Smoked Pork Butts

[fishhuntwork]

I successfully smoked my 1st ever pork butt today. I have a Bradley Smoker and I used hickory. I smoked the butt for about 7 hrs and finished it off in the oven double wrapped in tin foil and let it rest in a cooler for about 2 hrs. I have a couple questions: 1. The wife says its too smokey for her taste, whats the best way to tone it down? 2. I have my sons birthday party this saturday. I know its fishing opener, well hes only 3 so I will fish sunday night. What the best way to reheat the butt for sandwichs? Any good recipes for a vinager based sauce?

Thanks for you help again!!

[reinhard1]

first let me reccommend that you check out two great threads on this cooking forum.

What To Do With Leftover Pulled pork -page 5

1st Smoked Pork Shoulder--page 12 [realy great for anyone first starting]

my wife doesn't like too much smokey taste as well. i only smoke half the total cooking time. i have switched over to cherry wood chips and my wife hasn't said a thing since. it's a much milder wood smoke. so check out those two threads and i think more people will chime in as well. good luck.

[thirdeye]

I did two butts Saturday night myself, also with a foil finish, I'm not much of a sauce guy, often using store bought sauces as a base, then adding to them. Since you are doing sandwiches you could make your slaw tart and leave the sauce as-is. (traditional PP sandwiches have meat and coleslaw)

I'm not familiar with a Bradley, but you can tone down smokiness several ways. The first is to make sure your smoke is not too heavy in the first place. I wait for any white smoke to turn gray or light blue, and keep the smoke gentile. The next thing you can do is change to a lighter wood. Cherry, apple and alder will produce smoke that is lighter than hickory. Another thing to try is foiling earlier, once meat is in foil it can't take any more smoke. The last thing is to isolate some of the internal meat when you are pulling... the farther the meat is from the outer edge, the less smokey it is. Make sure to save a little white, and a little brown (Miss Whites' delight, and the renowned Mr Brown)

I like to reheat in food saver bags in simmering water, or in a foil pouch in a 250* oven. A microwave can work if you take your time using low power and resting between zaps. You need some reheating liquid, the list below are things used for pulled pork. "Cooking juice refers to the liquids you had in the foil pouch after resting, not the drippings during smoking. There will be no detectable flavor from the apple juice or Coke, and whichever liquid you use, it does not take much. I also do a fine grind on some rub and sprinkle it on the pulled meat.

PULLED PORK

Apple juice + cooking juice

Apple juice + chicken broth

Coca-Cola

Apple juice + cooking juice + cider vinegar

Coca-Cola + chicken broth

Coca Cola + BBQ sauce

Apple juice

Apple juice + cider vinegar

Dr. Pepper + cooking juice

RC Cola + sauce

Cider vinegar + water

Vinegar + water (or apple cider)

Fruit nectar

Pineapple juice + sauce

Sprite

[McGurk]

Reinhard is right; either cut the time in the smoke, cut the amount of hardwood used during the smoke, or use a milder hardwood like cherry or pecan. Hickory is pretty potent, with mesquite being even more smokey.