Twice Smoked Pulled Pork

 

Twice Smoked Pulled Pork

 

I first read about this concept a few years ago reading Richard McPeake’s (Rib Stars) book Backyard BBQ.  It was one of those “why didn’t I think of that” kind of a moment.  I have since seen other’s versions.  It can be as simple or as elaborate a process as you wish – McPeake’s version involves making your own rub, mop sauce, BBQ sauce, etc.  It is good but you end up having a lot of leftover ingredients that you don’t use every day so they tend to go to waste.  Plus, it is very time consuming to do.  Still, I think everyone should at least try his recipes once.  But the concept of twice smoking is rock solid.

The one I present here is on the simple side.  But, it’s still an all day process. After all, that is the point of smoking meat.  I include in this post some BBQ Tips that not only are helpful for doing pulled pork but for BBQ in general. 

Ingredients:

4 – 4 1/2 lb Pork butt roast (shoulder), bone in

BBQ seasoning of choice

Grape seed or olive oil

Brown sugar (optional)

Apple juice

Time: approximately 15 hours smoking (I told you: all day)

Twelve hours prior to smoking you want your pork to be rubbed down and back in the fridge.  To prepare the butt you need to trim back the fat cap.  You’ll know it when you see it.  Be careful not to trim all the way down to the meat.  Leave a little. 

Tip Alert:  Fat is good.  Fat adds flavor and helps keep the meat moist during the smoking process.  However, too thick it will not allow smoke to penetrate the meat.  So trim most of it off and leave a little. 

Next, lightly wet the meat with oil.  The reason being is that it helps the spices cling to the meat.  Then generously coat the butt with your spice and rub it vigorously into the meat – hence the name “Rub” for BBQ spices.  For my butt I used Bad Byron’s Butt Rub with their motto: “Everything’s better with a little butt rub!”  No argument here.  Now, put her back in the fridge until you are ready to smoke it. 

Just before starting to smoke, I take the butt out and set it on the counter – no more than for an hour, and usually not that long.  I want the meat to be cold when I put it on the smoker – usually about 40 – 45 degrees. 

Tip Alert:  Meat protein starts to break down at 120 degrees and will absolutely not allow any more smoke to penetrate at 140 degrees and above.  So, we want smoke.  And, we want a lot of smoke – chasing that perfect deep red smoke ring.  So, the colder the meat the more time you have to introduce smoke to the meat. It’s a simple equation.  As my once rocket scientist father would say, “It ain’t rocket science” and I trust he knows.  

Whatever you use to smoke your pork butt, get it to a stable temperature of 220 degrees.  Today I used my Traeger pellet smoker because my “honey-do” list was so exhaustive I did not have time to stoke fires and monitor temperature.  That’s the great thing about pellet smokers.  They have an electric auger that draws the pellets in every 7 minutes using a timer to maintain an even temperature.  Just turn it on and walk away.  However, I still prefer the art of smoking on a traditional wood burning smoker.  A downside of pellet smokers is that they require constant electricity.  Any stoppage (becomes unplugged, a breaker pops, or a power surge) and you are cooked!  But not whatever you have in that thing – it’s just sitting there spoiling.  So there you go. 

So now you are ready to smoke.  Put the butt on and if you are so inclined to sample a sweeter butt (and who isn’t) top that thing with brown sugar.  Totally optional though. 

Tip Alert:  We start with the fat side up!   It starts to break down and some soaks into the meat and some drips down the sides – all the time adding flavor and keeping the meat moist. 

Now, here comes the hardest part about smoking of all…

Tip Alert:  No peeking!  STOP.  Opening the smoker lets out…smoke…and heat…your two cooking sources.   So do not do it.  I know it’s hard.  And I know friends and family come over and you want to show it off…”hey, look at what I have done with my butt!”…just resist the urge. 

For pork butt I do not even think about opening the smoker for at least 4 hours.  The second most important thing here is that you want to obtain a good bark.  The only purpose for opening the smoker is to moisten the meat with a spray or a mop.  But, you have to establish a good bark before doing so.  So, keep the lid shut and let the bark form. 

“To mop, or not to mop: that is the question:  Whether it is nobler in the minds to suffer through creating mop sauces and dowsing meat or just to spray with simple apple juice…”  I won’t go into a whole Hamlet rip off soliloquy.  No matter what you prefer or choose, do not do so until you have a hard bark! 

For this recipe I forgo the mop sauces and opted for a mixture of simple apple juice and some of the rub spice.  I begin spraying my pork after it’s been on the smoker for at least 4 hours (have I driven that point home?) and then on the hour until it is done. 

Tip Alert:  I have a spray bottle for just this sole purpose.  It is well marked and even a funky color and I store it in its own little place so it can never be mistaken for a spray bottle to use with chemicals.  Actually, now that I think about it, I have two bottles.  One is for simple juice sprays, another one is a pump sprayer that does better with large quantities of meat and can handle spices and other ingredients without clogging.  You can find these in the garden section of your hardware store or wherever you shop garden supplies. 

All right, all right, all right.  When your pork butt finally reaches an internal temperature of 165 degrees you are done for now.  Take it off and wrap it in heavy duty aluminum foil.  Just depending on how well you keep your fire going and at the proper temperature, expect this to take about 12 hours at least. 

Tip Alert:  The meat continues to cook even after you remove it from the smoker.  You are smoking a bone-in pork butt (also called shoulder, again) and the bone is a conductor of heat.  What that means is that even though you remove the meat from heat the bone is still cooking the inside. 

To wrap your butt…what I do is take heavy duty aluminum foil, two big oversized pieces, and place the butt in the middle.  This next part is hard to describe and I do not have pictures to share…but think about wrapping your butt as a very special Christmas present to someone.  J  So I take the foil and begin length-wise.  I hold both sides up equally and then fold a little seal about  a half inch in diameter and just keep folding it over….but wait!  Don’t forget the ends.  I now take one end and fold it over, rolling it up and making a tight seal at the end of the butt. If I am explaining this process like I picture it in my head, you have one end left open with the opposite end tightly wrapped and the top (length-wise) is mostly rolled up but still left open enough to allow the other end to accept what comes next…liquid!

Tip Alert:  Remember, once meat protein breaks down it cannot take on any smoke (140 degrees) so that part is done.  The next part is to help make the meat juicy and finish rendering.  That happens best (and quicker) with steam.  So by folding the aluminum wrap tightly around the meat you are now ready to introduce liquid that will steam and help render the meat the rest of the way. 

Now is another time for choice.  In my recipe I used a mixture of apple juice and a little rub seasoning.  I pour just enough  - maybe a quarter of a cup to a third cup – and wrap the remaining foil up very tight so no juice (and ultimately steam) can escape.  It depends on what flavors you are going for. You can use any type of crafted beer, combination of sauces and juices, plain water, whatever will provide steam (and flavor). 

 So, your juicy butt is tightly wrapped and now what?  Place it in a clean cooler or an oven you are not planning on using.  It needs to be a tight enclosure that won’t let the heat or steam to escape.  Theoretically, it can go back on the smoker if you have extinguished it so it is not continuing to cook.  The point is that you want the meat to slowly cool down.  It should remain in the cooler for a minimum of one hour. 

Tip Alert:  Cut no meat until its time – which means until it has time to cool.  When you grill steak, hopefully you are not THAT guy that cuts into the steak while on the grill or even when it is on a platter to figure out if it is medium rare or well done.  PLEASE do not be that guy.  That’s perhaps another blog about how to accurately determine doneness without cutting.  But, it’s the same principle here with larger meats.  It needs time to rest which really means rehydrate itself and finish cooking.  So, when meat (muscle) is cooking the fibers are contracting (oh, crap! I am on fire) and this forces juices out.  Letting the meat rest helps the muscle relax (oh, thank God that is over!) so the juices are reincorporated into the meat and not lost on a chopping board or whatever.   Resting also provides opportunity for evenness as the meat still continues to cook slightly and gains an overall doneness.  (Bone is a conductor of heat, remember.)

And now, finally, we are ready to eat!  NOPE!  This is twice smoked pulled pork people!  C’mon; focus! 

Take the butt out and let it breathe.  Unwrap it from all that foil.

Tip Alert:  Do not waste that natural juice!  I usually put the still-wrapped butt in a glass 10x9 pan or in a heavy duty aluminum pan.  The natural juice is crucial – do not let any go.      

So, you are going to unleash the beast in a glass pan or heavy duty aluminum pan and you are going to start pulling the meat away from the bone (hence the name, “pulled pork”).  But, you are not going to shred the pork now which is typical of a pulled pork sandwich.  The bone should slide right on out if you have thoroughly cooked the butt.

Tip Alert:  Got a pig butt resisting?   They sometimes tend to do that.  Wrap it back up and put it back in the oven – as long as it is wrapped tight and there is liquid inside, you can bump the temperature up to a normal roast temperature of 350 if necessary.  Hopefully, you tended your fire and did everything right and the bone just slides out as planned.  But, this is part of the art of smoking that I so love. 

What we want are large chunks of meat.  Trust me – I know what traditional pulled pork looks like but we are not ready for that yet – we are still yet to smoke it a second time.  Patience.   Keep everything in big chunks.  When done, take the juice from your aluminum wrap and pour over the meat.  Or, you may have figured out it is easier just to place the wrapped butt in the pan first and then unwrap.  If so, toss well so the juices are well mixed.  Then, top with your butt rub and throw it back on the smoker for at least one hour.  

At the end you will have twice smoked pork and now it is up to individual preference as to how “pulled” you like it. 

Tip Alert:  I use bear claws to shred my pork – not literally, that is a brand name!  Great product and name because you can really visualize their intended purpose.  

So these are the basics behind twice smoked pulled pork.  By pulling the pork into large chunks and reintroducing it to the smoker you get smoke into a larger cross section of the meat that you would not normally get.  And by saving the natural juice from wrapping to help moisten the meat for the secondary smoking process plus adding the rub, means no sauce is necessary when you serve this bad boy.  It will stand on its own. 

Let me know what questions or comments you have about this process.  I know I wrote a lot, but it is pretty simple.  A lot of the BBQ tips I provide can be applied to brisket, the toughest of all to conquer in the BBQ smoking world.  At least it is in the BBQ competition world.