just use two forks, but you can use whatever you want.

http://i50.tinypic.com/2lj2d21.jpg

Here you can see how easy and completely it comes apart.

http://i50.tinypic.com/29c9csx.jpg

Here's the finished product.

http://i49.tinypic.com/ic8f7k.jpg

Lunch!!! (with my homemade mustard based bbq sauce)

http://i50.tinypic.com/t80qv5.jpg


I'm not an expert by any means, but I've cooked a good bit. If anyone has any questions about making this on their own I'm happy to help.

looks great, thanks for posting the pics. How do you maintain the temp over such a long period of time? ......every few hours? in the middle of the night? :cry:

Thanks!

With the BGE once you get it dialed in you're pretty much good to go. I wake up a couple of times just to check on it, but I hardly ever have to make any adjustments.

Good ole souther pulled pork.

Looks like it is worth the effort. Nice. When are you going to do it again? Where do you live?