Beastie Boys Smoked Pork

Dump all ingredients for Rub in a bowl and rub them together with your hands. Store in a glass container and use whenever you’re grilling. This recipe doesn’t call for much, so you should get a few uses out of one batch.

Dump 9 cups of hickory wood chips in a bowl, cover and soak for at least 30 minutes. Drain and divide between 6 squares of aluminum foil and wrap up into individual packets, poking holes at the top. Set aside.

Pull off the grill rack and fire up the grill. While that’s going, mix the oil and the rub and rub this all over the pork butt. Once the coals are good and hot, pile them on one side of the bottom of the grill and set 2 of the packets right on the coals (if you are using a gas grill, keep the burners to one side lit and place the packets above those but under the rack). Position a drip pan filled with ½ inch of water on the side opposite the coals. Put the grill back inp lace and set the pork butt, fat side up, over the drip pan. Close the lid. After about ½ and hour, check the grill temperature. It should settle down to 225° to 250°. If it’s hotter, close down the vent holes (gas grill: adjust the flames). If it’s cooler, open them up a bit.

Check the temperature of the grill every hour for the next 7 or 8 and make adjustments. If the temperature dips below 200° or less, add a few new briquettes to the pile of gray holes and ope the vent holes a bit.

Reach into the grill with some tongs after the pork butt’s been smoking for 1½ hours, and remove the old packets of wood chips. Toss two new packets onto the coals. Repeat after another 1½ hours.

After the pork has been on the grill 4-5 hours, you will have achieved necessary smoke penetration, It should be a rich brown color, and the internal temperature ahould be about 155°. Grap the meat with tongs, remove it from the grill and wrap tightly in foil. Put the foil-wrapped pork over the drip pan and cover the grill. Now you’re sealing in the succulence of the meat as you continue to cook. This will take another 3 to 3½ hours (although, in desperate times we’ve been known to just pull it off and eat it at this point and it ain’t too bad). Keep working to maintain an even temperature of 225° to 250°. The pork is done when you can push down on the foil and it doesn’t spring back, or when you can pull out the shoulder blade bone without much resistance.

Lift the foil-wrapped pork butt off the grill and let it rest (still covered in foil) for 10-15 minutes. Open the foil and strip off the fat cap on top of the meat and then (if you haven’t already) remove the shoulder blade. Carefully pull the meat apart, removing visible fat and connective tissue. Shred the meat, put it in a pan and cover with BBQ sauce. Use right away, or put in an oven to keep warm until serving.