Hi Everyone,
I smoked my first butts this weekend. Everything went well, I was able to pull the pork very easily, nice and tender... but I'm a little disappointed with the flavor. Basically, it tastes like cooked pork - not a lot of smoke and little, if any flavor from the rub and basting. Tell me where I went wrong.
These were two 4+ lb shoulders, fresh from the store. I washed them, slathered them with yellow mustard and rubbed them with Famous Dave's Rib Rub - about an ounce per butt. Maybe that wasn't enough, but I don't know.
Smoked the butts using hickory on my ECB converted to gas. The temp pretty much kept between 220 and 240. After they reached 100 degrees internal I sprayed liberally once per hour with apple juice. I kept the smoke going pretty steadily until they reached 164 degrees - about 6 1/2 hours.
Wrapped them in heavy duty foil with another good spray of apple juice and moved them into the oven at 250 (which varied from 230 to 270 according to my digital thermometer (which I LOVE). It took a long time to get to 196, but when they did and I wrapped them in towels and stuck them in a cooler to rest for about 1/2 hour.
Took them out of the cooler and opened the foil to let them cool for a bit. The bone basically fell out and the meat pulled apart very nicely, then into the fridge until Sunday lunch. I saved the extra juice, cooled it in the fridge to skim off the fat, then added it back in when we warmed up the meat for sandwiches the next day.
They were very good with barbeque sauce added and everyone like them. The meat was tender and moist. I just thought that the meat alone was a little bland. I didn't even notice much from the apple juice. I can't imagine how, for example, adding some spiced rum to the spray would even be noticed.
Any ideas? Not enough rub? Was I expecting too much?
Thanks!
Jeff
I smoked my first butts this weekend. Everything went well, I was able to pull the pork very easily, nice and tender... but I'm a little disappointed with the flavor. Basically, it tastes like cooked pork - not a lot of smoke and little, if any flavor from the rub and basting. Tell me where I went wrong.
These were two 4+ lb shoulders, fresh from the store. I washed them, slathered them with yellow mustard and rubbed them with Famous Dave's Rib Rub - about an ounce per butt. Maybe that wasn't enough, but I don't know.
Smoked the butts using hickory on my ECB converted to gas. The temp pretty much kept between 220 and 240. After they reached 100 degrees internal I sprayed liberally once per hour with apple juice. I kept the smoke going pretty steadily until they reached 164 degrees - about 6 1/2 hours.
Wrapped them in heavy duty foil with another good spray of apple juice and moved them into the oven at 250 (which varied from 230 to 270 according to my digital thermometer (which I LOVE). It took a long time to get to 196, but when they did and I wrapped them in towels and stuck them in a cooler to rest for about 1/2 hour.
Took them out of the cooler and opened the foil to let them cool for a bit. The bone basically fell out and the meat pulled apart very nicely, then into the fridge until Sunday lunch. I saved the extra juice, cooled it in the fridge to skim off the fat, then added it back in when we warmed up the meat for sandwiches the next day.
They were very good with barbeque sauce added and everyone like them. The meat was tender and moist. I just thought that the meat alone was a little bland. I didn't even notice much from the apple juice. I can't imagine how, for example, adding some spiced rum to the spray would even be noticed.
Any ideas? Not enough rub? Was I expecting too much?
Thanks!
Jeff