smoked pork butt

Now in darkness world stops turning

Ashes where the bodies burning

No more war pigs have the power

Hand of God has struck the hour

Day of judgement, God is calling

On their knees the war pig’s crawling

Begging mercy for their sins

Satan laughing spreads his wings

All right now!

“War Pigs” by Black Sabbath

May is National Barbecue Month, so this will be the week to celebrate all things barbecue. In the past year, the Oakland/Emeryville crew has quickly made an art out of barbecue.  We all have our responsibilities for each get together: me (pork), Arjun (coleslaw), and Dena (beans). Like a well oiled machine, we work together to create an awesome barbecue experience (almost) every month. This is my basic smoked pork butt recipe, simple but good.

Food Ingredients:

6-8 pound bone in pork butt (Cooking time is about 1 1/2-2 hours per pound)
Rub (use your favorite)
A potato

Non-food Ingredients:

Chimney Starter
Newspaper
Cooking Spray
Lighter
Charcoal
Cooking tongs
Aluminum Foil
Smoker
6 fist sized chunks of smoke wood
Heat resistant gloves
Two digital thermometers

SMOKED PORK BUTT DIRECTIONS

Prepping the pork:

1.   Remove any excess fat, fat does not take in smoke and rub
2.    Pat the pork dry with paper towel
3.    Apply  rub and wrap in plastic wrap, let sit overnight
4.    The next morning, remove pork from plastic wrap and apply more rub
5.    Insert the thermometer into the pork with the tip reaching the middle of the meat (which will measure the internal temperature, you are aiming for 190-205° F)
6.    Insert your other thermometer through a raw potato (which will sit on your smoker grate to gauge the smoker’s temperature)
7.    Let the pork sit while firing up the smoker

Make your own rub, it’s worth it

Wrapped pork waiting for the smoker

Pork and potato with thermometers

Lighting the smoker using the Minion Method

1.    Wrap the water chamber of the smoker in aluminum foil
2.    Fill the charcoal chamber at the bottom of the smoker completely full with charcoal briquettes
3.    Bury 3 chunks of the smoke wood in the unlit charcoal and place the other three on top of the charcoal
4.    Fill the chimney with 20-40 briquettes depending on the temperature outside
5.    Roll up two sheets of newspaper into circles, spray with cooking spray, place underneath the charcoal and light
6.    Let the briquettes burn until they begin to turn gray, add more paper if the coals will  not stay lit
7.    Spread the gray coals over the unlit briquettes at the bottom of the smoker with tongs
8.    Assemble the smoker and fill the water pan with water
9.    Place the pork and potato with thermometers on the top grate
10.   Place the lid on the smoker
11.    Set the top vent and bottom three vents 100% open
12.    When the smoker reaches 200° F, set the bottom three vents to 25% open
13.    Adjust the bottom vents as needed to keep a constant 225-250° F temperature at the cooking grate level (potato thermometer)
15.    Cook the pork until it reaches an internal temperature of 190-205° F

Smoke wood waiting in the smoker

The chimney is the only way to go when starting charcoal

All ready to go

The finished product

Based on recipe and instructions from: http://www.virtualweberbullet.com/pork2.html

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