Smoked my first pork butt in May, and have done a few since then. I've always trimmed off the false cap, and the majority of the fat and stringy connective tissue in between the two "halves" of a bone in pork butt.
I've heard some folks don't trim anything at all, and some that only trim off that first layer where the false cap is.
I'm just curious what other folks do to see if I'm doing it wrong, haha
I trim the fat cap and any excess on the exterior, but don’t dig into the various muscles to remove fat. I find that wrapping after it is cooked and resting it in an ice chest for at least two hours allows me to remove those excessive pieces of fat when I pull it.
Last edited by LA Pork Butt; August 25, 2021, 05:57 AM.
I will 3rd this. Why go to all that effort before hand, digging into the interior of the butt, when any gristle or excess fat is easily discarded while pulling the pork. A lot of times, I find that almost everything renders, and on some butts, I have very little waste at all. On others, I end up with a handful of gristle that I toss while pulling the pork.
John "JR"
Minnesota/ United States of America
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If not cooking outdoors, I am cooking on the stovetop with my 14" carbon steel wok, 12" CI skillet, or in the oven with my two Lodge CI pizza pans, or two dutch ovens. I've also got a nifty Lodge carbon steel grill pan that rocks for veggies outdoors.
If I think there is an unusually thick fat cap, I will trim it a little with a boning/filet knife, other than that, I don't do anything with butts, and I've smoked many butts in the past 30 years.
And as I said above in a comment, you are wasting time digging around inside the butt with a knife trying to fish out gristle or connective tissue before you cook. When you pull the pork, it is easily discerned and discarded then. Sometimes I have zero waste on a butt. Other times I find a handful of stuff like you describe that doesn't render, but its easily tossed while I am pulling the pork with my meat claws on the cutting board.
Last edited by jfmorris; August 25, 2021, 06:44 AM.
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