First boston butt- brine before rub?

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cyberik

Newbie
Original poster
May 31, 2016
19
10
Hey everyone, just built an Alton Brown flower pot smoker and am going to break it in this weekend with a Boston Butt. I hear they are great beginner's meat because they are very hard to mess up.

I have been lurking on these forums, picking up little bits and pieces (i.e. only wrap the pork in the smoker if you want moisture, if you want bark + more dried out meat, don't wrap until the meat is resting, etc), but still need some help with the basics.

My question is, how do you prepare the meat from the butcher to the smoker, all steps included? 

Boston Butts can come with or without fat, I was going to trim most (not all) of the fat, rub the meat down with my rub, put the little remaining fat on top so it renders down into the meat, and smoke to an internal temp of ~195+, wrap it in foil and let it rest in a cooler for ~1 hours before pulling.

But am I missing a brine step before the beginning? If so what does that entail? Do you brine in a marinade or just salt water?
 
I trim the fat cap down to about 1/4". I have never brined a butt. Just coat it with plain old yellow mustard & put on your favorite pork rub, the mustard will hold the rub on, but not affect the flavor. Unless you are going to slice the butt you should take it to about 205 or until a probe slides in like room temp butter. At that point the bone should slide out clean & it will pull very easily.

Hope this helps,

Al
 
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