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Ingredients
- Southern Succor Rub:
- 1/4 Cup Ground Black Pepper
- 1/4 Cup Paprika
- 1/4 Cup Turbinado Sugar
- 2 Tablespoons Table Salt
- 2 Teaspoons Dry Mustard
- 1 Teaspoon Cayenne Pepper
Preparation
Step 1
Mix ingredients thoroughly. Makes enough rub for ONE pork butt, with some leftover for use in the Southern Sop.
Combine the ingredients in a mixing bowl
Pat the pork butt dry with paper towels, then apply half of the rub to the butt. Place the rubbed meat in a Ziploc bag and refrigerate for 8-12 hours.
Reserve the leftover rub for use later in the cooking process.
Select The Smoke Wood
Oak, apple, or other fruitwoods compliment pork nicely, either alone or in combination. Hickory is a favorite, too, but can be quite strong if too much is used. In the past, I have used a 2:1 ratio of oak to hickory with good results.
For this cooking session I used a mix of apple, oak, and hickory chunks, plus some leftover apple wood chips from the bottom of the bag. I used the equivalent of about 3 fist-sized chunks of apple, 3 of oak, and 1 of hickory--so a 3:3:1 ratio.
This single application of smoke wood is all that's necessary for the entire cooking process, and it will produce a nice smoky flavor without being overpowering.
I did not soak any of the wood before using it.
Re-Rub The Butts
Just before you fire-up the cooker, remove the pork butt from the refrigerator and apply another generous coating of rub. Put the re-rubbed meat back in the refrigerator or allow it to sit at room temperature until the cooker is ready to go, it's your choice.
Reserve any leftover rub for use in the Southern Sop that's applied later in the cooking session.
Fire-Up The Cooker
Light the cooker using the Minion Method. Fill the charcoal chamber almost to overflowing with unlit Kingsford charcoal briquettes. Bury several chunks of dry smoke wood in the coals and place a few chunks of wood on top. This should be enough fuel to fire the cooker for 12-14 hours, maybe longer depending upon weather conditions and how much meat is being cooked.
Light 15-20 briquettes using a chimney starter and spread them over the unlit briquettes and smoke wood chunks.
Assemble the cooker and put the re-rubbed pork butt(s) into the cooker.
Set the top vent 100% open and leave it that way throughout the entire cooking session. Start with all three bottom vents 100% open. When the cooker temperature hits 200°F measured at the lid, set the three vents to 25% open. Allow the cooker to come up to 225-250°F, adjusting the bottom vents as necessary to maintain that temperature range.
For this cooking session, I filled the charcoal chamber halfway with briquettes, then distributed the apple wood chips, then filled the chamber almost to overflowing with more briquettes, then nestled the apple, oak, and hickory chunks into the unlit charcoal on top.
Since I was cooking four pork butts weighing a total of 25 pounds, which is a lot of cold meat, and I would be cooking overnight in cool, nighttime temperatures, I started with 40 hot briquettes to get the cooker temperature up more quickly than if I had used only 20 briquettes.
Barbecue The Pork Butts
Cook the pork butt at 225-250°F to an internal temperature of 200°F.
Turn the meat once after 8-12 hours of cooking. One turn should be sufficient for even cooking. If you prefer Paul Kirk's method of turning meat at the "halftimes", do it that way: Turn and baste the meat at the halfway point of the cooking process, then divide the remaining cooking time in half and turn and baste at that point, continuing until the meat is done. When you have an hour or less of cooking time remaining, stop turning and basting.
I turned these butts only one time, after 12 hours of cooking, and swapped the butts between the top and bottom grates.
For authentic "Mr. Brown", baste several times using the Southern Sop described below. Baste for the first time when you turn the meat for the first time, then as often as you see fit, but not more than once an hour. If you want to baste with something simpler, use apple juice applied with a spray bottle--I like Martinelli's Premium Apple Juice.
I basted these butts once when I turned the meat, then one more time after that a few hours later.
Baste The Meat
Here's the recipe for the Southern Sop.
Southern Sop
Remaining Southern Succor Rub (Important: See text below)
2 cups apple cider vinegar
1 cup water
3 Tablespoons ground black pepper
2 Tablespoons table salt
1 Tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
1 Tablespoon paprika
1 Tablespoon cayenne pepper
Warm ingredients over low heat, stirring occasionally.
This recipe calls for using all of the remaining rub from one batch of Southern Succor Rub (maybe 3 tablespoons of rub). In my experience, it makes enough sop to baste up to two butts 3-4 times during the cooking process. If you're cooking three or four butts, a single batch will allow you to baste two times.
Apply the baste to the meat using a string mop, a turkey baster, or as a last resort, a basting brush.
Hold The Meat For Serving
At a minimum, place the pork butt on a rimmed baking pan, cover loosely with foil, and let rest 30 minutes before slicing or pulling.
For even better results, wrap the pork butt tightly with aluminum foil, place in an empty ice chest, and hold until ready to serve. The meat will continue to cook for a little while because of carry-over heat, making the meat even more tender. More importantly, the extended rest results in moister meat, and the collected juices inside the foil will soften any tough crust on the exterior of the meat. The meat will remain safely above 140°F for 2-4 hours.