Brined Pork Butt for Pulled Pork

[Barrel99]

I had that suspicion Tony. Not much meat there. Thanks.

[Halfcocked]

DivotMaker,

Thanks for starting this post. I recently got a Model 3 and I just finished my 5th shoulder using this method. I have substituted Morton's Tender Quick for the salt and instacure, and I have been leaving them refrigerated in the brine for different times to experiment with the sodium nitrate... All have been outstanding, with the pink moving further and further inward with as the brine time increases. My family prefers about an inch of pink, which is about 3 days in the brine.

[DivotMaker]

Halfcocked,

Be sure to post some pics!  Thanks for the kind words!

p.s. - a first name and town, in your signature line, is a nice touch!

[Halfcocked]

Will do... Just have to remember before everything gets eaten...

P.S. Fixed that. Thanks for the tip!

[Suzie-Q]

OK DivotMaker, I have some of your brine cooling and a couple of pork shoulder picnic roasts (total weight about 9 pounds) that I'll be smoking in my Smokin It #1 Saturday.  Should I just brine overnight or longer?  Lots of outside fat too, do I leave it all on or cut some off?  I'm planning on trying fat side down and a tray of apple juice next to the smoke box.  Hope hubby can put up with my experiments. 

[DivotMaker]

OK DivotMaker, I have some of your brine cooling and a couple of pork shoulder picnic roasts (total weight about 9 pounds) that I'll be smoking in my Smokin It #1 Saturday.  Should I just brine overnight or longer?  Lots of outside fat too, do I leave it all on or cut some off?  I'm planning on trying fat side down and a tray of apple juice next to the smoke box.  Hope hubby can put up with my experiments. 

Suzie, overnight should be fine on those, considering the external fat.  The picnic cuts are sometimes really fatty, and still have skin on sometimes.  If you're making pulled pork, next time look for bone-in Boston butts.  This is the cut of the front shoulder, above the picnic cut.  It tends to have less connective tissue inside, and yields better pulled pork (it's pretty much the "gold standard" for pulled pork).  The meat of the picnic is good, but it's way more inconsistent than the Boston butt.

The rest of your smoke plan sounds good!

[Rossybandit7050]

Saw a thread somewhere talking about bone in Boston Pork Butte being the best for pulled pork. Any ideas on that.
Also , going to have a Hawaiian theme grad party for daughter doing pulled pork for approx 50 people. Should I figure say 1 pound per person or 1/2 pound.
Thanks for your help.

[Bear]

Tony,

That looks delicious.  I'm heading to your house for dinner.  Lol.   Going give it a try myself.  Thank you for sharing.

Bear

[DivotMaker]

Saw a thread somewhere talking about bone in Boston Pork Butte being the best for pulled pork. Any ideas on that.
Also , going to have a Hawaiian theme grad party for daughter doing pulled pork for approx 50 people. Should I figure say 1 pound per person or 1/2 pound.
Thanks for your help.

Rick - that's what this is thread is all about.  The bone-in Boston butt pork shoulder, imo, makes the absolute best pulled pork!

[Halfcocked]

Pics as promised...

Just did 2 shoulders with different rubs, one with Dave's Rib Rub, the other with Lambert's Sweet Rub O'mine. Brined for 3 days, smoked approximately 15 hours to 195F. Both shoulders together made about 36 sandwiches. (Hope that helps with Rick's questions). Pre-cooked weight for both shoulders was about 17lbs.

Turned out great, by the way!

[DivotMaker]

Wow, Jamey, the pics are great!  You didn't find it too salty after 3 days in the pool?  That's a long time for a butt brine!

[NDKoze]

As long as his rub was not too salty, I'm guessing it was OK. That is a fairly long time in the brine though. I don't think I have ever gone longer than 24 hours.

[DivotMaker]

I agree, Gregg.  I thought he used my butt brine, but forgot that he substituted Tender Quick for the salt/curing salt.  Not sure how salty that turned out, compared to kosher salt.

[Halfcocked]

You guys are correct. I would not have left this in a brine made of 1 cup of kosher salt for 3 days. 1 Cup of Tender Quick per 1 gallon of water per 5lbs of meat is almost never too salty for large cuts, no matter how long you leave it in (I leave whole venison hind quarters in a similar brine for 2 weeks!). This seems to be a good ratio. 1 Cup of Tender Quick is probably only about 1/2 cup of salt, with the rest being sugar and a small amount of sodium nitrate.

Here's the exact brine I am using:
1 Gallon of water
1 Cup Morton's Tender Quick
2 Cups brown sugar (packed)
1/2 Cup cider vinegar
3 Tbsp onion powder
1 Tbsp garlic powder
1 Tbsp coarse ground black pepper

The majority of meat curing I have done in the past is cold-smoking or low heat smoking (less than 160F internal temp), and corning. Hitting internal temps of 195F is very new to me. I brine almost everything. I use a lot of salt and I have found kosher salt to be way too salty, even when I drop the ratios down. For whatever reason, sea salt seems to be less salty than kosher salt when using the same amount. Not sure why. Tender Quick makes it even easier, as long as the recipe calls for sodium nitrate. Salt works quick, but sodium nitrate needs a lot more time to work its magic.

 

[Halfcocked]

By the way Tony, it was reading this post that prompted me to try pork shoulder in the first place. Even though I switched out the salt with Tender Quick, you got me started on this path, so thank you. The results have been so good I am doing buts #8 and #9 this weekend, with everyone clamoring for more!