# Root Beer Marinaded Boston Butts Q-View



## nrok2118 (Aug 26, 2010)

Giant Supermarket has some butts at 1.69 a pound so I know what Im doing this weekend!  Picked up two today each about 7.5#.  Im hoping this doesnt ruin anything but I'm marinading them in some A&W root beer for a day, and depending whether i cook them tomorrow night or Saturday, I may get a solid 24hr of rub on them too.  I tried doing some research about marinading in soda but couldnt find anything relative to butts.  I got the idea cause my old buddy used to swear by the crock pot pulled pork using root beer, so now that ive upgraded to real BBQ I figure Ill see what happens getting some solid marinating time.  I see many people inject sodas in their butts so I cant see sitting in some root beer hurting anything. 

Anyway, Im also gonna try injecting these butts cause I dont want to foil.  Whats the best injection recipes for moisture?  I was gonna throw the soda in there but was thinking maybe a simple juice, water, and spices injection might be the best route.  Also, Im going for a super bark (why Im going no foil), and was wondering how mopping/spraying the butt effects bark.  Ideally Id like to inject it, rub it, throw it on and not open the lid till 200F but am worried about it drying out.  It is fatty so I know its kinda hard to actually dry it out but if spraying with some soda or juice can help bark with its sugar content while helping it stay moist I'll spray that sucka.  Thing is Im still new to all this and dont have the experience on mopping. 

All thoughts/suggestions are welcome, looks like I need to stop typing everything i think and just give you guys cliff notes!
	

	
	
		
		



		
			






Here they are sitting in their beer bath


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## shamong9 (Aug 26, 2010)

Good luck. I love root beer, but I cant find the stuff I drank as a kid. It had a stronger taste and less sugar. Let us know how it works out.


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## DanMcG (Aug 27, 2010)

Sounds good, I'm looking forward to the results! I would just use the root beer for the injection and spritz..  A spray every hour or so should give ya a nice bark.


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## nrok2118 (Aug 27, 2010)

Update:  After about 24 hrs I pulled them out of the root beer, washed and dried them and rubbed them up with a standard KC rub I like.  Wrapped them up tight and back into the fridge till tomorrow.  I decided to smoke these tomorrow night so Im gonna inject tomorrow sometime than re-rub befrore smoking them in some nice apple wood my coworker got me!


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## Bearcarver (Aug 27, 2010)

nrok2118 said:


> Update:  After about 24 hrs I pulled them out of the root beer, washed and dried them and rubbed them up with a standard KC rub I like.  Wrapped them up tight and back into the fridge till tomorrow.  I decided to smoke these tomorrow night so Im gonna inject tomorrow sometime than re-rub befrore smoking them in some nice apple wood my coworker got me!


I gotta watch this one!!!

This sounds good!

Is that Quakertown Root Beer (my real home town) ???
	

	
	
		
		



		
		
	


	





Bear


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## beer-b-q (Aug 27, 2010)

Interesting idea using Root Beer.  i LOVE the stuff...
I usually just drink it rather than injecting it or sitting in it because i have found it still ends up on my Butt....http://s63.photobucket.com/albums/h151/pkcdirect/emoticons/?action=view&current=occasion14.gif


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## Bearcarver (Aug 28, 2010)

Beer-B-Q said:


> Interesting idea using Root Beer.  i LOVE the stuff...
> 
> I usually just drink it rather than injecting it or sitting in it because i have found it still ends up on my Butt....http://s63.photobucket.com/albums/h151/pkcdirect/emoticons/?action=view&current=occasion14.gif


That there's funny Paul, I don't care who ya are.

Hmmm, injecting Root Beer in your butt, instead of 'roids. Legal??


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## rbranstner (Aug 28, 2010)

How was the rootbeer?? A lot of people use Coke so rootbeer should work as well.


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## scarbelly (Aug 28, 2010)

Bearcarver said:


> That there's funny Paul, I don't care who ya are.
> 
> Hmmm, injecting Root Beer in your butt, instead of 'roids. Legal??


You are killin me !!!


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## nrok2118 (Aug 28, 2010)

got them on 10:30pm, gonna watch for a few than getting some rest

ready for smoke!


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## beer-b-q (Aug 28, 2010)

Looking Good So Far...


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## tom37 (Aug 28, 2010)

Hey Paul I was gonna comment on the root beer injection thing but I think I shall keep my mouth shut LOL .

Nice start there nrok, they oughta be looking pretty good by the time the sun comes up. I'll be watching for the results, I want to find something different for my PP.


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## nrok2118 (Aug 29, 2010)

Bed at 1am, woke up at 5:30 to find my smoker at 175F (I have a post about it if you guys think it might be bad or not, i think im gonna be fine).  Got it back up to temp and gave a spritz of root beer.  8am, wanted to reposition the thermo in the meat, was kinda jumping around a little bit around 180 which i didnt like.  Repositioned it and got a steady reading of 172.  Took a snap while I had the lid off


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## Bearcarver (Aug 29, 2010)

nrok2118 said:


> Bed at 1am, woke up at 5:30 to find my smoker at 175F (I have a post about it if you guys think it might be bad or not, i think im gonna be fine).  Got it back up to temp and gave a spritz of root beer.  8am, wanted to reposition the thermo in the meat, was kinda jumping around a little bit around 180 which i didnt like.  Repositioned it and got a steady reading of 172.  Took a snap while I had the lid off


Hmm, you said your smoker temp, but I didn't see the meat temp until 8 AM. You injected it & probed it, so that means you had to get it to 140˚ in 4 hours (by 2:30 AM). We don't know what happened between 10:30 & 5:30, as far as meat temp goes, but being at 175 smoker temp at 5:30 doesn't sound good. Any more info?

Bearcarver


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## nrok2118 (Aug 29, 2010)

If you look at my other post I didnt fall asleep till after 1am, when it was actually spiking at temps 260-280.  I closed the vents except one i left cracked and while waiting for temps to go down I passed out.  I didnt have the meat probed yet which is my lesson learned but at 5:30 when i woke to discover it pretty cool I probed the meat and it was 140F.  As soon as I got temps of the smoke going again it crept up fast a few degrees and within an hour was at 168 (though that was at the original probe point that said 180 a half hour ago but when i moved it went down to 172).  Either way because of the normal and quite hot start for the first few hours Im leaning towards "im fine".  Any reassurance?


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## Bearcarver (Aug 29, 2010)

nrok2118 said:


> If you look at my other post I didnt fall asleep till after 1am, when it was actually spiking at temps 260-280.  I closed the vents except one i left cracked and while waiting for temps to go down I passed out.  I didnt have the meat probed yet which is my lesson learned but at 5:30 when i woke to discover it pretty cool I probed the meat and it was 140F.  As soon as I got temps of the smoke going again it crept up fast a few degrees and within an hour was at 168 (though that was at the original probe point that said 180 a half hour ago but when i moved it went down to 172).  Either way because of the normal and quite hot start for the first few hours Im leaning towards "im fine".  Any reassurance?


I hope you're right. I don't like to pi_ _ on anybody's parade. There are just too many unknowns. I'm sure the 260-280 spikes helped, but at 7 hours it was at 140˚. 

I have worried about some others, including one of mine (140 at 4:20), and apparently they were all OK, but I still would worry about this one, especially since it was injected.

Sorry,

Bear


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## nrok2118 (Aug 29, 2010)

I cant believe it, but I once again had to take the butts off early to be ready for dinner.  I wanted to go 200F, but after 18 hours in the smoker I pulled the butts at about 193 and foiled and stored in a cooler.  I gave one to my brother to take home to the family and kept the other for my house.  Left it sit in the cooler for about 2 hours.  The one I kept fell apart trying to get it out of the smoker so I dont have a nice full butt picture but boy was it beautiful.  I didnt use a finishing sauce so some bites were a little dry but overall a great success.  I cut some Sweet Baby Rays with root beer and brown sugar for a nice added touch.  I keep saying it, but I really need a better camera for this Q!


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## rw willy (Aug 29, 2010)

looking good!

I think the RB idea is good.  I have a friend who likes that in the crock pot also.  Thats a must try.

Thanks


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## tom37 (Aug 29, 2010)

Looks good Nrok, I hope everyone got full.

Don't ya just hate it when the food falls apart when ya try to pick it up. I was on the phone with a buddy tonight talkin about my chicken and he ask if I filled the beer holder with RB?

He says his neighbor uses it for the PP, Brisket, and Ribs.

The ribs he says he cooks normal and then when he wraps them he makes a boat from foil and pours RB over them and wraps the rest of the way.

So were you happy with the results of using the RB?


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## Bearcarver (Aug 30, 2010)

Nrok,

Glad to see my worries were for nothing.

Looks Great!

Bear


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## oval hankins (Nov 17, 2012)

I dont have a smoker and living in Alaska 8 degrees is a bit cold .So I'm stuck with an oven.I bought 2 10 lb boston butts yesterday for a feed at work

I picked up a bottle of Zatarains Root Beer Extract for home made soda . Im gonna try injecting with a mixture of this apple cider, mollases,honey ,fresh butter,reduced ham broth,and some standard issue Kansas city style pork rub. Im going to inject and marinade the 2  pork butts , One being only This injection excluding the extract and using Mug Root beer . And the other with Zatarains Extract.Then I want to coat it with softened butter and pat it down with the rub then wrap it in a woven blanket of extra thick cut peppered applewood bacon and cook it at 245 f for about 6 to 8 hours then let it rest about an hour and see what happens.


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## mosmoker (Nov 19, 2012)

Looks GREAT 
	

	
	
		
		



		
			






   I assume the taste was excellent.  It looked fantastic.  There was also a recipe on here using Cherry Dr. Pepper.  That was what I used on my first pulled pork and it was excellent.  There is a finishing sauce on here from a fellow q'er here from So Fla.  That sauce is nothing short of excellent, my wife and I added it after the my pulled pork sat for awhile and it was AWESOME.

I am no expert - but the pork you did looked great !!  Congrats !!

Mike

Here is the link for the finishing sauce

http://www.smokingmeatforums.com/t/51933/soflaquers-finishing-sauce-for-pulled-pork/40#post_881802


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## uc smoker (Nov 19, 2012)

I'm from Maine, and I'll bet Moxie would work great for this...It's much more 'earthy' and 'rooty' than root beer!


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