Pork Butt Marinade & Injection Method

[UWFSAE]

I picked up a nice 7.75 lb. pork butt on sale and decided to do a little pulled and sliced pork for sammiches.  Pretty standard prep; I did trim about 9 oz. of harder fat from the fat cap as this butt was well marbled and I wanted to give the rub a chance to penetrate.

I made a simple injection and placed the needle at 1" intervals on the top and bottom of horizontal planes of the meat, at perpendicular angles (think a grid with the x axis injection points being slightly above the y axis injection points.  This will sit in the refrigerator (wrapped) until tomorrow morning when it will be rubbed with a homemade pork rub (yellow mustard schmear) and smoked over night starting around 11:00 p.m. so it should be ready around Monday afternoon.  I've gotta say, my teaching schedule until late August is a BBQer's dream ...

A note on the photos ... in shots two and three you can see the injection marks if you look closely; I included them to show placement/spacing.

Pork Butt Injection
1 cup apple juice
1/2 cup turbinado sugar
1/4 cup kosher salt
1/4 cup cider vinegar
2 tbsp Sriracha
2 tbsp worcestershire sauce

I slowly brought it up to temperature, never letting it reach a simmer or boil, until the sugar and salt were fully dissolved.  The mixture was then cooled to room temperature and the entire amount was injected into the pork butt.

 

[bigboy74]

I am wanting to do a pork butt next! My butcher says they will be on sale next week. Do you buy bone in or boneless Boston butts?? Thanks
Big

 

[UWFSAE]

Much like chicken wings or cowboy ribeyes, the bone means flavor.  The few times I've done boneless butts I thought the results were less moist and had a slightly off texture.  The meat nearest the bone in a pork butt is made of gold, as far as I'm concerned ... I am guilty of hoarding the blade bone and gnawing on the damn thing.

Injection isn't always necessary (pork butt has so much marbling that it'll be plenty juicy) but I do think you can bring some salty-sweet to the interior of the meat to make it truly flavorful.

If you're looking to do pulled pork shoot for 200-205 ... at that internal temp you'll literally be able to pull the bone out with two fingers; a sliced prep at 170-175 will need to be cut out but still worth it for the flavor enhancement.

 

[bigboy74]

Bone In it is. I thought the bone would bring flavor. I also like the country style ribs bone in.. I was talking to a guy I work with about doing a butt and he recommended injecting it to add internal flavor too. He owns a cookshack that he has been using for years. He said he does boneless to maximize the bark...

 

[UWFSAE]

Bark is like driving the ball 275 yards down the fairway ... drive for show, putt for dough.  A great bark can't make up for so-so flavor but great flavor can carry an average bark.

As you can see from some of my posts, you'll still get a great bark with this method; the bone acts like a tiny internal heating element for the meat and you'll notice a texture shift as you get farther away from the bone in a butt ... too much flavor lost with boneless, in my humble opinion.

As far as country-style ribs, I'm the same way for smoking; I'll often cook the boneless ones in the oven with a braising method but the bone-in are reserved for the smoker or grill.

 

[bigboy74]

Ha! Great analogy Joe! You haven't steered me wrong yet.. I am going with the bone-in boston butt.

 

[DivotMaker]

Joe's on the money!  You can't dispute a good golf analogy like that!! ;D  Bone-in, all the way.  I, personally, enjoy the satisfaction of knowing you cooked it "just right" when you give that bone a little wiggle, and it slides out clean!  Kinda like a tap-in birdie! 8)