Last year I was inspired by my buddy Matt over at Stokin and Smokin (a great blog on all things Big Green Egg) to make the plunge and purchase a Big Green Egg. Well, if you want to be completely factualy, and we do, Santa brought me the Big Green Egg! But he had to make the drop off a couple weeks before christmas becuase it was so heavy.
Anyway, last weekend my brother and sister-in-law were in town this weekend so we decided to a barbecue on the Big Green Egg. My first idea was to do a brisket because being from Texas, I love brisket. However, Ferguson’s where we decided to get the meat, wouldnt cut the 16 pound brisket in half for us. That was kind of lame. I should have gone to costco. But Laura was thinking on her feet and picked up a boston butt. In case you dont know, a boston butt is not the hind quarters of Matt Damon or Ben Affleck. It is actually a pork shoulder. Why is it called a Boston Butt, you ask? After some quick research from some highly respected source I found that it’s traditionally called a boston butt because of the way it use to be packaged. During the Revolutionary War in New England, some of the not as valuable cuts of pork were packed in casks or barrells better known as “butts”. Hence the term “Boston Butt”.
If Patriots ate the Boston Butt, so should you!
Here is a timeline of events:
4:02pm Saturday – Soaking some apple and maple wood chips in a 2 to 1 mixture of apple juice and water. I could use just water but I want to bring this barbecue to the next level. Why am I using maple and apple wood? Well because bacon comes from the same animal and bacon is often maple smoked or apple smoked. So I did both. NEXT LEVEL, BRAH!!
4:03pm Saturday – open beer, start drinking. Rouge Juniper IPA from Oregon. Pretty good stuff.
Rouge Juniper IPA. A little expensive, but really good if you like the IPAs. And I do!!
4:15pm Saturday – preparing rub of chili powder, salt, lemon salt, brown sugar, pepper, red pepper, and paprika. I get the foundation for my rubs from Adam Perry Lang’s Serious Barbecue. This book is fantastic and a must have for anybody that likes/loves to grill!!!
4:28pm Saturday – Rubbing the pork shoulder down nice and good with plenty of the seasoning. Just put it into the fridge to hangout until Im ready to cook it later tonight.
Before the rub, I put a little mixture of mustard and water to moisturize the meat. Then I rub'd it real good.
5:00pm Saturday – Wine tasting at Sip. Fun!! A great value for $10!!
8:29pm Saturday – Got home from dinner and I’m so full. Ate at INC STreet Food. The margaritas there are really good. Some stronger than others.
9:13pm Saturday – Starting the charcoal in the egg. Cant wait to get to bed because I am tired. But getting this grill started is giving me a shot of adrenaline! Open beer. Pour into belly.
Franziskanner Weissbier. Methinks this be from Deutschland.
9:30pm Saturday – Put the meat on the grill. Now I have to spend some time stabilizing the egg at or around 250 degrees. Hopefully this wont take too long. I smell like smoke.
11:02pm Saturday – Going to bed. I’ll try and wake up around 12:30 to check the temperature and spray with apple juice. I want to keep the meat moist.
12:31am Sunday – Stumbled downstairs to check the BGE temperature. 234 degrees to be exact. This is perfect. Opened up the grill to insert a meat thermometer and spray with apple juice. Thing is smelling good. Back to bed
3:30am Sunday – Oh man, still tired. Grill is still at 235, amazing! Sprayed again with apple juice and flipped the meat. The temperature of the meat is at 134 degrees. I need it to get to 160 before I wrap it. Now if I was really hardcore I wouldnt go back to bed. I’d probably start the Sunday Beer Time. But, alas, I’m still tired.
6:33am Sunday – Getting a little lighter outside. The meat temperature is at 154, perfect! Sprayed again with apple juice. Smelling fantastic!
6:55am Sunday – Cant get back to sleep. I knew this might be a problem. Just too excited! I need to stay in bed though and rest.
8:31am Sunday – Just woke up to my alarm! No more sleeping for me. Meat temperature at 164. Time to wrap! Combine 1/4 cup brown sugar and honey with 1 tbsp melted butter, spoonful of pineapple jelly, and a dash of apple juice. Put the meat on a blanket of foil and slather all of this sweet concoction over the meat. Wrap tightly in the foil and put back in the egg. This will braze the meat and get it super tender and add a good amount of sweetness. I’ll let this go for 5 or so hours.
OMG! This sweet mixture will take the pork from allright to HOLY SHIT!!1, in just 5 hours.
11:30am Sunday – Took a shower. I was smelling kinda gnarly. Time to open some beers! Grilling beers are ESSENTIAL!! I’ll start with….Back in Black from the 21st Amendment Brewery! Sounds great!! Chugalug!
Beer in a can? God Bless the USA!
11:31am Sunday – This beer is AWESOME!11!!
1:40pm Sunday – Checked the boston butt to remove the wrapping. It is falling apart!! It tastes great. But I’m putting some BBQ sauce and more rub on it and finishing it off in the BGE for another hour. Beer Time. Franziskaner Weissbier. Not too bad!
As you can see the hunk of meat cant stay together! Put more rub and BBQ sauce on that b-word! Flavor to the max!!
1:56pm Sunday – Sitting on my ass drinkin this beer. I really dropped the ball on the grilling beer front. Need to make up some time.
2:28pm Sunday – Got hungry and decided to pull the meat off the grill. It is so tender. No need for a knife to cut up this bastard.
Have to pull it off a piece at a time. Thanks to my older brother, Richard for taking some great photos!!
2:34pm Sunday – Damn son! This stuff is money!! It is melting in my mouth! Serve it on a soft bun with your favorite BBQ sauce and you are all set. Better crack open another beer!
Humming Ale from Anchor Brewery in San Francisco. Those guys make great beer! I should buy more of it (hear that Laura???).
I’m so glad I put in the time to make this boston butt. Most of the time put in was waiting around for it to get done. So easy to do, and hard to mess up. If you have the tools to cook one of these (like a grill or oven), it is well worth your time and resources.
You're not going to get a better/meatier sandwich at any restaurant! All the time is worth it because it's so much fun. It's tough to beat a weekend when you have great weather, great friends, and great food!
You might wonder how would I improve on this in the future? College Football and probably drink more grilling beers.
Bacon Wrapped Rob 
I think you could improve the consistency of the grilling beer problem if you sat down and made out a schedule for opening a fresh brew. Actually, you could include that in your grilling procedure. 21st Amendment is not distributed in Texas. Damn!
How many times did you have to add charcoal?
I didn’t have to replace any charcoal, but I could tell toward the end that I was running out. But you really dont need a lot of the charcoal going to keep the egg at a relatively low temp.
Looks amazing. All great beer choices too.
Looks good Rob but it really is impossible to judge by pictures alone. Next time you need to offer samples for your readers.
By the way, the first beer you were drinking was a manly beer called Rogue not some metrosexual beer named Rouge.
Haha, thanks for the correction! Duely noted.
Rob – Looks awesome, you’ve inspired me! Consistent temp is the biggest problem I have with my smoker. I know what I need to ask Santa for next ;).
They are heavy and weigh down the sleigh a bit, so you might want to put in an early order. Say for May or June.
Rob, this was a great recipe. I made one on my egg, but decided on Byron’s Butt rub as my rub of choice, and then I added apple cider vinegar and apple juice to mist the meat with. Finally, I used peach preservers instead of the pineapple; I thought that to be a better choice when cooking in Georgia. It was the most amazing BBQ; I’ve eaten in my life. Keep experimenting!
Thanks fore the comments! I agree, I’d rather use peach preserves. Anything sweet and citrus works well though.