Boston Butt on the Big Green Egg (Baby BBQ)

This past weekend we had a Baby BBQ at our neighbor Pam & Dex's house (aka "Club Canada", yes they are in fact Canadian).  The BBQ was intended as a baby shower for Leah, but since we had such a small wedding, it was also a great opportunity to get together friends from Birmingham that weren't at the wedding.  Leah and I decided we would take care of the food, so I was tasked with providing pulled pork for 30-35 guests.

As I had to explain to my sister, pulled pork (usually) comes from a cut referred to as the Boston Butt, which is from the upper part of the shoulder.  Boston Butt is a tougher cut of meat which contains a lot of fibrous connective tissue, which lends itself to being smoked low and slow on the Big Green Egg.  Cooking for a long time at low temperatures slowly dissolves the fat and tougher tissue, and leaves the meat extremely tender. 


For this smoke, I used 3 Boston Butts at ~4 lbs each, and one Butt at ~6 lbs.  First, I started off by coating each Butt with a light amount of yellow mustard, in order to get the rub to stick.  Next, I applied a generous coating of Coarse Grind Dizzy Dust.  After talking to my friend Marc, he suggested injecting the Butts with a mixture of apple cider vinegar and rub.  I've smoked a few Butts before, but haven't injected any, so....I figured it was worth a shot.

Yes honey, there is Saran-Wrap under there!

After all the prep work was done, I left the Butts in the fridge overnight to marinate.

 Yes, I eat a lot of eggs.

The next morning I took the Butts out to let them come to room temperature for around an hour.  Next, I set up the Big Green Egg using a plate setter for a indirect cooking.  The goal was to keep the BGE around 225 degrees for the smoke.  I decided to use both Apple chips and chunks.  Chips provide a lot of initial smoke, whereas the chunks burn longer and provide smoke throughout the duration of the cook.

Note to self - bury the chunks in the charcoal next time

Once the BGE was up to temperature, I put on our guests of honor at 8 AM.

As Marc said - "Fat Side Up!"

Grace decided to keep guard over the 18 lbs of pork, what a good dog!

"24 hours from now, I'll be licking the drippings off the plate setter...mmm" - Grace

For the rest of the day, I kept track of the the temperatures on my remote thermometer.  A few adjustments here and there were needed, but the BGE did a pretty good job of keeping the temperature near 225 degrees.

Shooting for an internal temp of around 190 degrees, the first Butt was done at 4 o'clock.  The second was done around 6, and the last two were done at 8 PM.  It's amazing to me how three cuts of meat, of the exact same size, finished four hours apart. Now I understand why they say a Butt will finish early, or late, but never on time!  

Each of the Butts were first wrapped in tinfoil, then a towel, and placed in a cooler to rest for 2 hours.  Letting the Butts rest allows the juices in the meat to distribute evenly, and for the meat to keep cooking another five degrees (195 degrees final).  Then, each of the Butts were pulled, and stored for the BBQ the next day.  

All of the smaller Butts turned out pretty well, a nice crisp bark, noticeable apple smoke ring/flavor, pulled very easy, and tasted great.  But, the larger 6 lb. butt was AWESOME.  I think the larger cut retained more of both the injection and the natural juices. It was so good, I forgot to take pictures! When it comes to Boston Butts, I am now a firm believer that bigger is better! 

Here's a shot of the final product, served with Lindsey's Carolina-style BBQ sauce.