Hot 'N Fast Pork Butts / Weber Performer

This cook was done on my Gen 2 Weber Performer running the Slow ‘N Sear charcoal accessory. The temperature used was about 325-340 degrees measured on the cooking grid. 

The two  butts were pretty large and weighed a total of19.4 pounds. I trimmed the fat off of the fat side and then cut each butt into two pieces. This will give me about 25% more surface area for bark and also cut the cooking time down as the pieces are smaller. 

The butts were then injected with Chris Lilly’s 6 time World Champion pork injection and then rubbed with SGH rub. 

Ready to go on the kettle

I believe I had a full load on the Performer!

Got this cook started about daylight this morning and hoping to get the cook done by about noon before it gets too hot.

Cooked the butts for about 2hours and 45 minutes and then wrapped them with some Stubb’s Pork Marinade and placed them back on the grill. 

After a little over three more hours, I started getting the butts off of the cooker. The total cooking time was 6.2 hours.

After a rest period, I unwrapped the meat and got it ready to pull. 

The results of my cook...

Labor Day Cook / GMG Daniel Boone

My Labor Day weekend cook was done on my GMG Daniel Boone pellet cooker and consisted of two briskets, one large pork butt, and a pan of Rick Salmon's BBQ Pit Beans. 



The meat was trimmed and I sprinkled on a generous portion of SGH rub. The pit beans were prepped per the recipe and I used about 1-1/2 pounds of pulled pork for the meat.



Started the cook a couple hours before daylight and I placed one of the briskets over the pit beans for some additional flavor. 



Pulled the pit beans about 5 hours into the cook. The total cook time was about 10 hours and made a nice holiday spread.

Pork Burnt Ends

This is my method for cooking pork burnt ends and I feel is much better than any other method I have tried. I have done them with a whole pork butt, I have done them using pork steaks that I have sliced about 1-1/4” thick, and I have done them by cutting up a pork butt in 4-5 big slices. The problem with these three methods is that the best a person can do is to get smoke on just two sides of the meat. Cooking a whole butt will not give you much smoke flavor in most of the chunks or pieces. Next, these methods are just as bad with producing bark on your pieces. Best you are gonna get is a couple of sides with a good bark. 





Ok, I start with a whole butt and this one weighed about 7-1/2 pounds. I trim off the fat cap and any other fat that is easy to get to.



I then cut my butt up into about 1-1/4 to 1-1/2” cubes.  They will shrink in cooking.



My cubes were rubbed with a mixture of Smokin’ Guns Hot and  Cimarron Doc’s rub.



I placed the pork cubes into a Zip-Lock bag and put them into the fridge for an overnight stay.

Early this morning, I got the Green Mountain Davy Crockett out of the garage and rolled it around to my cooking patio. Fired it up and set the temp for 150 degrees so I would get mucho extra smoke for the first hour of the cook. 





Got the pork cubes out of the fridge and loaded them into the Davy Crockett cooker.

This is the secret to this treat. Cutting the pork butt into uncooked cubes and cooking it in this manner gives me smoke on all 6 sides of each cube. I also get good bark on all 6 sides of each cube. Of course there will much better flavor on all 6 sides of each cube from the rubs.



I run the first hour with pretty heavy smoke. After the first hour I raised the temp up to about 230 degrees measure on the lower cooking grid. 





I cooked the pork cubes to around 180 to 190 internal and then placed them into a pan. I couldn’t get them all off at once as my upper grid wasn’t running as hot as the lower grid. This was a little extra work but well worth it!

I then poured a mixture of Blues Hog regular, Blues Hog Tennessee Red, and a little honey over my cubes. Next step was to add more rub. Last step was to sprinkle on some brown sugar. I did this in both of my pans of meat.



My pork went back on the cooker for about another hour and I pulled the meat. My total cooking time was 5 hours. 





They sure looked great coming off the cooker. 





Our first treat with this meat was a Pork Burnt Ends Hoagie Sandwich.

While I love beef burnt ends made with chuck roast, I think this pork is better!

More Davy Crockett Cooking

I did a two pork butt cook a few weeks back and these are the results of that cook along with some additional information about the cooker and how it cooks. 



These two butts weighed a total of 15.21 pounds and were trimmed of their excessive fat, injected, and then rubbed. 



I moved my cooker around to the cooking patio and fired it up. Was a real nice sunny morning with the temp at 26 degrees so it looked like a nice day to cook. Set the starting temp at 165 degrees to give me a less efficient burn (more smoke) which I planned to use for the first couple of hours. 



I loaded the heavier thicker butt on the hopper side as this side runs slightly hotter earlier in the cook and then loaded the smaller one on the right side. Now, as the meat heats up, this temperature difference seems to disappear in my cooker.

As far as capacity with pork butts, I have done 3 medium sized butts with a total weight of just under 23 pounds in the cooker and it came out well. To get them in, I loaded them on their sides again with the thickest on the hopper side. Although it is called a tailgate cooker, my 3 butt cook would make up 38 large 6oz sandwiches which would feed 38 hungry fans. It does have some capacity.



After two hours, I raised the temp to 275 degrees for the balance of the cook. Although I prefer foiling when I get the right color and the bark is right, I did not foil these two butts as I wanted to try them without foil. The above picture was taken just before I removed them from the cooker. I started checking the internal temp at 8 hours into the cook and then checked them a few more times during the cook and found both butts within 3-4 degrees of each other. I pulled them about 10-1/2 hour into the cook. 



The butts pulled nice and gave me a large 1/2 pan of pulled pork. 





Made up a couple of small sandwiches and then dribbled on some Tennessee Red mixed with a little real Vermont maple syrup and sure made a nice meal.

I sure love this little cooker and use it often.

Pork Butts / Daniel Boone Grill

I did this cook on my GMG Daniel Boone pellet cooker in advance of a large predicted blizzard type of snow and then a record cold event in Central Indiana. We did get her and more....about 15 inches of snow on the ground and then blowing winds with cold overnight temps of 15 and 16 below zero with wind chills of 30 to 50 below zero.



This was the start of our big storm.



The four butts weighed a total of 34.17 pounds. I trimmed off the fat cap and some other surface fat and then injected them with Chris Lilly’s pork injection and then applied a generous coat of the Slab’s Pork Rub.



The prepped butts were bagged and placed into the fridge for about 8 hours.



Moved my Daniel Boone around to my cooking patio and fired it up with my blend of Appalachian oak, hickory, maple, and American cherry hardwood pellets. Loaded the butts and smoked them at about 180 degrees for the first hour and then I raised the temp to 275 degrees to finish the cook. When the bark looked right, I wrapped each butt in foil with a half bottle of that wonderful Stubb’s Pork Marinade and placed them back on the cooker until they were done.



The butts pulled nicely and looked good. I ended up with just under 19-1/2 pounds of finished meat.



Got it all vacuumed sealed, frozen, and ready to be delivered. 

We have a wonderful neighbor farm family with heavy equipment that keeps our drive and front walk all dugout in the Winter and this meat is for them.



This is what it looked like after we were rescued from the storm.   

Pork Butts in the Green Mountain Grill

I needed to smoke a couple of pork butts and I decided to do them in my Green Mountain Daniel Boone Pellet Grill. I haven't done any longer cooks in this cooker yet so this will be a first attempt at a longer low and slow cook.

I started by trimming all the fat off the outside of the butts. I then injected them with Chris Lilly’s pork injection. Next step was to cover them with a generous amount of Slab’s pork rub. They went into the fridge overnight for about 6 hours. 

About 2:30am Saturday morning, I fired up the cooker and got my butts ready for the fire.



Just out of the fridge.



Ready to go on the cooker.



I got them loaded about 3:00am and set the temp to 150 degrees for the first 2 hours which will give me some extra smoke during this first period. 



Raised the temp to 275 and cooked and smoked the butts until the color and bark looked right (about 6 hrs) and took them off the cooker for the foil wrap. 



Looked good enough to eat now but still not done.

Each butt was wrapped in foil with a half a bottle of the Stubb’s Pork Marinade and then back into the cooker.  

They cooked an additional 2 hours and I pulled them at 205 internal and quickly opened the foil for about 15 minutes to set the bark and then wrapped up again and rested for about 2 hours. 

Pulled the butts and ended up with 9 pounds of product. 



I mixed up a light blend of my catering sauce and added it to the meat. I then added some finely ground rub to the meat and mixed it all up and it was ready to be bagged. 



Gonna be some happy folks at the local Ford dealership come Monday about noon.