Recipe for Disaster

 Volume 1:  Sometimes you can actually take too much fat from the ass.

Welcome to the first installment of Recipe for Disaster by J Sussman.  The goal of this content is to mix our (J Fiske and my) own experiences as rookies in the world of smoking with observation, alcohol, and, above all, a sense of humor about ourselves.  Along the way, hopefully, there is some useful information (ok, maybe just useful drink recipes).

One of the most popular new year’s resolutions is weight loss, but I’m here to tell you that, sometimes, you can trim too much fat from the ass.  Don’t give up your gym membership just yet.   I’m talking about a pig…and, as it turns out, I’m not even talking about an ass -- the pork butt is actually the shoulder of the pig!

Image from Oven Pulled Pork from Pork Butt | 101 Cooking For Two

Even though most of us have been accused of having our head up our butt….we can’t accuse the pig of the same, at least for this reason.  As it turns out, the backstory relates to the fact that barrels used for pork storage were called “butts” and since the pork shoulder was stored in these butts, ultimately pork shoulder became synonymous with the name of their storage device.  Also, the actual butt of the pig is the ham….so the pig would have its “head in its ham”.  Just sayin.

Now that we have that cleared up, let’s discuss our most recent pork butt undertaking.  About a week ago, we decided it was time to smoke a pork butt (this is approximately our fourth pork butt with the Traeger). 

The Butt, just before receiving the rub and the slather

The Recipe: without “clicking into” the micro level of detail, the general plan was to

·      Cut some fat from the butt, then

·      Apply a pork rub, then

·      A slather (consisting of apple cider, yellow mustard and Worcestershire -- typically used on pork ribs), then

·      Wait 20m while the Traeger heated up, then

·      Smoke for 4 hours (internal temp 160), then

·      Wrap in foil and heat until internal temp 204; then

·      Let it rest 45m

·      Use the highly important shredding utensils named by D Sussman to be “Man Hands” to finalize the process (see the accessories tab on our blog)

·      Pair with a Young & Yonder Bourgroni (recipe below) and serve

The fat trimmer and one of the Man Hands

In the past, we’ve followed this recipe, except for the fat removal with great (and easily shredded) pulled pork.   Upon following the prescribed steps, we opened the “rested” pulled pork and pulled the Man Hands out.  The Butt actually had a nice smoke to it (see picture).

Our Butt @ 3hrs.  Note the highly important WiFi temp probe

The Cocktail Pairing: J Squared BBQ believes that the key to any meal is the drink pairing, particularly if such pairing involves a Young & Yonder Bourgroni or Lime Vodka, or an IPA.  In fact, the pairing is even more important than a plate or silverware…in many ways.  Our pairing with this entrée was the Bourgroni, which consists of: i) 2oz Young & Yonder Bourbon, ii) 1oz Antica Vermouth and iii) 1oz Campari, combined into a shaker with ice, shaken and served over a single (large) ice cube.

Off the Smoker, Time to Shred: Unfortunately, J Fiske noted that when I started the shredding process, it looked like a workout.  To the person shredding the pork, the process felt tougher than watching the fourth quarter of the last Bronco game (or just about any Bronco game from 2017-2020).

Nevertheless, the pulled pork came out a bit dry (even after reheating with an apple cider/Worcestershire marinade)…but edible.  As I’ve considered the past iterations of this process, the biggest difference was the removal of the fat (most of the fat on the fatty side). 

In Summary: The current conclusion (which is probably a more educated guess than Vic Fangio calling a late game timeout) is that the fat would have helped the pork have a greater juicy nature…and shred easier.

So, I had my head up my ham on this one…but lessons are always learned and we are onto the next one.  Maybe Sir Mix A Lot is right – at least when it comes to pork butts.

PS – on a serious note: The fat trimmer and the Man Hands were gifts from a very good friend of D Sussman and mine, Carol Raznick last December.  Unfortunately, on January 6, 2021, Carol suddenly passed away.  While we are all still coming to grips with Carol’s passing, we celebrate her sense of humor and wit (particularly during tenuous situations – she was our lawyer for many years), intelligence, attention to detail, great stories (who knew that Lyle Alzado once lived in her neighborhood?) and most of all her friendship.