Boston Butt Idea
I made a boston butt — pork shoulder — yesterday (well, technically, the last two days since it was cooked for nearly 18 hours) and I tried something a little different.
I configured the Egg with the original grilling grid and the riser grid that I built. I placed a pizza stone on the bottom grid.
Then, I dropped the two hunks of pork meat in an aluminum pan on the top grid. Instead of starting with a dry pan, I left all the juices that had run out of the pork after in the pan. Quite a bit of juice comes out after it has been dry rubbed.
The theory was that the pork would partially braise in the liquid, generating an excellent flavor and varying the texture between the top and the bottom of the meat.
Worked beautifully. The end result was very moist and had a delicious smoky, almost candy like, flavor throughout.
And that got me to thinking. How can I further maximize the flavor?
I’m going to smoke the next butt in my cast iron dutch oven without the lid. I think I’ll add some onions and garlic to the pot prior to smoking. Maybe a little bit of red wine, too.
Should be interesting. I’ll make sure to cook a couple of additional backup butts the regular way, just in case.
January 8th, 2007 at 12:30 am
[...] Add some kind of meat. I two types; boston butt from a cook earlier in the week and Dungeness crab that I had in the freezer. [...]
November 1st, 2007 at 4:48 am
Sounds like this somewhat resembles cochinitas. I’m from Phoenix and an old neighbor, whose family is from mexico, would make cochinitas for birthday’s and special occasions. They dig a hole in the ground, line it with brick or stone and start a fire. Then they had a pan filled with marinated pork, sometimes a whole pig, cover with banana leaf and cover the hole. This braises and smokes at the same time. I bet you could find a recipe for this somewhere, it is really good. I would guess it has achiote paste, garlic, sour orange juice and some mexican oregano.