Dinner Party

Well, it was our turn to host supper club so I was faced with the somewhat daunting task of cooking for about 20+ people. Everyone was bringing a different side item or dessert but I was responsible for all of the meat and so the most practical choice in my mind was Boston Butt.

After having practiced a few weeks ago without using my BBQ Guru, I was prepared and I will skip to the end to tell you it was excellent both at the dinner party and as leftovers a few days later. Here is what I did.

I started with 2 Butts that were between 7-8lbs each. After applying a light coat of yellow mustard, I rubbed the butts down with Evan's Spice. I then refrigerated the meat for approximately 6 hours.

I am now also using some new charchol called B&B, which I get at Academy Sports...I find it to be bigger chucks that work better for longer cooks, and it is cheaper than BGE branded coals. So I filled the fire box to the brim and put the butts on at 8:30 pm. I placed a drip pan beneath the meat, on the plate setter, filled with apple juice (not sure how much this helps with moisture, but it makes me feel better). For smoke I used a mixture of Hickory and Pecan (my personal fav).

The painful part about not using the Guru comes when I stay up from 8:30 to a little after midnight keeping an eye on my temp, which I kept around 230 degrees, and also had to set the alarm for a temp check at 3:00 am and 6:00 am. Once I was up the next day, I would check on the fire every few hours or so anxiously waiting for the meat to hit 200 degrees.


Finally, the meat hit 200 degrees at 4:30 the following afternoon....20 hours on the BGE! The bark was incredible on these butts.


These wound up being the best butts that I have cooked to date and the real secret for me was in the presentation. I pulled the pork like normal but took the extra step to chop the pulled meat and that made all the difference. I also made sure (unlike some dinner parties I have been at) to chop up lots of the bark to mix in with the meat. As I said, everything was excellent, I got lots of compliments....and best of all, I do not have to host supper club for another year!