Shootout! Mustard Vs EVOO Pork Shoulders

[fzxdoc]

John, Dave, Huskee or Jerod can probably clear this up, but I've found in my photo-laden posts that I can't post more than 5 or so photos per post. As I recall, if it's more than 4 photos I just write a continuation post. Perhaps that's what's happening here. I could open all the photo links in your first post no problemo.

I'm eager to hear the taste test results. It looks like the cook went pretty well. Kudos to you for being a Nighttime Smoker.

Kathryn

Oh and P.S. how much did those butts weigh?

[_John_]

You mentioned Baking Powder for crispiness, have you done any side by sides? I only ask because I am doing 2 turkeys on Wednesday and just may have to run another trial. Any other turkey thoughts?

[Huskee]

I can post 12 pics per post, using the attachment (clipboard) icon. Maybe I have magical mod powers, but I doubt it. Pit Boss hogs all the good powers and makes me pay him in ribeyes to have what I have now.

[_John_]

The butts were different sizes, so 2 of the 4 were obviously larger. The smallest butt was 3 pounds 6 oz and the largest was 4 pounds 4 oz. I lost my sheet with weights but I knew the smallest and largest so I weighed them when done, they each lost about 30%.

Results were pretty mixed, visually, while the butt was still whole you couldn't guess which was which because they were all just black lumps. I took a picture of those but apparently turned off the camera before it saved.

I tried posting this one before, but it is the 4 butts before resting. Not sure why, and it is typical for me, but when done resting mine are usually pitch black.
Pics still are posting weird, these are coming in 1/4" wide, will try to import another way.

Anyway while I wait on the images...

I saved a piece of bark and internals for each of the 4 butts on a plate and gave them to a few friends to try, they gave their impression and it is pretty close to mine.

These were all VERY close, and I think a lot comes down to the rub/slather combo. The first and second place were both mustard rubs, they were more moist in everyone's opinion. The EVOO butts had the best flavor everyone agreed, but the moisture of the other 2 won out.

They had the same rub so I was surprised that there was such a flavor difference. The bark on the EVOO butts were salty, and the Mustard butts were peppery. The rub I used is pretty heavy on both salt and pepper, so I think that while there is no mustard flavor at all, the spiciness of it combined with the pepper in the rub made it have quite the bite. I'm not sure if the EVOO had anything to do with making it salty, or if it was just the lack of an overpowering pepper flavor.

Everyone agreed on the texture of the butts, but it wasn't so noticeable to change the way you cook. The vote for most moist was P2, the mustard only and the best flavor was P1 which was the Baking Powder + EVOO.

At the end of the day, for pulled pork I don't think Baking Powder matters. I also think that a pretty thick mustard rub will get you a little more moisture, but more importantly it needs to be thought of as another spice.

Try this imgur link and see if you get the pics, you can probably count the toothpicks to tell which is which.

http://i.imgur.com/XMmDM7t.jpg

The 3rd image that looks like a massive pile of pulled pork consists of all of the butts. I started with butt 1 on the right and butt 4 on the left, every 4 inches wide or so is where one stops and another starts.

[HC in SC]

I was rooting for the mustard slathering. Woo hoo!!!

Great comparison - thanks for doing this!

[_John_]

If this doesn't work, I will try an external site.

[DWCowles]

LMAO....Exactly

[_John_]

Every time I tried posting them they got smaller! I clicked full size on those and had them manually sized to 1500.

[The Burn]

Uh-oh, looks like you might have gotten bitten by whatever caused trouble for me, Henrik and Jon that required fixing of our accounts.

[fzxdoc]

They had the same rub so I was surprised that there was such a flavor difference. The bark on the EVOO butts were salty, and the Mustard butts were peppery. The rub I used is pretty heavy on both salt and pepper, so I think that while there is no mustard flavor at all, the spiciness of it combined with the pepper in the rub made it have quite the bite. I'm not sure if the EVOO had anything to do with making it salty, or if it was just the lack of an overpowering pepper flavor.
.

Interesting, since mustard also has salt in it, while EVOO does not. Your "overpowering pepper flavor" theory sounds good to me.

Thanks for the PB weights, John. And thanks for all of the great info in this topic! I hope you and your friends enjoyed every last morsel of those pork butts.

Kathryn

[_John_]

Those amateurs couldn't eat half of it! Lots of leftovers, I ate as I pulled so i'm not sure how much I ate, but it was a lot.
That is kind of weird about the salt, not sure if it is overly flavorful but it was just French's yellow.

Edit: I wonder if the mustard just holds on better? I could see mustard crusting and drying out and EVOO melting and dripping, carrying the pepperiness with it.

[HC in SC]

I have noticed the same thing on butts and ribs - the mustard clings tighter with heat, the oil just gets runnier.

[Spinaker]

Great work John!!! Thanks for doing all of this.
Honestly, the results surprised me. I thought that the Baking powder would make quite the difference in the overall texture of the meat. I thought that it was going to make the bark much crustier than the other butts. I am also trying to figure out why the EVOO ones were saltier. Perhaps the EVOO allowed for the salt in the rub to penetrate further into the meat. Another thing to consider might be, EVOO is just better at covering the surface of the meat at the molecular level, than say mustard. Thus, more of the salt was taken into the meat. I don't know I'm jus thinking out loud.

It really didn't surprise me that the EVOO butts had better flavor in the end. Meatheads tells us that most of the spices in our rubs is in fact fat soluble. I suppose more of those flavors were able to coalesce into BBQ goodness.
Thanks a bunch for doing this. It was very informative and helpful. Thanks for letting is tag along.
SMOKE ON BROTHER!!!!
-Spinaker

[_John_]

Thanks, but at the end of the day, as with most things, we're left with more questions than answers. Personally I THOUGHT that the baking powder butts felt different, more crispy, but it may have just been in my head. Once they were wrapped and rested they were all still thick, didn't even feel the need to firm them back up on the grill, much different than wrapping.

I want to try some more, as in the past I wrapped to save time and moisture, but today's texture was much better than wrapped and the mustard still had moisture. For now at least I think I will drag myself out of bed a few hours early and go unwrapped, and I think I will switch back to mustard for a while at least.

I guess I can consider it a success since changed the way I cooked for the better, so there is that at least.

[fzxdoc]

I think the major difference is powering through the stall, unwrapped, because that gives such amazing bark and totally amps the flavor profile, IMO. That's how I've done my PBs--in fact I never wrapped and I haven't rested more than 30 minutes. I'm thinking about increasing the rest time for the next batch of PBs I do though.

Interesting about the moisture content between the two rubs. As Spinaker says, I would have thought the flavor would have been upped with EVOO since many of the spices are oil-soluble. I believe HC maintains that the vinegar in the mustard does something magical to the meat for the long marinade times before hanging the meat.

So "mustard and unwrapped" is the take home message here, apparently. I'm not sure I'm ready to go the mustard route just yet because the PBs I've made have tasted soooo good that I hate to mess with perfection (read: husband went wild over it). Even so, I may do as you did and treat one PB one way and another a second way.

Thanks for the fun of hanging out with you for this cook, John. I learned a lot.

Kathryn