Cookie Posted August 21, 2011 Report Share Posted August 21, 2011 I've had to edit this post and change the name from "Easy Peasy Pork Butt" to "Sold a KK Pork Butt." We recently made some new friends through my wife's pre-natal pilates class and invited them over for dinner (for the first time). After the meal described in my initial post below, they proceeded to go home and order a KK -- after one meal... Gotta love the power of the Komodo Kamado. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- I did a very simple pork butt here in Singapore yesterday, it turned out well, so thought I'd share. Here is roughly how I did it... 9 Pound Bone In Pork Shoulder BBQ Rub (something in the pantry I'd made previously, I think maybe a rub out of the Wiviott Low and Slow book) Vinegar based Mop Sauce BBQ Sauce (I made up a batch of Big Bob Gibson's Red Sauce) Steps: 1. Massaged the entire shoulder with one cup of vinegar for a few minutes and then rinsed. 2. Applied the rub 3. I filled the basket with extruded coconut lump (don't get excited, this is the "old" batch that Dennis was selling, not his new stuff that I don't have my hands on yet). 4. Used a Mapp Torch to light one spot in the middle of the basket, maybe a 2-3 minute torching of an area the diameter of a can of coke....torch till glowing and small flame when torch removed, flame dies down quickly. 5. Made a good sized foil smoke pouch with a mix of pecan and hickory pellets (BBQ Delight Brand). Poked one hole in the bottom of the pouch and placed it directly on the lit spot in the basket, with some room for air to circulate underneath, hole in pouch facing down into lit coals. 6. Put the heat deflector stone right on top of the basket handles 7. Put a pan of water right on top of the heat deflector 8. Put all of the grates back in the KK 9. Top Damper opened to 1/8 of a turn; Bottom Damper opened just a smidge (maybe just less than a dime's thickness) 10. Let KK come up to temp for about 45 mins (upper grate temp 225F, dome thermometer reading about 220F) 11. Placed butt on upper grate (my theory is that more smoke hangs out up towards the top, I'm sure other's have their own opinions, but it also allows me to slide my cast iron dutch oven full of baked beans directly under the butt, onto the main grate, for the last 3 hours of the cook, catching some nice drippings / flavor for the beans. 12. Temp held steady at 225F; Mopped and flipped / rotated every couple of hours for 8 hours. At 8 hours, internal temp was 170 and I needed to get it finished, so raised temp to 300F for 45 more mins, pulled it off at 185 internal temp and let it rest for 20 mins, was 190F when I pulled for sandwiches. The meat was juicy and had great flavor. Before: After: Served with... Vinegar based slaw Baked Beans Corn on the Cob Mac N Cheese Corn Bread Lava Cakes For Dessert And today....leftovers. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mguerra Posted August 22, 2011 Report Share Posted August 22, 2011 Re: Easy Peasy Pork Butt You don't need the pan of water. Nor do you need to flip and rotate, however if you like the mop then of course you will need to flip. Looks awfully tasty! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gunner Posted August 22, 2011 Report Share Posted August 22, 2011 Re: Easy Peasy Pork Butt Looks darn good to me. I am getting a little tired of eating Chinese food on the rig. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
primeats Posted August 22, 2011 Report Share Posted August 22, 2011 Re: Easy Peasy Pork Butt Great photo and great Komodo! The Doc is correct, the water isn't necessary, and only consumes energy(heat). The beauty of this unit is the reduced airflow,resulting in low moisture loss. Flipping...same story, looks like you had great results however, next time try it without the water or flipping. I think you'll be very happy! Nice work with the beans, some day I've got to try this! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cookie Posted August 22, 2011 Author Report Share Posted August 22, 2011 Re: Easy Peasy Pork Butt Gents, I'm not going to pretend to know much about the science behind all of this, but what I do know is that until I started adding the water pan into the Komodo for low and slow cooks, my cook times here in Singapore were much shorter than what they should be... For example, ribs at 220F were taking 2 hours and were coming out dry, similar results with pork butt...23 pound turkey was done in 3 hours at 230F dome. The first thing I did was check the calibration of my dome temp thermo vs. my thermapen. It was off by less than 5 degrees (on the high side). Dialed it back, still didn't fix my problem. Next, I put a surface thermo on the upper grate, and it and the dome temp are always within 5 degrees of each other...still didn't fix the problem. After that, I started adjusting other variables, one per cook, to see if that would make a difference. Add two inches of water in a pan, presto, my cooks are taking "normal" amounts of time. Why...I have no idea, would be hard to imagine that it is absorbing that much energy, but if it is, fine, I'm not using more/less fuel from what I can tell. I'm wondering if living right on the water, with lots of salt in the air, has anything to do with it, but who knows...I've also wondered if the high humidity of the air entering the cooker here creates a steaming effect....I don't know, all I do know is that friggin pan of water has slowed down my low and slow cooks, and that is a good thing... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bryan Posted August 22, 2011 Report Share Posted August 22, 2011 Re: Easy Peasy Pork Butt Good research Cookie. Just goes to show that cooking rules are not written in blood. The Komodo-Kamado obviously still has more to teach us about its capabilities. Thanks Cookie. Good post. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
johnnyboy Posted August 23, 2011 Report Share Posted August 23, 2011 Re: Easy Peasy Pork Butt Try using beer in the pan! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cookie Posted August 25, 2011 Author Report Share Posted August 25, 2011 Re: Sold A KK Pork Butt I've had to edit this post and change the name from "Easy Peasy Pork Butt" to "Sold a KK Pork Butt." We recently made some new friends through my wife's pre-natal pilates class and invited them over for dinner (for the first time). After the meal described in my initial post, they proceeded to go home and order a KK -- after one meal... Gotta love the power of the Komodo Kamado. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Smoke Posted August 25, 2011 Report Share Posted August 25, 2011 Re: Sold A KK Pork Butt Great salesmanship!! Dana Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
