Boston Butt (Pork Shoulder)

All Boston Butts are pork shoulders, but not all pork shoulders are Boston Butts. A whole pork shoulder is normally divided into two sections, the picnic and the Boston butt. The Boston butt is from higher up on the animal and contains the shoulder blade bone. The picnic is from the upper arm and is the lower half of the entire shoulder cut. Contrary to popular belief, a Boston Butt is not from the rear of the animal. The name came from pre-revolutionary times in New England when they shipped pork shoulders in wooden casks or barrels known as "butts".

The Prep:

Brine Meat Over Night

Two nights (at least, more is better) before you plan to cook, brine your shoulder in regular ol' apple juice.  It can be challenging to find a bowl big enough.  A brine bag can be used if needed.  I stick with around 8lb butts so my large cooking bowls work just fine.

Rub Meat Over Night

One night before the cook, take regular yellow mustard or olive oil and slather the pork on all sides. This will cook off and you will not taste the mustard. It simply acts as an adhesive for the rub. Generously add on your favorite store bought rub or make your own (See Rub section, I highly recommend making Chris Lily's rub yourself). Rub it in every possible crevasse, you can't really overdo this part.  Loosely wrap and stick back in the fridge overnight.

Preparing the BGE

This is a long cook so clean out your ash box and remove any old charcoal (you can reuse this, but just shake out all the ash and add it to the top of the new stuff). I do this with an old shop vac and it works great. Fill your BGE up with lump charcoal and wood chunks. There are many schools of thought on the placement of the charcoal for a long cook. The general consensus seems to be to hand pick some larger pieces for the bottom, medium pieces in the middle and small on top (mixing wood chunks in all levels). Get the fire started at the top and let it burn down during the cook. NOTE: Do not soak wood chunks).

Set out Meat

An hour or so before you plan to put the shoulder on the grill, pull it out of the fridge and let it sit at room temperature to help raise the internal temp a little. This allows the internal meat temp to slowly rise and it will not drop the BGE temp too much when you put it on. This is also a good time to inject the meat if you so choose (see injector mix section).

The Cook:

Light the Egg

After you get a good fire going in your BGE, I put in the place setter (feet up) and put the grate on the place setter. Close the lid and let the vents run wide open for a few minutes and then close the vents to about inch on the bottom vent and 1/4 inch on the top daisy wheel. Adjust as need to get the temp down in the range of 225-250. Clean what hasn't already burned off of your grate with grill brush.

Put Meat on Grill

Lift the hot grate up with something and put a drip pan on the place setter under the area you plan to put the meat to catch the drippings. You can also add water, apple juice, apple cider vinegar, beer or practically anything else to the drip pan. Some people think the evaporation helps moisturize the meat. I'm not sure how much it helps, but certainly can't hurt. I always add a little something to the drip pan.

I have a dual thermometer probe that I clip one probe to the grate to measure the grill temp, and another that goes into the thickest part of the meat (not next to the bone). This thermometer has a wireless receiver that I can keep on me and it will tell me the grill and food temp and alert me if either falls out of the pre-programmed range. This is almost a must have for long cooks, especially for a gadget guy like me.

Go do Things for Many Hours

Once the egg has stabilized you can leave for a good while.  I've had a fire go out on me, so that's why I like the wireless thermometer.  The idea is to leave the dome closed on this thing for the entire cook as you monitor the temp.  Sometimes you don't have to do anything, sometimes you have to do some vent adjusting.  It should take about 1.5-2 hours per pound of meat.

On the cook where my fire went out, I cooked a 7lb butt for nearly 20 hours.  It was fantastic.

Check Meat at 190 Degrees Internal Temp

This is called the "probe test".  Using either a thermapen or the probe from your wireless thermometer, insert into the meat and withdraw it.  If it feel like your pulling out of hot butter, it's time to pull the meat.  If there is any resistance or drag, it needs to cook more.  Check every five degrees.

Once you've passed the probe test, pull meat and stick in a small cooler and let it rest for at least one hour, but it'll still be piping hot for about 4 hours in there. I think the longer you wait the better (up to about 4 hours). You can leave your thermometer in the meat while its in the cooler and watch the temp continue to rise.  (If you're ready to eat, the meat can just rest on the counter lightly covered for about 30 min).

Let me know how it was!