The Renowned Mr. Brown

s'kat's Note:

In old Southern slang, "Mr. Brown" is the dark, smoky outside part of barbecued pork, usually the shoulder. This is the traditional cooking style, perfected by generations of pitmasters to give Mr. Brown his deserved renown. Adapted from 'Smoke & Spice'. Please note that every smoker is unique, so the cooking times are merely a guideline.

• Total Time: 24 hrs
• Prep Time: 12 hrs
• Cook Time: 12 hrs

Ingredients:

Servings: 8

• 6 -8 lbs boston butt , trimmed of excess fat to 1/4 inch

Southern Succor Rub

• ¼ cup fresh ground black pepper
• ¼ cup paprika
• ¼ cup turbinado sugar
• 2 tablespoons salt
• 2 teaspoons dry mustard
• 1 teaspoon cayenne

Southern Sop

• 2 cups apple cider vinegar
• 3 tablespoons fresh ground black pepper
• 2 tablespoons salt
• 1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
• 1 tablespoon paprika
• 1 tablespoon cayenne
• your favourite southern barbecue sauce (I use Pigman's)

Directions:

1. The night before you plan to barecue, combine the rub ingredients in a small bowl.
2. Massage the pork well with about half of the rub.
3. Transfer to plastic bag and refrigerate over night.
4. Before you begin to barbecue, remove pork from refrigerator, and let sit at room temp for 30-45 minutes.
5. Prepare the smoker for barbecuing, bringing the temp to 200-225 degrees.
6. Stir remaining rub together with the sop ingredients, and 1 cup of water in a saucepan, and warm the mixture over low heat (you are keeping the liquid warm during the cooking process to kill any bacteria the tool might pick up from the surface of the food, and to avoid lowering the temperature of the food).
7. Transfer the pork to the smoker and cook it for about 1 and 1/2 hours per pound, or until it's falling-apart tender.
8. Mop the pork every 1 and 1/2- two hours, or as appropriate for your smoking method.
9. [Ihad a six pound butt which took about 12 hours to cook- when ready, it was black and burnt looking on the outside, and the internal temp was almost 180-degrees.
10. ]Remove the pork from the smoker, wrap tightly in tinfoil, and let sit for at least 30 minutes.
11. Remove from foil, and roughly chop or'pull' the pork, mixing well the black, crispy extrior, with the butter-soft interior meat.
12. Add a small portion of your favourite BBQ sauce and mix well- you generally will need much less than you would think.
13. Place into holding container, cover with foil, and place back into smoker for 20 or so minutes (this is optional- you can eat right away, if you like).
14. This is so good, a CWB (cheap white bun) would take away from the pure pork pleasure.
15. Serve with your favourite cole slaw and icy cold beer.

Reviews

[bratty]

I used this recipe to christen my new pit smoker over the weekend. I had smoked on a traditional grill before, but since this was my first time with this recipe, AND the first time using the smoker, I was a little nervous about everything coming together right. The instructions on this, couldn't have made things any simpler. I purchased a 7 lb roast, and had the butcher remove the bone so I could marinate it inside and out. Put in on the smoker about 8 hrs, and this thing was charred really good by the end, after applying the mop all afternoon. After standing in the foil for thirty minutes, I pulled it, removed as much fat as I could, and it just melted together. I couldn't stay out of the stuff while I was pulling it and putting it on the serving platter. OMG really great BBQ! I chose to just serve it then, and have the guests apply their own sauce. YUM! Extra good recipe that I will be putting to good use with this new smoker. Thanks s'kat for recommending this to me!

[riffraff]

I began with a 5.5 lb pork butt and proceeded as follows: I rubbed it with half the rub mixture and put it in the fridge overnight. We got up bright and early the next morning and fired up the smoker. I put the remaining rub on my butt and let it set at room temp for about an hour. I put it in the smoker and we kept the temp between 200 and 275 for about 8 hours. I did not bother to mop as I had a pretty fatty piece of meat and didn't feel it was needed. The result was a wonderful moist delicious piece of Heaven. I pulled it apart and some ate it on tortillas and others on buns. We ate on it all weekend and I still have enough to freeze for another time. Even what looked "burnt" on the outside turned out to be a deep rich smoky flavored meat that blended well with the tender juicy insides. YUM!