This week our local Ralph's grocery store has $1.49 pork butts on sale, so i will stock up on several butts. Periodically I still use an injection method i found years ago online from James at Aim'em and Claim'em's YouTube website for smoked pork butt. I will share the link cause these butts turn out awesome using Apple juice and strained liquid from a bottle of zesty Italian dressing, then mix the strained herbs from the bottled italian dressing with your favorite pork rub and mustard to coat the outside of the pork butt.
Smoked Transistors This is how I used to do pork butts when I first started out and they did turn out great. For some reason I got away from it probably because of experimenting and finding the methods/processes that I liked.
So far what I've come up with is instead of fully wrapping in foil, I'll use the foil boat method as it really renders that fat cap and gives it a great bark in my experiences. I feel that method really hold the integrity of the bark although I did notice on my last couple of cooks the lack of juices left in the foil compared to when I fully wrap the butt probably due to evaporation.
I'm doing a couple butts this weekend for my son's 2nd birthday and I plan on doing this injection method. I'm probably going to amp up the flavor a little bit with a little bit of Accent in the injection as well.
My toys:
Weber Summit Charcoal Grilling Center (WSCGC) aka Mr. Fancypants
Pit Barrel Cooker (which rocks), named Pretty Baby
Weber Summit S650 Gas Grill, named Hot 'n Fast (used mostly for searing and griddling)
Weber Kettle Premium 22" named Kettle Kid, eager to horn in with more cooks in the future
Camp Chef Somerset IV 4-burner outdoor gas range named AfterBurner due to its 30kBTU burners
Adrenaline BBQ Company Gear:
SnS Low Profile, DnG, and Large Charcoal Basket, for WSCGC
SnS Deluxe for 22" Kettle
Elevated SS Rack for WSCGC
SS Rack for DnG
Cast Iron Griddle
Grill Grate for SnS
Grill Grates: five 17.375 sections (retired to storage)
Grill Grates: six 19.25 panels for exact fit for Summit S650
gasser
Grill Grates for 22" Kettle
2 Grill Grate Griddles
Steelmade Griddle for Summit gas grill
Fireboard Gear:
Extreme BBQ Thermometer Package
Additional control unit
Additional probes: Competition Probes 1" (3) and 4" (1), 3 additional Ambient Probes. 1 additional Food Probe
2 Driver Cables
Pit Viper Fan (to pair with Fireboard Fan Driver Cable)
Pit Viper Fan new design (to pair with Fireboard Fan Driver Cable)
Thermoworks Gear:
Thermapen MK4 (pink)
Thermapen Classic (pink too)
Thermoworks MK4 orange
Temp Test 2 Smart Thermometer
Extra Big and Loud Timer
Timestick Trio
Maverick ET 73 a little workhorse with limited range
Maverick ET 733
Maverick (Ivation) ET 732
Grill Pinz
Vortex (two of them)
18" drip pan for WSCGC
Ceramic Spacers for WSCGC in Kamado Mode: 2 sets each 1/2", 1", 2". The 2" spacers work best with the 18" drip pan. The 1+1/2 inch spacers work best with the 14 inch cake pan.
Two Joule Sous Vide devices
3 Lipavi Sous Vide Tubs with Lids: 12, 18 and 26 quarts
Avid Armor Ultra Pro V32 Chamber Sealer
Instant Pot 6 Quart Electric Pressure Cooker
Instant Pot 10 Quart Electric Pressure Cooker
Charcoal Companion TurboQue
A-Maze-N tube 12 inch tube smoker accessory for use with pellets
BBQ Dragon and Dragon Chimney
Shun Classic Series:
8" Chef Knife
6" Chef's Knife
Gokujo Boning and Fillet Knife
3 1/2 inch Paring Knife
Sorry for the late reply, I didn't see my notification for your reply.
The cook went well! I ended up doing the pork the day before because I didn't want to be rushed. 1 butt went for 11 hours on the smoker while the other went for 12. Both rested in the oven for 1-1.5 hours before I pulled them.
As for the effects of the injection. Did I notice an effect on flavor? No, not really. Maybe a TINY bit but nothing remarkable.
What I DID notice was the moisture still left in the meat. Most of the time with the foil boat method I'm not left with a whole bunch of juices as I would be when fully wrapping in foil. That's not a problem because with resting the butts for a couple of hours in the oven it really gives extra time for that internal collagen to break down so that moisture is still there without over cooking the meat. I pre-heat the oven to 200, put the butts in and then shut off the oven and let everything slowly cool down during the rest. Seems to work pretty well and a good alternative to wrapping in towels and putting it in the cooler.
Anyway, I feel like the meat had plenty of moisture, my butts pretty much always do anyway so I'm not convinced that the injection did a ton.
The meat was moist and good. There wasn't a noticeable difference between the butts I've injected and ones that I haven't, in my opinion at least. I do want to say that I did inject a couple butts with a simple brine solution last summer and let them rest over night. In terms of moisture it didn't change anything but after the pork was pulled it didn't need any seasoning after the fact. I typically put some rub on the pork after it's pulled (that's common practice, right?) and that time I didn't need to at all.
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