first pork butt

quote:

Originally posted by lecken:
[qb]I just pulled out my first butt from my smokette. It was 7 lbs and took about 14 hours @ 225. The final temp was 196. I took 2 forks and started pulling the meat apart, very easily. I could not believe the amount of meat. I liked the outside meat better because of the dark coating. But my wife liked the inside better. What is the best way to serve the pulled meat. I put open pit bbq sauce on the meat but my son just eats it plain. My opinion the inside meat needs a little help in the flavor dpt.

thanx[/qb]

A lot of people (myself included) like a vinegar-based sauce for pork butt. I use a sauce from a bar-b-que place I patronize when I vacation in North Carolina.

The thing is, there are a lot of sauce options, because here in the eastern USA, people enjoy "pulled pork" with all kinds of sauces.

I do agree that the interior meat is definitely a canidate for sauce, though your favorite sauce will do wonders to the whole thing.

It sounds like you did a great job with your first butt. Welcome to the club!

Smokin' Okie has a great mop and serving sauce I used in his Pork 101 section here. I basted the meat 3 times in the last 6 hours and also serve the pulled pork with some of this mixed in. I reheat frozen pulled pork with some of this and it is getting rave reviews!

lecken,

Welcome to the forum.

You've got some good advice, and I agree with my Carolina friend, the traditional method is great and there's plenty of positive comments here about the sauces/mop/baste in Pork Butt 101 Robbi mentions.

For me, the pork really doesn't have much flavor once you get paste the inside, so the sauce should enhance, not cover. I don't like to use a lot of tomato based sauces because it really covers it up. The vinegar sauces are really great and prevent.

Another tip, I don't see mentioned here often, but I also recommend, is to pull the pork and THEN add more of the rub you used on the outside, a liberal amount. Then toss. This flavors.

I like to chop the bark up, mix it in the inside as well as the Mr. Brown and Mrs. White (the different meat inside the butt itself).

Serve it on a cheap white bun with Cole Slaw and you have Native North Carolina...

....but we don't do the slaw in OK,

As for other suggestions, the leftovers make A-W-E-S-O-M-E Mexican recipes.

Smokin'