I noticed in the weekly flyer for our local grocery store, HEB, that there was a sale on pork butt. Pork butt is actually the shoulder of the pig and the name comes from Boston Butt. This name comes from 1700s New England area where special barrels called butts were used to store the cuts. Regardless on the name, at $1.29 a pound for the bone-in 11 pound slab it was a great buy! And a chance for me to experiment with different recipes.
I decided to try three different ways to prepare the meat. I started the preparation on Wednesday by dividing the cut in three for the various uses. This included (1) thin slices of more lean areas to make Al Pastor, (2) fattier chunks to be used for grinding sausage, and (3) the remaining on the bone for a smoked pork.
Al Pastor: I prepared a marinade of achiote paste, lime juice, orange juice, garlic, onions, salt, pepper, cumin, vinegar, habanero, pineapple, and rehydrated Guajillo peppers. I put all of this in the blender using some of the water from the rehydrated Guajillo to create a thick sauce. I mixed this in with the slices of pork and put them in the fridge to marinate.
Sausage: The ‘to-be’ sausage chunks just went into the fridge to wait until they were transferred to the freezer 30 minutes before grinding.
Smoked Pork: The rest of the pork shoulder was seasoned with salt, pepper, paprika and chili powder. I also inserted slices of garlic into the skin. (I didn’t intend to cook until Friday so this was probably a bit early to season as the salt can start breaking down the meat but sometimes schedule overrides perfection).
On Friday morning just after the sun rose I prepared the smoker by lighting the charcoal and wood to get the cooker up to the desired 225F. After the cooker temperature stabilized and there was a steady stream of light white smoke emanating from the vents, I added the pork shoulder. Since I had trimmed it down quite a bit I calculated the cook time to be between 6-8 hours. The plan is a low and slow temperature cook with intermittent fire feeding and meat basting until the internal temp reaches 190F.
Al Pastor
While the pork was smoking I went to work on the other recipes. For Christmas I had received a vertical skewer (wanting to try this out was the main driver for this cook session) and I stacked the slices of marinated pork sandwiched between a slice of pineapple at the bottom and top. I let this settle for about an hour in the fridge and heated my gas grill to ~350F. From what I had researched, this would take 2-3 hours to cook. The pineapple would drip down the marinated slices providing crispy caramelized pieces of meat for the planned Al Pastor tacos for dinner. During cooking I discovered it was better to slice the outer layers as it cooked then return to slice the next layer as they browned. This would be similar to a gyro spit. The result was a delicious, slightly crispy, and complexly spicy taco filling that was served with pickled onions and pico de gallo. (Note: Pico de Gallo translates as Roosters Beak. It is not rooster beaks, it is various combinations of diced tomatoes, onions, peppers, garlic, cilantro and, for our meal, pineapple).
Sausage
The pork chunks for the sausage were put into the freezer along with all the grinder attachment parts for 30 minutes before cooking. (I used a grinder accessory attached to our KitchenAid mixer https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07GK7XKJK/ref=cm_sw_em_r_mt_dp_504N8TKCJVRNDF08FT24). The reason for the slight freeze is to prevent the fat from rendering due to the friction of being ground and creating a sticky goo. While the meat was chilling, I cut up rough chunks of garlic, jalapeño, and sage. I did a couple of sample runs of mixing the pork and veg through the grinder to make and fry small patties. This helped me determine the right portions and pleased both me and our dog as we sampled. With the recipe determined I mixed the right amount of the the garlic, jalapeño, and sage mix in with the pork chunks and processed it through the grinder. The result was a ground sausage. As an appetizer I made meatballs with the sausage by combining it with damp panko and diced onions. I rolled the balls, put them on a bake tray and put it in the fridge for 20 minutes while I heated the oven. I baked them for 20 minutes. They were very popular and did not last another 20 minutes after they were put on the table.
Smoked Pork
The sun was starting to dip in the skyline and the wood & charcoal in the smoker was fading into ash: Yet the internal temp of the smoked pork was still below my target of 190F. Although it was cooked and ok to eat, I wanted a bit more cooking time to achieve that fall apart texture. So I cheated . . . twice. First I wrapped the cut in foil; this retains the heat better and speeds up the cooking. This has the nickname of “The Texas Crutch”. The other cheat was finishing it off in the kitchen oven. After 8 hours on the grill (and now wrapped in foil) the meat is not going to absorb anymore smoke so all it needs is heat. So instead of adding more wood, I placed the wrapped cut in our stove at a temp of 260F until the internal temp hit 190F.
Because we were porked-out already the smoked pork, except for some tasters, went into the fridge for later. Over the next few days it became the following:
- Smoked pork bbq dinner with corn-on-the-cob and baked potato
- Pulled into pieces and mixed with a bit of BBQ sauced then crisped under the broiler for a taco lunch
- Pulled into pieces and mixed with black beans, Oaxaca cheese, and homemade sauce for enchiladas, and finally
- The bone and remnants made into a broth so serve as the base for a tortilla soup.
Experiments complete: My favorite was the Al Pastor. I am keeping my eye out for the next sale and we will have a group over to enjoy the feast!
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