Pork Butt on the Bronco & Feeding the Homeless
We bought a pork butt on sale at Harris Teeter a week ago with the intention of feeding the homeless again. I cut it in half, trimmed it, and dry brined it 36 hours. I used a layer of Obie-Cues Gatorbreath followed by a layer of Kosmos Q Honey Killer Bee.
Up at 6:15am to light the Bronco. I used a method OKJ suggested with one fire starter off to a side. Worked well, I haven’t had any issues lighting this cooker and getting even burns. Added some applewood chunks to the basket full of KBB.
I got the meat on at 7:20am. Diffuser plate was in place.
Once it got back up to temp, tweaking the vents like this let it run right around 285F for a good long while.
I checked it after 5 hours and the boneless hunk was close to ready, the other was lagging as usual. I was really happy with the bark at that point tho so I put them in a foil pan, covered them, and moved them to the oven at 300F to push them along.
The boneless chunk was ready at 1pm, the bone in one 30 min later. At 2pm I pulled them.
Then we started on the assembly line my wife had prepped (yes, I’m supervising and snapping pics).
Each bag got a sammie, an apple, and Christmas cookies/candy. We also handed out water bottles.
We had 20 bags to hand out.
We were in the GMC by 2:30pm, the bags and bottles in the back with my daughter who would hand them up to my wife as needed while I drove. Everyone was so appreciative, one guy with a sign saying he had a pregnant wife and a 3 year old and needed food was just beside himself - "Are you kidding me? It don't get any better than this!" He got 3 bags, we had plenty. In fact after we cruised all the usual intersections we hit a local fire dept and gave them enough to feed everyone on that and the next shift.
Experiments
1) It was a good time to try some new things.
One thing I did differently was with my dry brining and layering. Instead of using kosher salt to dry brine and then layering heat & sweet rubs later, I just dry brined with the Gatorbreath. Salt is the #1 ingredient and it’s even labeled as Cajun Salt. I always wondered if it’d just come off when I applied the sweet layer, but it’s not an issue. In fact I was able to put a mustard slather on top and get a heavier layer of the sweet rub without removing any of the spicy layer which had completely dried onto the butt. And the spiciness really came thru, it didn’t mellow as much as it normally has, and I ended up with the tastiest bark on any butt I’ve ever smoked! This is how it looked after the 36 hour dry brine before the mustard slather:
2) I’ve noticed this time of year the homeless start to leave their posts earlier around 4pm. So I wanted to be in the car by 3pm which didn’t give me a lot of time. I cut the butt in half and cooked between 280-300F, and wrapped late. But I simply didn’t have much time for the hold - 60 min on the boneless hunk, 30 on the bone in, just on the counter top. Normally I’d hold it covered in the oven at 170F for at least 2 hours. Well, I’ve now been able to experience first hand the difference it makes, and I’ll continue to hold any time I can in the future, it’s definitely more tender and juicy. That said, this was still a darn tasty butt with a great bark! I just ate two sammies - nap time!
Happy New Year, AR! 🥳
Up at 6:15am to light the Bronco. I used a method OKJ suggested with one fire starter off to a side. Worked well, I haven’t had any issues lighting this cooker and getting even burns. Added some applewood chunks to the basket full of KBB.
I got the meat on at 7:20am. Diffuser plate was in place.
Once it got back up to temp, tweaking the vents like this let it run right around 285F for a good long while.
I checked it after 5 hours and the boneless hunk was close to ready, the other was lagging as usual. I was really happy with the bark at that point tho so I put them in a foil pan, covered them, and moved them to the oven at 300F to push them along.
The boneless chunk was ready at 1pm, the bone in one 30 min later. At 2pm I pulled them.
Then we started on the assembly line my wife had prepped (yes, I’m supervising and snapping pics).
Each bag got a sammie, an apple, and Christmas cookies/candy. We also handed out water bottles.
We had 20 bags to hand out.
We were in the GMC by 2:30pm, the bags and bottles in the back with my daughter who would hand them up to my wife as needed while I drove. Everyone was so appreciative, one guy with a sign saying he had a pregnant wife and a 3 year old and needed food was just beside himself - "Are you kidding me? It don't get any better than this!" He got 3 bags, we had plenty. In fact after we cruised all the usual intersections we hit a local fire dept and gave them enough to feed everyone on that and the next shift.
Experiments
1) It was a good time to try some new things.
One thing I did differently was with my dry brining and layering. Instead of using kosher salt to dry brine and then layering heat & sweet rubs later, I just dry brined with the Gatorbreath. Salt is the #1 ingredient and it’s even labeled as Cajun Salt. I always wondered if it’d just come off when I applied the sweet layer, but it’s not an issue. In fact I was able to put a mustard slather on top and get a heavier layer of the sweet rub without removing any of the spicy layer which had completely dried onto the butt. And the spiciness really came thru, it didn’t mellow as much as it normally has, and I ended up with the tastiest bark on any butt I’ve ever smoked! This is how it looked after the 36 hour dry brine before the mustard slather:2) I’ve noticed this time of year the homeless start to leave their posts earlier around 4pm. So I wanted to be in the car by 3pm which didn’t give me a lot of time. I cut the butt in half and cooked between 280-300F, and wrapped late. But I simply didn’t have much time for the hold - 60 min on the boneless hunk, 30 on the bone in, just on the counter top. Normally I’d hold it covered in the oven at 170F for at least 2 hours. Well, I’ve now been able to experience first hand the difference it makes, and I’ll continue to hold any time I can in the future, it’s definitely more tender and juicy. That said, this was still a darn tasty butt with a great bark! I just ate two sammies - nap time!
Happy New Year, AR! 🥳
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