Experiment.....

  • Some of the links on this forum allow SMF, at no cost to you, to earn a small commission when you click through and make a purchase. Let me know if you have any questions about this.
SMF is reader-supported. When you buy through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission.

damon555

Smoking Fanatic
Original poster
Jun 26, 2010
464
35
Middle Tennessee
I've been brining my pork butts for a few years now and have had great success. Trial and error has taught me that the vast majority of the flavor comes from the salt in the brine. So mostly I've just been using 1/2-3/4 of a cup of salt per gallon of water to brine them.....which is perfect for my families taste. The pulled pork always gets rave reviews.

This weekend I'm shaking things up a bit. I just dropped a 7.5 lb boston butt into a brine solution of 2 gallons of water, roughly 1 gallon of ice, 2 1/2 cups of salt, a large frozen concentrated OJ and a regular sized frozen concentrated apple juice. If all goes well she'll be on the smoker tomorrow night for a nice long, unattended overnight smoke on the WSM. Then after a lengthy rest the family should be enjoying a sweet and savory treat......I'll post the results.....good or bad.
 
  Can't wait to se how it turns out.
popcorn.gif


  Mike
 
Here it is getting ready to go on.......Looks as nasty as a chunk of pork that's been sitting in brine for 24+ hours should.


I'm going to break a few rules with this one......mainly no rub prior to smoking. I have faith that the brining process will take care of business in all aspects of the flavor department except for adding the smoke flavor. The WSM stoked with kingsford blue and pecan chunks will handle that.
 
Damon,

As soon as I read your post, I instantly thought of pineapple juice. Now I'm considering injecting some in a butt, then brining in a pineapple juice/salt brine. Maybe even spritzing with it.

I'm anxiously awaiting the results of your experiment.

Monkey
38.gif
 
  • Like
Reactions: dog158
9 hours in and we're @ 172 degrees. It looks beautiful......I'd post a pic but I can't lift the lid, take the temp and take a pic all at the same time.....and I'm a firm believer in "if you're lookin' you ain't cookin'". I need to rig up some kind of holder for the lid......My WSM is sitting all by itself with nothing to set the lid on except the grass. I don't care to get grass clippings all over the lip of the lid.

and now for my usual shameless plug......Every time I use the BBQ Guru Nano Q it works like a champ. It is a very basic controller with nothing but buttons and lights.....no LED readout or anything. But it exceeds my expectations every single time I use it. It has taken my WSM from an amazing smoker to a super-duper amazing smoker! My smoker is every bit as reliable and "set and forget" as anything else on the market.
 
about 11.5 hours and we hit 195.....Time to come off for a nice long rest.....Looks just like it should......


The flavor is just phenomenal! Not using rub didn't hurt it one bit. Even before it has rested it melted like butter in my mouth. The brine solution seems to have worked perfectly. There is a subtle sweetness about it....You can't taste any one flavor but the depth is excellent. The charcoal and pecan provided the perfect level of smoke flavor. If it doesn't get any better after resting it will still be fantastic......
 
Hauling it to the in-laws.....so whenever Nanny says it's time to eat. Come on up.....but there probably won't be much left by the time you hit the TN line!
 
Well the jury has made their decision.....Every person who tasted the butt said it was my best work yet......and I've fed them plenty of BBQ. I must say it turned out great. The absence of rub did not hurt the final product at all.....as a matter of fact it worked out so well that I might never put rub on another butt again. Not one single person used BBQ sauce.....and these are some BBQ sauce using fools....lol. 

I also did a rack of baby backs (which are at the top of the photo) that turned out very good too. Didn't foil anything until it was time for the post smoke rest......which by the way ended up being about 4 hours long. I've come to the conclusion that a nice long rest can make good BBQ even better. 


All the fun is over until the next time around....I'm not sure how I'm going to be able to top this one......
 
Being a one who is always in search away from the ordinary, I just pulled a butt from the freezer to try your technique.  Can you provide the approximate total amount of liquid in the brine and the type of salt used?  As I have it on hand, I'm thinking of adding orange, apple, and Grillmonkeys suggestion of pineapple juice to the water.

Will have to do this one in one of the Cookshacks as we have a bear visiting at night.  If he would knock the WSM over, I would lose the butt for sure.  The Cookshack will at least keep the butt contained as they are pretty much bear proof.

Thanks,

Tom
 
Looks great! With the citrus and pork, you're getting close to a Cuban style. They would use sour orange but you can come close to that with a mix of orange and lemon or lime juices.
 
SmokingMeatForums.com is reader supported and as an Amazon Associate, we may earn commissions from qualifying purchases.

Latest posts

Hot Threads

Clicky