I've have long had the suspicion that laying a lot of rub on a raw pork butt and then smoking for 10 or 12 hours didn't lend much to the flavor of the meat. The rub is probably gone after the first few hours from fat rendering off and taking the rub with it. Besides it takes a lot of rub to cover your average pork butt on all sides and as we know rub is not cheap to make or buy. I've always thought pulled pork benefits more from seasoning it after it is pulled. Which I do as well.
So today I got 8 pork butts on the smoker. I only seasoned the fat cap the rest of the meat just got a little over coverage from shaking it on the top and the bottom got nothing. Needless to say this saved me a ton of rub. I've always took note that most of the rub manufacturers or retailers are the ones always telling you to "spread rub liberally on all sides of the meat" and I think we all just took it as gospel. More is better right?
So being kind of the minimalist I am when it comes to smoking I'm going to see if I notice a difference in the flavor of the finished product. I plan to use a little more rub than what I have in the past on the final pulled product but it still will cut in more than half the amount of rub I use when I cover the entire butt before smoking.
I suspect I will get the argument that I won't get as much bark but I do spritz with apple juice and cherry schnapps and I always thought that's where I get bark formation.
So see what happens I guess....
So today I got 8 pork butts on the smoker. I only seasoned the fat cap the rest of the meat just got a little over coverage from shaking it on the top and the bottom got nothing. Needless to say this saved me a ton of rub. I've always took note that most of the rub manufacturers or retailers are the ones always telling you to "spread rub liberally on all sides of the meat" and I think we all just took it as gospel. More is better right?
So being kind of the minimalist I am when it comes to smoking I'm going to see if I notice a difference in the flavor of the finished product. I plan to use a little more rub than what I have in the past on the final pulled product but it still will cut in more than half the amount of rub I use when I cover the entire butt before smoking.
I suspect I will get the argument that I won't get as much bark but I do spritz with apple juice and cherry schnapps and I always thought that's where I get bark formation.
So see what happens I guess....
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