Recently I cooked Ray Lampe’s “Competition-style Pork Butt” from his book “Slow Fire“. I have several BBQ books and this is the first time that I’ve cooked from this one. Ray does well to explain the basics, but also has some great-sounding recipes such a “smoked maple-brined pork chops”. The book has a range of dry spice rub and BBQ sauce recipes.
Ray’s recipe is for an 8 lb pork butt. I had a pork shoulder which was slightly under 2 kilos. (insert jokes here…)
The recipe starts with injecting the pork with a marinade. Thankfully I have a syringe that I bought in the US few years ago. Here is Ray’s recipe. Cook up the ingredients for 5 minutes, stirring often.
1 cup apple juice
1/2 cup pineapple juice
1/2 cup packed brown sugar
1/4 cup salt
2 tbsp worcestershire sauce
2 tbsp soy saue
2 tbsp hot sauce
1/2 tsp cayenne pepper
I injected the pork with the marinade at about a dozen points and then decided to marinate the pork in the remaining mixture overnight.
The next day I drained the pork and dried it with paper towels, then rubbed it with Ray’s spice rub.
1/2 cup raw sugar (I used brown sugar)
1/2 cup sea salt
3 tbsp chilli powder
3 tbsp paprika
1 tsp garlic powder
1 tsp onion powder
1/2 tsp black pepper
1/2 tsp lemon pepper
1/2 tsp ground coffee
1/4 tsp cayenne pepper
I put the pork in a few layers of foil, and poured some of the marinade on top, then baked it in the oven on 140C for about 4 hours.
When I put it onto the BBQ (coals to the side, not underneath), the pork was already falling apart. I used Mesquite chips for the smoking. I gave the pork 20 minutes in the Weber and then turned it 180 degrees and gave it another 20 minutes. I didn’t want the meat to dry out as it was already cooked enough to eat. I wasn’t sure whether I’d get enough smokiness in the meat but I must say that it worked fine!
I shredded the pork and added some more of the marinade which had been reduced on the stove. This wasn’t a good idea as it made the meat saltier than needed – some cooked but not reduced marinade would have been fine.
The pork was served with home-made semi-sourdough rolls. Pulled pork burgers with a lovely Clare Valley Shiraz. I was happy.
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