GrillinFools
We take two pork shoulders and inject one of them and do not inject the other. Otherwise the pork shoulders are seasoned and smoked identically on my pellet grill, although any smoker will work. At the end, we do a side by side taste test of the two shoulders, and the resulting pulled pork, to answer the questions: to inject or not to inject pork shoulder, or pork butt, if you will.
Tried this last weekend, pretty much followed the recipe. The, Best, Pork Shoulder, EVER! Not sure if it’s the seasoning or the timing but it was exquisite! Perfect, moist, smoky, lots of pork flavor, texture was spot on
Paul B (in the comments below)
To inject or not to inject pork shoulder, that is the question. The subject is pork shoulder. Pork butt. Pulled pork. Boston Butt. They are all the same thing, and I will use these terms interchangeably.
The question is should we inject pork shoulder?
One one hand, a pork shoulder is full of fat and collagen, and thus is very forgiving and should yield tender, juicy results every time.
On the other hand, injecting can also add flavor to the middle of the shoulder.
Sure, the outside bark is delicious, but the inside, to me, is just under-seasoned meat with little to no smoke.
***Injecting works like magic on lamb shoulder too!***
So I decided to do a side by side taste test. And who better to partner with on this experiment than the king of injecting, Tony Chachere’s (pronounced sasherees for those that are curious).
I told them that if this test busted (not much difference), then I would report it as such and they agreed. Although, before I go into the details, let’s go over the ingredients and my methodology.
Pork Shoulder Ingredients:
- 2 pork shoulders, about 7.5 lbs each
- 1 bottle of Tony Chachere’s Roasted Garlic and Herb injection
- 1 can of Tony Chachere’s Creole seasoning
- Pink butcher paper
- A clean, empty cooler or a Cambro
- Buns, BBQ sauce and cole slaw (to make sandwiches after the experiment)
Methodology
We selected two nearly identical pork shoulders. Both were extremely close to 7.5 lbs and had similar marbling. We prepared the pork butts identically and cooked them the exact same way which is a very simple pork injection recipe.
The only difference, we injected one and didn’t inject the other. So let’s get at it.
Notice I didn’t list salt in the ingredients.
See, the Tony Chachere’s seasoning requires no extra salt:
Scroll down near the bottom and check out the video we made of this cook that I posted to our YouTube channel and please subscribe.
Pork Shoulder Prep:
Now that we have the salt thing cleared up, let’s prep those butts. Start with the fat cap up and carve a criss cross pattern in each one by slicing about 1/3 to 1/2 inch deep every inch across the shoulder and then again at a 90 degree angle:
What do you inject into Pulled Pork?
Our go-to is the Tony Chachere’s Roasted Garlic and Herb.
Now let’s inject pork shoulder.
Inject every few inches along the top and the bottom:
Don’t forget the sides:
Pro Tip ~ When injecting, slide the injector back an inch or so while pushing on the plunger so it doesn’t create one giant bubble of injection fluid and distributes it more evenly. I also find less of the injection mixture comes back out when I do this. The giant bubble has more pressure on it from the surrounding meat and thus more liquid is pushed out. Whichever way you do it, some is going to come back out.
After you inject pork shoulder slide the pork across the liquid on the cutting board and use it as a binder for the rub.
When done injecting the one shoulder, rub each of them down with some of the creole seasoning:
Don’t worry. The creole seasoning has all that great creole flavor but won’t light your tongue on fire.
And the other Boston butt.
Don’t forget to work it into those cuts that we made which means more surface area for more bark (which is the tastiest part):
To Inject or not to Inject Smoking Process
Now prepare the grill for two zone or indirect grilling with charcoal and smoke wood on one side and the meat on the other, OR get a dedicated smoker like pellet grill and put them anywhere.
The injected shoulder goes in the pellet grill first:
What temperature do I cook pork shoulder on the grill?
225F is the magic number for most, but for me. I go with the high heat method in and around 300F (+/-25F). The results seem very similar at 300F as I do at 225F and save myself hours of cook time. I mean if getting up three hours before dawn to put your pork shoulder on is your thing, don’t let me stop you. I’ll just go ahead and get a full night’s sleep and drop mine on about 9:00 am and serve it at the same time.
The injected shoulder went in the back, and the non-injected right in front of it, with a water pan on the side.
You’re just going to have to trust me here. We had four different photographers shooting this cook and none of them got a pic of the raw shoulders hitting the grill.
I used the built in probe thermometers on my pellet grill and pulled each shoulder when it reached 167F.
I laid down two sheets of pink butcher paper (aluminum foil works too) and set the shoulder on the paper. This is the one didn’t get injected:
And a close up:
Yes, it is very tempting to grab one of those squares and do a little quality control test.
Patience is a virtue.
Time to practice that Christmas wrapping
Wrap the pork shoulder up in the pink butcher paper making sure to seal it all the way around:
And both pork butts go back in the pellet grill and get a probe thermometer to monitor the progress:
The injected shoulder hit 167F first and got wrapped first. It also hit 203F first and went into our empty cooler to rest while the other one finished.
What causes the stall in BBQ?
Keep in mind that when cooking pork shoulders, when they get to around 150F-170F they hit “the stall.” Basically all the fat and collagen liquify inside the pork butt at this time and slows down the rise in the temperature. Thus, there is a steady rise until the stall and then the temp flat lines for quite some time.
The peach butcher paper helps to mitigate this. Both butcher paper or foil will steam the shoulder in its own juices and hyper accelerate the breaking down of the connective tissue and shorten the time spent in the stall. The difference between foil and paper is foil doesn’t breath, so the bark is a little better with paper. It doesn’t mean the shoulder will be junk if wrapped in foil. It just means paper is a little better, but not night and day better.
Time to Rest
When each shoulder hit 203F, I checked them a couple times with my hand held probe thermometer to make sure I wasn’t getting a false reading by being up against the bone or in a pocket of fat.
Then the butt, pink butcher paper and all went into an empty cooler. The injected one went in the cooler first and about 30 minutes later the other one hit 203 and went into the cooler.
An hour later I pulled them out and placed them in an aluminum pan.
So the injected one got 90 minutes of rest time and the other one 60.
Here’s the injected shoulder:
And here’s the other pork butt:
They look pretty much the same at this point.
Next up is the bone pull:
They both came out clean as a whistle.
At this point, I was sure that they would be extremely close and this test would be a draw. But then I started pulling the pork with my hands:
The injected shoulder was uber tender and juicy all the way through:
The one that wasn’t injected initially fell apart when I started to pull it, but once I got through the outside, the center would not pull with my hands. I had to tear it a piece at a time. It was also not very juicy. About a third of that shoulder would need to be chopped which is OK if one is pressed for time and has to serve before it gets too late, but we had all the time in the world here.
I did the squish test on each. I put a chunk of intact pork (not shredded yet) from each shoulder in my hand and squished it by clenching my fist. The one that wasn’t injected didn’t do anything. The injected one, shot out the top and completely came apart:
To Inject or not to Inject Pulled Pork?
Then we did a semi-blind taste test. I took a piece from a similar place from each shoulder and gave them to relatives that were at the house as well as the camera crew and had everyone try them without knowing which bite came from which shoulder:
The injected shoulder won in a landslide.
It had a distinct garlic and herb flavor, but not overpowering. It still allowed the pork to shine through, but had way more flavor.
The other tasted extremely bland comparatively.
What a slam dunk. Three for three. The flavor, juiciness and tenderness were all better on the injected pork butt, and not by a little. The outer inch or so of the one that wasn’t injected with the bark was on par with the injected butt, but once we got deeper into the shoulder the injection proved to be almost life changing. I know that sounds a little over the top, but trust me.
Essentially, always inject pork shoulder
Let’s EAT!
But enough with the nibbling and taste tests.
Time for a monster sando:
I’m a firm believer that cole slaw is terrible as a side dish, but is amazing as a condiment!
Here, have a bite!
To Inject or not to Inject Pork Shoulder Results:
I said these exact words when doing that side by side taste test, “I will never not inject again.” I always inject my Thanksgiving turkey with Tony Chachere’s, but was on the fence about the shoulder, thinking the white meat of a turkey needed to be injected but the well marbled pork shoulder didn’t. I was soooooo wrong.
Think of it this way, if you just season the outside, there is a ton of meat that gets no seasoning/salt whatsoever.
Injecting the pork solves that problem.
Next time I do a pork shoulder, I’m injecting with Tony Chachere’s and studding it with garlic.
If you have any questions or comments about the question: to inject or not to inject pork shoulder, feel free to leave them below or shoot me an email.
Also, I want to thank Tony Chachere’s for sponsoring this experiment. I don’t work with brands I don’t absolutely believe in and this is one of those brands. I’ve been using them for a very long time and am a believer in what they do.
Also, if you could leave us a great review with lots of stars that would be most appreciated!
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To Inject or not to Inject Pork Shoulder Recipe Card
To Inject or not to Inject, that is the Question
Equipment
- clean empty cooler or Cambro
- Peach butcher paper
Ingredients
- 2 pork butts/shoulders about 7.5 lbs each
- 1 bottle Tony Chachere's Garlic and Herb injection
- 1 can Tony Chachere's Creole seasoning
- Buns BBQ sauce and cole slaw (to make sandwiches after the experiment)
Instructions
- Slice a criss cross pattern on the fat cap of the pork shoulder, by slicing 1/3 to 1/2 inch deep every inch and then turn the shoulder 90 degrees and slice again
- Inject one of the shoulders with Tony Chachere's Roasted Garlic and Herb injection
- Rub each one down with the Tony Charchere's Creole Seasoning (no salt needed)
- Set up the smoker for 275 and place the two shoulders in the cooker
- Smoke until they reach 167F-170F and then wrap in pink butcher paper and place back into the cooker
- Once the shoulders hit 203, remove from the heat and place in an empty cooler, paper and all
- After at least an hour, take the pork butts out of the pink butcher paper and pull the pork. I highly recommend doing a side by side taste test
Video
Not our first test of to Inject or not to Inject Pork Shoulder:
This was not the first time I had done this experiment. About 3 weeks before I did this, I cooked four shoulders for what is normally our annual pig roast. But due to the pandemic, we had a much smaller affair so instead I did four pork shoulders. We bought some Tony Chachere’s to inject the shoulders but forgot to do the first one.
We were working on the second shoulder when we remembered the injection so we injected the next three.
Here are the four on the grill:
That one in the back corner that also didn’t get the criss cross cut was not injected.
Again, we cooked all of these identically but when we pulled the shoulders one was not nearly as good as the other three.
The one that did not get the injection had to be chopped, the rest pulled easily:
That was a pretty good test to answer, “to inject or not to inject pork shoulder,” but we didn’t have enough pics of the process since it was more of an accident, thus this cook (and the documentation) took place. Some times happy accidents are the best accidents. And thus we had to do this experiment again to answer: to inject or not to inject pork shoulder.
To Inject or not to Inject Pork Shoulder? Inject!
And here are some more pics from this photo shoot:
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3 comments
Scott Thomas
Soooooo much wrong with this. First, I didn’t slice through the fat cap. I just cut part way through it. That’s quite obvious in the picture. Also, if the fat cap is vital to retaining juices, what keeps them from leaking out on the other five sides of this chunk of meat? It’s not a perfect cube, but it is essentially a six sided block of meat. It only has the fat on one side. I’ve cooked more pork shoulders than the vast majority of the population, and after years of trying different methods with control groups, this is my go-to.
Paul B
Tried this last weekend, pretty much followed the recipe. The, Best, Pork Shoulder, EVER! Not sure if it’s the seasoning or the timing but it was exquisite! Perfect, moist, smoky, lots of pork flavor, texture was spot on. Only thing I did different was the rest in the cooler, I put the foil wrapped shoulder in a 2 gallon zip lock and then in cooler for almost 4 hours. It finished at 3:30 so I needed the time before dinner. Total time on the Big Green Egg was 9 hours.
Scott Thomas
Paul, thank you so much for that rave review. I appreciate it…
…….Scott