BBQ Misadventures: Barbecue Pork

Pork Butt, Post Oak, and a Lesson in Preparation

On a recent trip to my local grocery store, I noticed they had started carrying a new brand of post oak. The brand itself didn't catch my attention, but the fact that it was post oak certainly did.

Here in Texas, post oak is king. Normally, I have to search around town and check inventory online before I can even think about planning a cook. Seeing it sitting on a shelf, ready to grab on a whim, felt like a small victory.

Naturally, I picked up a few chunks along with a bone-in pork shoulder and planned to fire up the smoker the next morning.

Nature had other plans.

I woke up to the sound of rain pounding against the windows. Not exactly the forecast I was hoping for. Thankfully, the weather cleared around 7:30 a.m., and I immediately got to work building a fire.

While the smoker came up to temperature, I started prepping the pork.

I know everyone has a binder they swear by, and some folks will layer multiple rubs until the meat is practically wearing a jacket. That's never really been my style. Most of the time I'm a salt-and-pepper guy. Not because I'm trying to fly the Texas flag, but because I enjoy the simplicity. Good wood creates great flavor, and salt simply helps bring it forward.

Unfortunately, simplicity wasn't in the cards that day.

In my excitement over finding post oak the night before, I completely forgot I was out of kosher salt.

That realization sent me digging through the pantry looking for a backup plan. That's when I found it: a bottle of Franklin Brisket Rub.

Yes, that Franklin.

The barbecue mecca where people travel from near and far, wait in line for hours, and inevitably order far more meat than any reasonable person should eat. A place I've visited more than once and, admittedly, fallen victim to the same meat-sweat-induced overordering.

With a solution in hand, I got the pork on the smoker just after 8 a.m.

I knew dinner was going to be cutting it close. The thing about barbecue is that you can influence a lot of variables, but you can't rush time.

I decided to run the cooker a little hotter than normal, around 260°F. I placed a block of post oak on the center grate to help diffuse the heat and provide a little extra smoke as the cook progressed.

Every hour or so, I spritzed with a simple 50/50 mixture of apple cider vinegar and water. The bark developed slowly but steadily throughout the day.

Around 1 p.m., the pork hit the stall at 170°F.

I was tempted to wrap it, but decided to wait it out. By around 3 p.m., it finally started moving again. Eventually, I pulled it at 203°F, wrapped it in butcher paper, and let it rest back in the smoker over the dying coals.

Normally, I'd hold it in the oven at around 150°F. But we had friends over, everyone was hanging around outside, and it simply made more sense to leave it where it was.

Around 7 p.m., I finally shredded the pork and gave it a taste.

The verdict?

Underseasoned barbecue pork.

Whether I didn't use enough rub or whether I was simply expecting more from it, I'm not entirely sure. Either way, I ended up adding a little of my own seasoning after the fact to bring it where I wanted it.

That said, the smoke flavor was excellent. The post oak delivered exactly what I was hoping for, and the bark turned out better than I expected considering the weather delay.

Not every cook is a home run. Sometimes the lesson is simply remembering to check your pantry before getting distracted by a stack of post oak.

Next time, I won't skip the seasoning step.