My tale of two butts & two ribs

[Huskee]

Inspired by HC in SC, today I'm smoking 2 pork butts. One dry brined in plain HRR for 2 days, and one dry brined in HRR and then slathered in a heavy dose of yellow mustard, wrapped tight and 'marinated' for 2 days.

I'll update this thread with more pics as things progress.


The fire up:






The butts:



With not going on until 8:30-45 I'm wondering if they'll be done in time for dinner....we'll see. I was going to do a no-wrap version today but with my time crunch I may not be able. TBD...



Butts on @ 0830


The plain HRR ones I cut in two to make two ~2lbers, while the mustard one I left intact for no reason other than to help distinguish it later on if they all looked alike. It is about 3.5 lbs.

In a few hours I will toss on a couple racks of StL ribs. Hoping to have everything ready around 6-7pm.

Wood = ash logs for base fire with one apple log. I will keep one apple log on throughout.




The logs:


I keep a pre-burnt supply to use.



Isn't it pretty?

Next to deer hunting or sitting on a beach, there's no better way to enjoy to nice scenic morning than this!




2.5 hrs in, @1100:

The obvious yellow tinge from the mustard butt is nearly gone now




It's 1230, time to add the ribs
Here's what I take with me- ribs (dry brining about 3 hrs in HRR, wrapped in palstic wrap), enough brown sugar, and my shaker of rub





Ribs on!
Here's my rib method, approx 3 heaping table spoons (spoons, not Tbsp measures) of brown sugar per rack. The larger one got 4. Spread it around somewhat evenly but don't get too particular. Then a very light shake of HRR on top of that. Done!

Butts are now at the 4hr mark in this pic.





Ribs= 1 hr; Butts= 5hrs




Updates are in a comment below...

[richinlbrg]

This will be fascinating! A good side by side comparison. Looking forward to the results, Huskee!

[The Burn]

Yep, that's an awful nice morning view

[HC in SC]

You know I got my money on the mustard!!

I just did an 8.9 pounder that was rubbed with HRR, slathered and left in the fridge for almost a week!

It was jam-up fo sho!!!!

CandySueQ wasn't just whistling Dixie on letting them sit for extended periods like a several days to a week.

[Spinaker]

Looks awesome HC!! What cooker did you use to do these bad boys? You had that rub on for almost a week? I should start doing that. No reason not too.

[HC in SC]

The PBC. I don't think I'll do another butt; especially one 8+ lbs on anything else.

The only time the PBC didn't get things totally done was when I did 15+ lbs of meat (2-7.5 pounders), but it got them to about 180.

I have started mounding up the briquettes in the PBC fire basket to near overflow when I am doing a 8+ pounder and it that little 12-16 briquettes is giving me about another good hour of 275 heat.

[David Parrish]

Those are some cute little butts you got there Huskee. Can't wait to see how this turns out.

[Huskee]

Those are some cute little butts you got there Huskee. Can't wait to see how this turns out.

you been lookin' at my butts?

By the way, happy induction into the 2000 posts club Pit Boss!

[Jerod Broussard]

Did I get here at a bad time? Please say yes.

[Huskee]

Yeah, we might need a moment...

[Jerod Broussard]

SLC's???...that can't be right....I have two racks in the freezer......thinking of smoking them on the kettle with some cherry chunks...but man, what a pain the rear compared to the Pit Barrel....

[Huskee]

SLC's???...that can't be right....I have two racks in the freezer......thinking of smoking them on the kettle with some cherry chunks...but man, what a pain the rear compared to the Pit Barrel....

Can't be right cuz I'm the baby back guy?

Break the cycle JB! It's ok to cook on something where the meat is horizontal, lol.

[Jerod Broussard]

You mean sideways??

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qfj93IQAfEE

[Spinaker]

Looks great Huskee. That Yoder gets me fired up everytime I see it. Seeing that smoke pour out of that stack really makes me want to drive down to Yoder, KS and pick one up today. After you've done a few cooks on the Yoder and its seasoned in, does the temperature differ greatly (50 F) from one end to the next? Or is this alleviated by the seasoning process?

Those Ribs and butts look fantastic. I've never tried the brown sugar on the ribs before. I will have to try that next time I smoke on my Keg. I've got two racks rolling in the PBC as we speak, can't wait for those to be done. Have you ever tried Texas Rib Candy on you ribs? I just picked some up the other day and I'm going to slather it on one of the racks and see what kind of flavor profile I get.
Great write up so far. Looking forward to the results. MORE YODER IN ACTION PICS PLEASE!!!

-John

[Huskee]

When I first got it I didn't really take notes about temp differentials, and I really didn't know much about it anyway to know that I should. I'm not sure seasoning helps much with that, but it might. I have learned a few tricks along the way though that helps to even temps and if you ever get one I could sure share what I know. A secret is that even temps don't matter much unless you're cooking an entire cooker full of the same meat. You can actually utilize hotter & cooler sides to your advantage, if you have them, and you can create them! It's a fun journey though.

Nope never used Texas Rib Candy, never heard of it actually. I will post more action pics as long as I'm cooking and my phone is with me!

[smarkley]

psst... the PBC is a RIB COOKING Machine, Huskee! Vertical is sexy and a lot more interesting! Hahahaha!

[Huskee]

Vertical? It's ok but I'm thinking horizontal is much more sexy. Oops, now a moderator is going to come and edit for inappropriate comments....

[smarkley]

Hahahaha... I am not real crazy about sideways and back wards though.

[eugenek]

This looks great, jealous of all that space in the smoker AND in your backyard.

[Huskee]

Thanks Eugene! I have a nice country/wooded but small piece of property and I have space around me so it makes it appear my property is bigger than it actually is. No neighbors, it is quite nice!

[David Parrish]

We're still talking about smoking ribs, right?

[Huskee]

UPDATE:

The pulled pork




The verdict between 2-day mustard slather marinade and plain HRR:

























Mustard marinade wins!

It was noticeably more moist and tender, as others have stated. Cooking methods may vary the results of this in your case but in my case cooked over only logs for 9.5 hrs at ~240 side by side, with a 2hr faux cambro hold, mustard wins. And for the record I'm not talking about a light mustard slather to hold the rub, no, I'm talking about a heavy mustard slather AFTER the rub has been applied and allowed to dry brine. Then the bag is tightly sealed to allow the mustard & rub to actually marinade the meat.


Now, onto the ribs...

No sauce, dry rub only with extra brown sugar as shown in the top post here.







Side view of the smoke ring and the bark


Super clean tug from the bone. Perfect bend test (no pic of that).



Success!

Thanks for watching

[richinlbrg]

Wow Looks absolutely AWESOME, Huskee! Congratulations, and enjoy!

[Deuce]

Amazing cook Huskee, great writeup