To dry brine or not, that's my question

[Dadof3Illinois]

jitsntricks I have, and on thinner pork cuts I think it makes a difference but it seems more often than not I forget to thaw my ribs in time to do a proper brine. Nobody seems to complain when they eat so I’ll assume they taste good.
I’ll dry brine beef and I’m a believer that it makes a difference, especially on steaks.

[jitsntricks]

What about ribs? Have you brined those? I'm thinking if those are brined, probably would only need a few hours or so

[Mr. Bones]

Yup. Do what makes ya feel good...

Several hours later, yer still gonna have delicious pulled pork.

[Dadof3Illinois]

For me, I haven’t seen a big difference in dry brining or not on large cuts of pork. As far as trimming a pork butt...I’ll trim all the thick hard fat off because it doesn’t render out as easily, but don’t worry too much about the soft fat.

[smokin fool]

I’ve never dry brined a pork butt.
Outta the fridge, dry rub it and into the grate.
Personal preference thing.
Guess the right answer depends on which side of the fence your on

[jitsntricks]

Awesome, thanks for the tips

[Donw]

Answering your question with what I do, I trim most external fat down to a minimum or right off. IMHO the meat itself contains all the fat I need to produce a good product and it also doesn’t allow the salt to penetrate the meat during brining. I also don’t need to separate out big chunks of fat from the meat when I’m pulling or chopping.

[ecowper]

If I can’t let it brine for 24 hours, at least, then I just salt it right before I put it on.

[jitsntricks]

Thanks! Do you trim much of the fat off or just let the salt penetrate that?
I'm aware of the articles on this site. It's actually where I learned of dry brining and how it works and ultimately changed how I prepare my tri tip.
All the other learning resources I've use for BBQ (youtube mainly) never really talk about dry brining pork. I wonder why that is.
Looks like I'll be tossing this butt in the freezer until next weekend as I was too lazy to brine it last night lol.

[Donw]

I dry brine every pork butt and for that matter all pork cuts at least overnight. It does make a difference in the moisture of the pork itself. There are articles here on the site and other sites that go into the mechanics of why it works.

[jitsntricks]

Do you guys dry brine a pork butt over night before the smoke, or not? Do you notice much of a difference with this size of meat? Just curious before I put in a possible unnecessary effort in dry brining. I typically add some of the juices from the wrap, maybe a little Carolina vinegar sauce, and a little rub to the pulled pork and it always comes out fantastic.

Just wondering what you all do since I know that dry brining tri tip has taken it to another level flavor wise.