Successful BBQ pork butt and brisket is science (2018)
BBQed pork?  Okay, I&#x27;ll chip in:<p>=== Qualifications<p>From age 5 to 22, I was in Memphis.  I was
there again from age 30 to 32.<p>At ballpark 8 ounces of pork BBQ a month,
that would be<p>(1&#x2F;2) * 12 * 20 = 120<p>pounds of pork BBQ consumed.<p>Dad often took me to the annual
Winchester-Western <i>gun show</i> with
fantastic shooting by Herb Parsons.  Also
featured was pork BBQ -- paper plates
piled high with it, with coleslaw, potato
salad, and some bread -- cooked overnight
on racks over a temporary dug pit maybe 2
feet deep, 4 feet wide, and 50 yards long
with smoldering wood, likely hickory.<p>With the BBQ contest Memphis in May,
Memphis has some claims to significant,
competitive pork BBQ expertise.<p>The Nathan Myhrvold winning efforts at
Memphis in May contribute to the level of
expertise.<p>Now I&#x27;m in East Tennessee, another area
for serious pork BBQ.<p>And I&#x27;ve cooked my own versions of pork
BBQ off and on for over 20 years.<p>=== Theory<p>From various readings, there is a <i>theory</i>
of &quot;low and slow&quot; meat cooking including
BBQ:<p>Part of the theory is that the meat fibers
themselves are always tender.  When meat
is tough, the cause is collagen.  So, to
make tough meat tender, melt the collagen,
and can do that at 165 F, a temperature
that is also commonly regarded as high
enough for food safety.<p>If get the meat fibers much above, say,
180 F for too long, then the fibers will
shrink, expel their water, and become dry
and brittle, that is, not <i>succulent</i>.<p>Generally, 212 F for very long is too
darned hot.  In practice often can get by
with cooking meat at 212 F, that is,
boiling it, if (A) the meat is quite
tender and (B) don&#x27;t have the meat at 212
F for very long.<p>So, my best guess is that BBQ is from
cooking &quot;low and slow&quot;, and the &quot;low&quot; is
about 165-170 F, and the &quot;slow&quot; is several
hours, until the meat is still juicy and
quite tender, i.e., <i>succulent</i>.<p>=== Most Recent Trial<p>This HN OP is timely:  On<p>Saturday, April 3rd, 2021<p>I bought a fresh &quot;boneless pork butt&quot; of
8.9 pounds, $21.72.  That piece is also
called Boston Butt.  It is the shoulder of
the hog.<p>I have a <i>rack</i> of stainless steel wires
that can be adjusted to the shape of a <i>V</i>
and a rectangular covered <i>granite</i>
toasting pan<p>19.5 x 12.88 x 7&quot;<p>=== Cooking<p>So, I put the pork on the V rack in the
bottom of the roaster, inserted a meat
thermometer into the pork, put on the top
of the roaster, and placed the whole
assembly into a pre-heated 225 F oven.<p>At 2.5 hours later the meat thermometer
read 165 F. Then I reduced the oven
temperature to 170 F and cooked for
another 8 hours.<p>Then it appeared that the meat was quite
tender and the fat, collagen, and water
were in the bottom of the roasting pan.<p>=== Chopping<p>East Tennessee pork shoulder BBQ is
<i>pulled pork</i> as mentioned in the OP.
Here the fibers of the pork are separated
via <i>pulling</i> with, say, two forks.<p>In West Tennessee, e.g., Memphis when I
was there, the pork is coarsely chopped.<p>So, with a cooking fork and a cooking
spoon, I moved the chunks of the pork one
at a time to my cutting board and used a
French chef&#x27;s knife with a 12&quot; long blade
to coarsely chop the pork and used a
spatula to shovel it into two covered
plastic containers, each with 2 quarts of
volume.<p>=== Yield<p>The weight of the final BBQ was<p>2,205 grams<p>and the volume, loosely packed, was about
4 quarts.<p>The raw weight of the pork was<p>8.09 * 16 * 28.3495 = 3,670 grams<p>so that the <i>yield</i> was<p>100 * 2,205 &#x2F; 3,670 = 60.1%<p>which is surprisingly high.<p>The bottom of the roasting pan had about
1.5 quarts of liquid with about 5 fluid
ounces of fat.  Chilled, the fat did not
become solid, and the liquid did not gel.<p>=== Cost per Serving<p>A generous <i>serving</i> of the BBQ is 8
ounces or<p>8 * 28.3495 = 227 grams<p>so that the total cooked weight of<p>2,205 grams<p>has<p>2,205 &#x2F; 227 = 9.7<p><i>servings</i> for<p>21.72 &#x2F; 9.7 = $2.24<p>per serving.<p>=== Serving<p>In the cooking I added no salt, pepper,
<i>BBQ rubs</i>, or other seasonings.<p>For serving, I warm in a microwave oven
and add some bottle BBQ sauce and some
bottled hot sauce.<p>=== Changes<p>(1) The boneless pork butt -- from the
cutting to remove the bone -- had the meat
falling apart in several pieces.  In the
future, I will buy only the bone-in
version and cook it with the bone in.<p>(2) The 8 hours at 170 F may be too long
-- shorter cooking might yield meat that
is just as tender but more <i>succulent</i>,
i.e., more moist.<p>(3) Generally I prefer to do pork BBQ
cooking with a <i>picnic</i> pork shoulder.
That cut is really from a front arm, has
the elbow joint inside, and is usually
sold with some of the skin still attached.
With this cut, the meat may remain more
moist as it melts out its collagen.<p>=== Extras<p>I have plans to do beef stew starting, NOT
with relatively tender and expensive beef
chuck roast but, with, say, beef bottom
round roast.  And I hope to save money by
stepping down from USDA Prime and Choice
to USDA Select or Cutters and Canners.<p><i>Retired</i> dairy cows might be a good
source, and once I called around to some
packing houses and asked what happens to
such cows.  The short answer was &quot;think
fast food&quot;.  The offer was to buy boxes of
50 pounds at a time!  Maybe someday I will
and have beef stew for family and friends
for months!<p>A. Escoffier has a remark that the beef
from older animals has better flavor.  So,
US fast food is getting the beef with the
better flavor!<p>So, right, I intend to cook the beef at
165-170 F and NEVER let the stewing liquid
boil (as long as the beef is in that
liquid -- boiling later to reduce the
volume to concentrate and strengthen
flavors, sure).<p>Put the pot of stew in an oven at 350 F,
or 225 F?  Let the meat &quot;simmer&quot;?  NOT a
chance!  Instead, 165-170 F and NO MORE.<p>Pork BBQ is often served with coleslaw.
My <i>recipe</i> is to shred a head of green
cabbage and then soak the result to
desired wetness with just bottled Ranch
salad dressing.