Pulled pork fail

[HackerDave]

So, I smoked a couple of butts today. Have to admit I was a bit concerned with the quality of the meat. I always purchase from Costco but this time it looked like they prepped them with a chainsaw or ax. I tied them up and cooked them at 250*. Departing from my normal methods, I did not inject. This was based on a couple of videos I watched from Meat Church. I rubbed them with the Honey Bacon BBQ rub and spritzed them with apple juice/apple cider/bourbon throughout the cook. I wrapped at 170* and pulled them at 202....yep...a tad early.

Long story short...they are dry. They actually stuck to the butcher paper! I have NEVER had that happen before. Normally, this would be no big deal but I am taking this on a golf trip with the boys. Any ideas how to best mask my mess. I don't have time to give it another go. The bark on this is hard, which doesnt make a lot of sense to me as I cooked them the same way I always do.

What say you?? How do I avoid the shame!!! Haha

[Jim White]

Lots of sauce.

BBQ sauce mixed into the pulled pork.

And sauce the golfers before they get to the pork. They won't care.

[hoovarmin]

Golfers are usually pre-sauced, in my experience.

[bbqLuv]

Do you have to be a golfer to get sauced?

[Murdy]

Of course not.

[STEbbq]

If you have any juices left, pour and mix it in when you shred.

Otherwise, may I suggest pulled pork sandwiches with lots of sauce, coleslaw, and other favorite toppings? You could also shred and add a vinegar-based sauce before putting on sandwiches to add more moisture?

[lemayp]

I'd go with some kind of finishing sauce. I usually have something along the lines of https://barbecuebible.com/recipe/pig...-pucker-sauce/. I'll strain some of that and mix with apple juice. That gets added to the pulled pork. I mix with apple juice as my wife doesnt care for vinegar sauces so it sweetens it some.

[das85]

Melt a stick of butter into each butt.

I picked this up from Harry Soo who recommends putting a stick in the foil when wrapping...I don't often do it, but it's awesome when I do - and nobody ever knows. (Whereas if you drench it in sauce, everyone knows..)

I also have to support Jim White 's idea of saucing the golfers!

[HackerDave]

Thank you gentlemen. I honestly have no idea where things went south. Perhaps I just jumped the gun on pulling it. Wife was hungry and I had a lot of things to get done. Live and learn.

[NoFatNoFlavor]

Costco boneless...makes me crazy that they feel the need to buy/butcher/pack them this way...since the only "bone" in any bone-in butt I've bought is just the blade that slips right out cleanly after a cook.

That "stuck to the paper" thing...is that Honey BBQ rub you use a first time for it? I can see that an overly sweet rub would caramelize and when wrapped, the moisture would then make it sticky. That's my only guess on that front. The dryness is a mystery though.

[captainlee]

I gave up on Costco pork butts years ago. Like you said, butchered like using a chain saw. Sorry they were dry too. Like mentioned either sauce them or use some apple juice and apple cider vinegar mixture and pour that on for moisture.

[Draznnl]

On my worst pork butt failure ever, I mixed a bunch of vinegar based barbecue sauce into the meat before serving. Received nothing but compliments on the flavorful, juicy meat.

[Dadof3Illinois]

Like others have said just mix up some sauce with apple juice and a little apple cider vinegar and give it a taste. If you want a little sweetness add some brown sugar or honey. Heat it up and get it mixed up good then pour it over the pork.

What type of smoker did you use and were you able to track the temp at grate level?

[Jessterr]

Concur with all the suggestions above, lots of good ideas to fix it, I think the pork butt is probably the most forgiving chunk of meat in the known universe. That said, I do have a question for the board. Can’t see where HackerDave did anything that should have resulted in a dry butt. Does one occasionally just run across a rogue piece of meat that can yield this result? I’ve smoked quite a few butts so far, and have never had that happen as yet, but it would be good to know if it possibly could.

[tbob4]

Put it in a crock pot with a medium onion (diced), 1/2 cup of olive oil (or butter as suggested), some garlic and 1/2 cup of your favorite sauce or beer. Put it on low mode.

[Mark V]

I had this same thing happen to me last winter. I made a couple Mexican stews out of it.

[WayneT]

I like the sandwich idea and you can add more moisture by making a cabbage slaw to top each sandwich. Tell your golf buds the slaw is NOT optional!

[Murdy]

I like the vinegar based sauces suggested above. Since you're trying to moisturize the pork, I think adding some fat or oil would help though. So, I like the butter suggestion above too. Maybe some of both.

[jfmorris]

I am with the others, and advise mixing in a cup or so of a vinegar based BBQ sauce to each butt, to moisten things up. I've done that myself on pork that seemed dry when I pulled it, and in fact, did it for a crock pot of pork I took to a pot luck a week or so ago, and got nothing but compliments - plus a 6 quart crockpot of pulled pork was fully devoured.

I do not buy my butts at Costco, instead going to Sam's, or Kroger if they have a sale running. I just don't like the boneless butts, as the couple of times I tried them, they needed string to hold them together on the grill. Many years ago I used to get bone-in butts at Costco, as I did 84 at once one time as a fundraiser for my daughter's high school cheerleading squad, but at some point since then they switched to those 2 packs of boneless butts, and I stopped getting them there.