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u/treesmith1 2d ago
Need to drain and reserve some of the juice. Then pull, and add back just enough to fluff it up a bit and keep moist. Sauce is for the diner not the chef.
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u/Ronw1993 2d ago
That liquid would build the most bomb rice you ever had. And pan sauce. And potato side.
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u/treesmith1 2d ago
Agreed. Run it through fat separator skim the top and have a nice aspic and some nice stock for pan sauce.
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u/Ronw1993 2d ago
Yes!! It’s such a critical step because you can either have congealed meat or fantastic meat with bomb sides
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u/muzzledmasses 2d ago
Sometimes when I separate the juice I use the rendered fat to fry up some of the meat.
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u/treesmith1 2d ago
Oh yeah, for sure. Great to get some country ham going, and the redeye gravy infused with the smoke from the fat. Nice.
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u/Bozhark 2d ago
What’s a fat separator?
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u/treesmith1 2d ago
Real simple device you can pick up cheap. It looks like a liquid measuring cup, but has an insert you pour the liquid trough that has small holes that cause the fat to separate and float to the top of your drippings. The spout runs from the bottom of the contaiber so you can just pour off the stock and are left with a pretty clean aspic jelly.
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u/JoyousGamer 3d ago
Now I know when I go to some random place why their pulled pork that slight paste style to it. Its all the liquid in it and being added to it.
Can't say its better or worse but personally just never understood how the consistency got there.
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u/SnooDogs499 2d ago
I can say. All that liquid makes it worse. I don't need my buns looking like a sloppy Joe sandwich instead of a pulled pork but the method works if you can't produce moist pulled pork by low and slow with a good rest.
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u/clearbluesmoke 2d ago
The reason restaurants do this is so that they can shred all of the pork at once and hold it for longer periods of time during serving, and it won't dry out. If you shred it without any braising liquid then holding it for a long period of time will dry it out quickly in a steam pan. It's pretty hard to not get moist pulled pork out of a pork shoulder, unless you completely scorche it.
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u/Ronw1993 2d ago
It’s worse imo, I made an honest mistake with carnitas recently and the texture is just off-putting
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u/Underwater_Karma 2d ago
Yeah if there's one thing that pork needed it was more liquid poured on.
WTF?
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u/Bobcat2013 3d ago
Is it typical to mix sauce in with it?
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u/RUKiddingMeReddit 2d ago
Not if you know what you're doing. Save some, but don't drown it. That will taste like a mushy mess.
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u/Bobcat2013 2d ago
Thats what I thought. Good meat doesn't need sauce
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u/lonerider60 23h ago
I would like to say something about sheep or lemmings here, but I will just say that old tired mantra is usually repeated by somebody who doesn’t happen to like sauce. Subjective opinion.
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u/Bobcat2013 23h ago
I do like sauce. Just prefer meat without it. Provided that the meat is good enough. It its not so good then yeah give me the sauce
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u/Risheridan 2d ago
Bro it's overcooked and swimming in its own juice and you piss even more liquid on it...
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u/Prestigious-Trip1948 2d ago
Looked amazing, until I saw all that juice. Gotta separate my man. Sauce it up afterwards and add a little bit of that juice back. Looks like pulled pork slop at the end.
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u/91elklake 2d ago
Is this normal?
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u/CutApprehensive999 2d ago
No. It's more akin to carnitas than pulled pork.
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u/WinnebagoPeople 2d ago
This isn't carnitas. Every time I've had carnitas it's not even pulled, it's just a chunk of butt.
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u/RollingCarrot615 2d ago
Thats some very dark bark, and next time get a life jacket before you start pulling these apart. You really gotta be safe working around bodies of water.
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u/gremolata 2d ago
That's a lot of juice! More like a compote de porc. Would eat it all still the same ... lol.
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u/manliness-dot-space 2d ago
Did you cook it the entire time in the pans? Or just rest it in the pans?
Unlike all the other negative comments, I love the smoked fat flavor of meats I smoke. But I'm curious if there's enough surface area exposed to get a deep smoke flavor if you cook them in pans?
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u/boomasbbq 2d ago
Was only in the pan for an hour or so, both butts had a large fat cap, and about half a cup of water was added to pan to stop the meat from sticking
I would normally drain the liquid off, but it was an evening service, and freezing cold, so I just kept it in it, to keep things warmer
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u/manliness-dot-space 2d ago
Nice. I love the fat usually. I tried not trimming my brisket (or very lightly trimming) and the fat is the best part. I usually like the fat on pork butts the best also, so I am looking for ways to avoid losing it during smoking. I'm going to try transferring to pans near the end and see how it goes. Thanks!
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u/bertdiddoit 2d ago
Sauce on the side, we want to taste meat
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u/boomasbbq 2d ago
Yeah that's fair. That was 28lbs of butts so only a tiny adding of sauce considering the amount of meat
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u/denvergardener 2d ago
What are you talking about? There's so much liquid it's almost covering the meat.
You made soup.
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u/boomasbbq 2d ago
The liquid is from the meat
I didn't add that
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u/WinnebagoPeople 2d ago
You need to rest your meat if that's all juice from the cook. That juice should stay in the meat, not separate out. You now have dry meat sitting in juice instead of juicy meat.
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u/boomasbbq 2d ago
These were rested for 8 hours
There would have been lucky to be a cups worth of liquid in the tray of 20lbs+ meat
Not all rendered moisture gets reabsorbed
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u/Other_Summer_1903 2d ago
Little trick from Meat Church I stole was to run the juice through a fat separator and after pulling adding it back to the pulled meat. Makes more sense for me since I add butter, brown sugar, and apple juice when I wrap.
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u/Steegzqt 2d ago
Not really impressed, smoke, braise, of course it falls apart but that’s too much liquid my guy
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u/Bacon_Hammer_er 1d ago
Skim don’t mix in the rendered fat… it’s already going to be as oily as hell due to the excessive amount of liquid.
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u/Odd_Cat9557 1d ago
Nightmare… it is way overcooked you don’t even need teeth to eat that messy soup
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2d ago
[deleted]
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u/boomasbbq 2d ago
I only tray them for the last hour or so. It's only rendered fat and a little water. I mainly only do it, as our pork can sometimes be a little lean
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u/BougieHole 2d ago
It’s obvious by the lack of response from OP, they don’t give a fuck what you think. 😂
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u/oldwhiteoak 2d ago
can someone explain why all the posts here marked "pork butt" here have people pulling a shoulder blade out of the meat? Is the pork butt cut actually a pork shoulder? what cut is pork shoulder then?
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u/JasonShoes 2d ago
Pork butt and pork should are the same thing, name came from back in the day the pork was shipped in barrels called butts, mostly from Boston area hence Boston pork butt
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u/oldwhiteoak 2d ago
I can't tell if you're serious
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u/JasonShoes 2d ago
Technically the butt is the upper part of the shoulder however I’ve seen the names interchangeably be used by most grocery store cuts, both are the shoulder and yes that is where the name comes from. Quick google if you think I’m messing with you.
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u/Mr_Algorithm 2d ago
He is serious. That’s why it’s called a pork butt, but it’s actually the shoulder of the pork. A quick google will show you that.
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u/WinnebagoPeople 2d ago
My butcher told me they're called Boston butts because of how the shoulders were butted up next to eachother in the trucks leaving Boston.
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u/rjdrennen1987 2d ago
Too bad you can’t get your pork that moist just by cooking it well.
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u/boomasbbq 2d ago
That was 100ml of water added to the tray when wrapped
Its moist due to cooking well
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u/CaptDrunkenstein 2d ago
Vat of liquid aside, what are people using for the heat proof but still dexterous under gloves?
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u/Underwater_Karma 2d ago
Look for glove liners
I bought a pack of 6 pair 4 years ago and still using the first one
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u/str8gas87 2d ago
Where’s the smoke ring?
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u/boomasbbq 2d ago
Sometimes you get it sometimes you don't
Smoke ring means nothing at all, other than a visual thing
Doesn't change flavour at all
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u/GreatMacGuffin 2d ago
Day'yum dat booty look soft as fuck dawg.
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u/boomasbbq 2d ago
Super soft
I don't always take them that far, depends on the service, but long hold and rest they always end up pretty damn soft
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u/LegendaryLS3 2d ago
They adding MORE liquids. My god