Hey guys, doing a pulled pork this weekend for the football games. I was planning on doing my normal rub and then let it smoke at 250/300 for hours until done but I ran across this recipe on Alton Brown's website. Let me know what you think.
Application: Barbecue Pork Butt
Yield: 4 to 6 pounds pulled pork
Software:
3 quarts water
12 ounces kosher salt
8 ounces molasses
8-10 pound boneless pork butt
Special Equipment: Smoker and 4 ounces hickory or oak wood chunks
Procedure:
1. Place the water, salt, and molasses in a large 12-quart container and stir until the salt dissolves. Add the pork butt to the brine and weigh down with a zip top bag filled with 2 cups of the brine to make sure it is completely submerged.
2. Cover and refrigerate overnight. Remove the pork from the brine, and pat dry.
3. Heat the smoker to 225 degrees F. Add the wood chunks, and place the pork into the smoker. Cook until the pork reaches an internal temperature of 150 degrees F, 4 to 5 hours.
4. Once the meat reaches 140 degrees F, heat the oven to 300 degrees F. Wrap the pork in aluminum foil and transfer to a half sheet pan. Place on the center rack and cook until the pork reaches an internal temperature of at least 200 degrees F and is tender and pulling apart easily, 3 to 5 hours. Remove from the oven and rest, covered for 30 minutes before serving.
The biggest difference for me is that I have a bone-in pork butt and not boneless. I kind of like the simplicity of the recipe. Whenever I do a pork butt I do feel the rub that is applied gets a little lost because the amount of bark to non-bark pork is skewed in the way of the non-bark pork.