We’re trying an experiment this weekend with a couple pork butts in an effort to see which approach is better for flavor; either brining the hog and then applying a dry rub or just applying the rub without a brine.
The reason we’re trying this is that, although we’ve had some great results the past few times we’ve smoked our hog butt, the majority of the flavor tends to stay towards the bark. We’re going to try a couple different experiments on how to get a full flavor penetration, the first of which is this week’s experiment with the Brine.
Here’s the basics of the experiment:
- 2x 6lb bone-in, super fatty pork butts
- 1 of the butts sat in a brine solution of 1 gallon water and 1/2 cup kosher salt. 12 hours before the smoking we’ll apply the rub with a significant reduction in salt (recipe for the rub is below).
- The other butt will only have the rub applied to it with full salt content, applied 12 hours before smoking.
I got the recipe for the rub from Beer Advocate‘s July issue where they featured some recipes for beer-b-queing.
3/4 Cup Paprika
1/2 Cup Kosher Salt
1/4 Cup Brown Sugar
3 Tblspns Ground Cumin
3 Tblspns Ground Coriander
3 Tblspns Mustard Powder
2 Tspns Dried Ground Sage
2 Tspns Dried Thyme
2 Tspns Mixed Ground Peppercorns
1 Tspns Ground Cayenne
I’ll be smoking these monsters tomorrow AM, so I should have a full report up in the next few days.