Pork Boston Butt – Low and Slow
Pork Butt, also known as Boston Butt, is a cut from the upper shoulder of the pig. It's well-marbled with fat and connective tissue, making it ideal for slow-cooked dishes like pulled pork. When cooked low and slow, either in a smoker, oven, or slow cooker, the meat becomes tender and easily shreds apart. Follow this recipe for rich, savory pulled pork, perfect for sandwiches, tacos, or served as a main dish with barbecue sauce.A 5-10 pounder should take 10 to 12 hours with this smoked pulled pork recipe.
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Equipment
- 1 Smoker
Ingredients
- 1 pork butt or shoulder about 5 pounds(2.2 kilograms)
- ⅓ cup BDC Rub
- 2 ½ teaspoons Morton Coarse Kosher Salt 1/2 teaspoon per pound of meat
- 1 cup of your favorite barbecue sauce I like Sweet baby Rays Honey BBQ Sauce
Instructions
Fire up the Smoker
- Prepare a smoker for cooking at about 225°F or set up a grill for 2-zone or indirect smoke cooking. Adjust the vents to bring the temperature to approximately 225°F and add about 4 ounces of dry wood chips, pellets, or chunks to the fire. I like applewood.
Prep the Meat
- Trim most of the fat from the meat's exterior but not all of it. Leave no more than 1/4-inch. Some folks like to leave it all on, hoping it will melt and baste the meat, but it cannot penetrate the meat! The goal is to season the meat, not on the fat, allowing the meat to get a crunchy, flavorful, seasoned bark.
- Just before cooking, lightly wet the surface with water and sprinkle on the BDC Rub (see Notes below). The water helps the rub dissolve and adhere, and water dissolves the rub better than oil.
- Once the smoker or grill has come to temperature, insert the probe from a digital leave-in thermometer into the pork butt, positioning the tip right in the center. Ensure it is not within 1/2"(13mm) of the bone, which will allow you to monitor the internal temperature of the pork butt without opening the smoker or grill.
Smoke It
- Put the meat on the smoker (or on the indirect heat side of a grill), right on the grate, and not in a pan so that a flavorful bark can begin to form on the entire exterior. Allow the pork butt to smoke uninterrupted, but be sure to check your cooker every hour or so to make sure it is maintaining temperature of 225°F to 250°F. Don't worry if the temperature temporarily goes up to 300°F since pork butts are very forgiving, but try to keep it under 250°F. Add additional doses of wood sparingly during the first two hours, about 4 ounces every 30 minutes. The key is to add a pleasant smoky flavor to the meat without overpowering it. After an hour or two, the meat will not likely absorb much more wood flavor.
The Stall
- If you cook at 225°F to 250°F, it will probably stall when the meat hits about 150°F internal temp. The internal temperature may not go up for hours. That's because the moisture evaporating from the surface cools the meat at the same rate as the hot air is warming it, and the internal temperature stalls. You can ride it out or bust through the stall using the "Texas Crutch" by cranking the heat to about 300°F or wrapping the meat tightly in foil. But the beauty of the stall is that it forms the bark, the dry, flavorful, jerky-like crust
Continue cooking
- When the pork butt hits an internal temperature of about 170°F, collagens, which are part of the connective tissues, begin to melt and turn to gelatin. The meat gets much more tender and juicy when this happens. Allow the pork butt to continue cooking past 170°F.
Finishing
- When the internal temperature hits 203°F (a total of approximately 8 to 12 hours total cooking time), it's time to check if the pork butt is ready. The exterior should be dark brown. Some rubs and cookers will make the meat look black, like a meteorite, but it is not burnt and doesn't taste burnt. There may be glistening bits of melted fat. On a gas cooker, the meat may look shiny pink. Use a glove or paper towel to protect your fingers and wiggle the bone if there is a bone. If the bone turns easily and comes out of the meat, the collagens have melted, and you are ready. If there is no bone, use the "stick a fork in it method." Insert a fork and try to rotate it 90 degrees. If it turns with very little pressure, you're ready. If it finishes early, wrap it in butcher paper (or foil) and put it in a cooler, a cambro, or in your indoor oven at about 150°F.
- If the pork butt is not ready, close the lid and allow it to continue cooking. After, say, an hour, it is still not soft, you've just got a tough butt. Wrap tough butts in aluminum foil and let them go for another hour at 225°F. If you can't control the temp on your cooker, wrap the meat in heavy-duty foil and move it indoors into a 225°F oven. Do not add sauce while it is on the cooker. That comes after you pull it.
Taste It
- When it is finally ready, sneak a small taste. You should notice a thick, flavorful crust, and right below it is the telltale “smoke ring,” the bright pink color caused by smoke mixing with combustion gases and moisture.
Holding the Meat (optional)
- If you are more than an hour from mealtime, leave the meat on the cooker with the heat off or put it in the indoor oven and hold it there by dialing the temp down to about 170°F. If you are more than 2 hours from mealtime, wrap it in foil to keep it from drying out and hold it at 170°F. If you are taking the meat to a party, use a tight plastic beer cooler that can hold the meat. Leave the probe in the meat, wrap the hunk tightly in foil, wrap the foil with more towels, and put the whole thing in the cooler. Fill the cooler with more towels, blankets, or newspaper to keep the meat insulated. Hang the thermometer cord over the cooler lid and close it tightly. Plug the cord into the readout and ensure the meat's internal temperature never drops below 145°F. Serve it before it does. Just know that this wrapping technique will soften the bark and change the texture of the meat very slightly.
Pull It
- About 30 minutes before dinner, put the meat into a large pan to catch drippings. If your butt came bone-in, the blade should slide right out and have virtually no meat attached if it was cooked properly.
- Pull the pork butt apart with Claws, gloved hands, or forks. Discard big chunks of fat. If you wish, you can slice or chop it like in North Carolina, but you lose less moisture by pulling it apart by hand since the meat separates into bundles of muscle fibers. Hence, the name pulled pork. Try not to eat all the flavorful crusty bits when you are pulling. Distribute them evenly throughout the meat instead. Make sure you save any flavorful drippings and pour them over the meat.
Nutrition
Calories: 183kcalCarbohydrates: 5gProtein: 23gFat: 7gSaturated Fat: 2gPolyunsaturated Fat: 1gMonounsaturated Fat: 3gTrans Fat: 0.05gCholesterol: 73mgSodium: 414mgPotassium: 483mgFiber: 1gSugar: 3gVitamin A: 801IUVitamin C: 0.1mgVitamin D: 1µgVitamin E: 1mgCalcium: 29mgIron: 2mgZinc: 4mg
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