My butt for a friend

SmokinSusie-Q

New member
A dear friend named Tom has been hospitalized on and off for months.  He was to come home from Duke last Friday, and I decided to smoke a pork butt for him and his family.  I was prepared to smoke it Friday when I found out he had serious complications and would not be coming home.  I just waited to hear from his wife who called Sunday to inform me that he would be discharged on Monday.  The point of this is that I had less time to prepare so instead of 2 nights in the frig, I had only one.  I decided to inject the 7.9 lb butt with Allegro hot and spicy marinade and thickly coat the entire butt with my basic rub.  Thinking I might not have enough time to smoke such a large butt before Tom reached home, I decided to cut it in 1/2.  I ended up with one 4.5 lb half and one 3.4 1/8 half.  I set the temp. at 235 and put the probe (temp. 175) in the largest 1/2  butt (with bone).  I used 3.7/8  oz. of wood (cherry and hickory).  It took 8 hrs. and 20 min.  It was the best butt I've done so far.  Perfect temperature for a roast; very juicy; and just enough smoke.  This will be my recipe going forward.
 

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The butts look great, but you got lucky!  Small (less than 5 lbs) cuts, or pork butt or brisket, are very unpredictable, and can take as much as 3 hours/lb!  I always recommend keeping it big, as the larger cuts cook much more stable.  But hey, as long as it worked out!! :D
 
DivotMaker said:
The butts look great, but you got lucky!  Small (less than 5 lbs) cuts, or pork butt or brisket, are very unpredictable, and can take as much as 3 hours/lb!  I always recommend keeping it big, as the larger cuts cook much more stable.  But hey, as long as it worked out!! :D

Now I recall a previous post that discussed how unpredictable smaller cuts are.  Glad I didn't think about that at the time.

 
Sue, time permitting, I always try to brine and inject.  But if I had to choose one over the other, I would choose injecting.  Some of my moistest butts have been injection only. Short notice request tonight for a pulled pork tomorrow so I'll be injecting and putting on the smoker tonight.

 
Great cause Sue and great looking butts.  Short notice occasionally leads to really pleasant yet unexpected results.
 
SuperDave said:
Sue, time permitting, I always try to brine and inject.  But if I had to choose one over the other, I would choose injecting.  Some of my moistest butts have been injection only. Short notice request tonight for a pulled pork tomorrow so I'll be injecting and putting on the smoker tonight.

It was just a guess on my part but it worked. 
 
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