Yesterday, I tried a new barbecue joint, and tried the pulled pork sandwich from their menu. It wasn’t bad, it was flavorful, but there was no evidence of any smoke.
I got the hankering to do make up my own big plate of my own homemade pulled pork, — with a hint of smoky goodness. The weather forecast for the next few days was rain free.
JoeTisserie Pork Butt I
Soon as I had wolfed down all of the remaining baked beans and pulled pork bits, I headed over to a decent grocer and picked a boneless pork butt for a JoeTisserie cook.
There was just one boneless pork butt left in the display case. It weighed in at 4 pounds and 4 ounces, sort of on the smaller side. On the other hand, it was way better than the cryo packed big box store pork butts swimming in a saltwater bath.
The JoeTisserie is a favorite Kamado Joe accessory. If you’re thinking about picking this baby up, check out my review here.
JoeTisserie Pork Butt I – Pork Preparation
First thing is to remove the elastic netting that the grocer uses. After trimming away as much of the fat cap as I could, the pork but was tied up using cotton butchers twine. Lastly, the pork butt was given a liberal coating of mango and chipotle spice rub.
When I was finished, the pork butt weighted in at 3 pounds and 11 ounces on my kitchen scale. I cleared out a shelf in the fridge and put tomorrow’s dinner, unwrapped, to air dry.
JoeTisserie Pork Butt I – Kamado Joe Preparation
Task complete, now to get the Kamado Joe Classic all set up for tomorrow’s cook. It will be dark when I get started, I don’t want to fumble around too much with a flashlight trying to get things going.
No special technique here, I just dump in the lump charcoal. Notice that I do not use a drip pan in this cook. I have never had any issues with flare-ups cooking pork butts on the JoeTisserie.
JoeTisserie Pork Butt I – Let’s Get Started
I get the pork butt onto the spit rod and secured in place with the spit rod forks. I don’t tighten them yet as the final placement will be done at the Kamado Joe.
I want the pork butt to be centered over the firebox. I also added two fist size pieces of cherry wood for the smoke. I got a load of really nicely seasoned cherry from Doug. I had to pick up a splitter to knock it down into manageable pieces. The splitter review is a future post.
Had to peak, this is the pork butt an hour into the cook. It is starting to get a nice color. I also have an nice blue smoke coming from the Kamado Joe.
Another peek, this is 3 1/2 hours into the cook. Looks good enough to eat already!
Taking a break after cutting the grass and knocking out a few other chores. We are now 6 hours into the cook. This looks awesome, can’t wait to try some of that bark!
We are now 8 hours into the cook and I take the temperature using my not so instant read thermometer. It shows 200 degrees. I double check, taking readings in several spots. It’s done 2 or 3 hours earlier than expected!
JoeTisserie Pork Butt I – Done Already
Hum, done earlier than expected! After taking this awesome smelling treat inside, the spit rod, spit rod forks, and the cotton butchers twine are removed. I let it rest up and cool down for an hour or so while I clean the spit rod parts.
I decided to leave the Kamado Joe vents opened up and burn what remains of the charcoal. I started doing this to burn out any cooking oils that come from the self-basting drips from the JoeTisserie.
Dang it, no burger buns. Used a couple of hot dog buns and some leftover cole slaw topping, making it Carolina style. Man this is good! The pork is moist and flavorful with a hint of smoky goodness. I had some vinegar sauce I made for the last pulled pork cook, but didn’t use any of it.
Nothing like freshly cooked pulled pork sandwiches.
Check out my other Kamado Joe and JoeTisserie recipes and links here on my Outdoor Eats page.