steve Posted October 9, 2007 Report Posted October 9, 2007 I have a farmer friend who raises organic free range animals. He also has his own store where he sells his products. Anyway, I had him make me an eleven pound pork butt with a 1/2" fat cap. This baby has never been frozen and is fresh off the hoof. I plan to put him on the KK tonight. My question is, do I put the fat cap up or down on the grill? Any other suggestions would be greatly appreciated.
Sanny Posted October 9, 2007 Report Posted October 9, 2007 Fat up/fat down, up to you. Fat down will protect the meat from the direct heat. If you are doing it indirect, then no need to worry about that. And no, "fat up" doesn't mean it's going to baste the meat as it cooks. Fat down will suck up the fat into meat, fat up will too. A miracle will happen, and yer gonna have deeelicious butt.
Porkchop Posted October 9, 2007 Report Posted October 9, 2007 i do mine fat down, but i used to do up.
dub Posted October 9, 2007 Report Posted October 9, 2007 Fat to the fire. On a KK or any other vertical that would be downward. Fat doesn't baste-it just ruins good bark. Another reason to put the fat down is that the bottom tends to stick to the grill and I'd rather lose fat than meat to the stickage.
Sanny Posted October 9, 2007 Report Posted October 9, 2007 Oooh bark! Forgot about that. We like bark.
ThreeDJ16 Posted October 10, 2007 Report Posted October 10, 2007 Fat to the fire. On a KK or any other vertical that would be downward. Fat doesn't baste-it just ruins good bark. Another reason to put the fat down is that the bottom tends to stick to the grill and I'd rather lose fat than meat to the stickage. Agreed! If it's not already inside the meat, it's not getting in later. Fat side down (or skin side if it is a shoulder). -=Jasen=-
dub Posted October 10, 2007 Report Posted October 10, 2007 ...If it's not already inside the meat' date=' it's not getting in later.... -[/quote'] There's one to print on a t-shirt! Fat side up,basting,mopping,overly low smoking temps,foil cooking, soaking wood chips,mandatory use of vinegar sauce on pulled pork Believing so many of these myths for so long kept my Q sub-par and less hassle-free for so long and added years to my learning curve. I've actually e-mailed a few cookbook authors,competition winners,and restauranteurs,upon occaision,what you might call a "Callin' ya on yer B.S." missive,saying,more or less: "I seem to be breaking every single one of your hard-and-fast rules for BBQing. How come my friends keep requesting my Q? Are they all Philistines with tongues of stone or might I be doing something right after all?" I'll step down now. dub(try the hype before you buy)
Sanny Posted October 10, 2007 Report Posted October 10, 2007 See why it's good to have me around? I can say all the "wrong" stuff and you can correct it. lol.
Porkchop Posted October 10, 2007 Report Posted October 10, 2007 deej brings up shoulder too. just recently did shoulders and figured the same. i actually flensed the skin away from the roast as opposed to scoring it, like i've seen/done b4. i left the skin attached at the very end, like a hinge, and then applied rub to the roast and re-covered with the skin and put skin down on the smoker. so, it was like a pork fat and rub sammich between the skin and pork. i will be doing this again. and yeh, all those myths you still see perpetuated and permulgated all over the place; even in that bastion of cooking lore, FOOD TV like, searing meat seals in juices. at least AB tells the truth. i think most of those FOOD TV guys know all about the maillard reaction, but just fall back on the bs cause everybody knows it already, or they don't think folks can handle real info.
