The Butt Bill Pulled Pork

June 12, 2026 · josh darby

Home/ Recipes/ The Butt Bill Pulled Pork

Low. Slow. Patient. The Sunday cook that feeds your whole block.

Pulled pork is the cook that built American BBQ. Cheap protein, big payoff, feeds an army. Every BBQ joint from Memphis to the Carolinas has their version, and every pitmaster has strong opinions about how it should be done.

The Founding Hog's position: keep it simple, trust the rub, respect the time.

The Butt Bill was built for this cook. Sweet heat designed specifically for pork — brown sugar and turbinado to caramelize into bark, cumin and chili powder for depth, garlic and onion to round it all out. You don't need a marinade, you don't need an injection, you don't need to brine. The rub does the work. Your job is to set the smoker and walk away.

This is a 10-hour cook. You will start it before breakfast and pull it apart with a beer in hand at dinner. It is worth every minute.

Cook Time: 30 minutes active · 10-12 hours total

Serves: 8-10 people, generously

Difficulty: Beginner (it's mostly waiting)

What You'll Need

Ingredients:

1 bone-in pork shoulder (pork butt), 8-10 lbs
The Butt Bill rub — about 1/2 cup total
2 tablespoons yellow mustard (binder — yes, mustard, trust us)
1 cup apple juice or apple cider (for the spritz)

Gear:

Smoker (pellet, charcoal, kamado, or offset)
Wood chunks or pellets — hickory, oak, pecan, or apple
Spray bottle
Heavy duty aluminum foil OR butcher paper
Instant-read meat thermometer
A large cooler or insulated bag (for resting — non-negotiable)
Two heavy-duty meat claws or two large forks for shredding
A LOT of patience

Step-by-Step

1. Pull the pork out of the fridge. Take the butt out 45 minutes before cooking. You want it close to room temperature so it cooks evenly from edge to center. Cold meat in a hot smoker is how you get a tough exterior and an undercooked middle.

2. Trim the fat cap. Look at the top of the shoulder — there's a thick white layer of fat. Trim it down to about 1/4 inch thick. You don't want to remove it (fat = flavor + moisture), but you also don't want a half-inch slab — the rub needs to penetrate the meat, not just sit on rendered fat.

3. Apply the mustard binder. Slather the entire pork butt with yellow mustard. Use your hands. Don't worry — you won't taste the mustard at the end. It's just there to help the rub stick and add a tiny bit of tang.

4. Apply The Butt Bill GENEROUSLY. Coat the entire shoulder with rub. Top, bottom, sides, in any crevices. Press it in. You want a thick, even coat. This is the bark you're building — don't skimp. Use about half a cup of rub for an 8-lb butt.

5. Let it sit. Place the seasoned butt on a sheet pan and let it sit at room temperature for 30-45 minutes while you fire up the smoker. The salt and sugar in the rub will start pulling moisture, then reabsorb it with all the flavor. This is what makes the bark.

6. Set up the smoker for 225°F. This is a long, slow cook. Get your smoker holding steady at 225°F. Load it up with hickory, oak, pecan, or apple wood. Hickory and oak are classic. Apple and pecan are sweeter and milder. The Founding Hog uses a mix — a few hickory chunks for backbone and a few apple for sweetness.

7. Place the butt fat-side up. Set the pork shoulder fat-side up on the smoker grate. As it cooks, the fat will render and baste the meat below it. Close the lid and walk away.

8. Smoke for 4-5 hours undisturbed. Don't open the lid. Don't peek. Don't poke. Smoke needs to circulate, and every time you open the lid you add 15 minutes to the cook. Have a beer. Watch a movie. Mow the lawn. Trust the smoker.

9. Start spritzing. Around the 4-hour mark, fill a spray bottle with apple juice and spritz the butt every 45 minutes or so. This keeps the bark from drying out and adds a subtle sweet layer. The internal temp should be around 150-160°F at this point.

10. Push through the stall. Between 160-170°F internal, the temperature will STOP RISING for a few hours. This is called "the stall," and it happens because the meat is sweating moisture that's cooling the surface. It is normal. Do not panic. Do not crank the heat. Keep the smoker steady at 225°F and ride it out.

11. Wrap it (when the bark is set). Once the internal hits about 170°F and you've got a deep mahogany bark, wrap the butt tightly in heavy-duty foil OR butcher paper. Foil = juicier meat, softer bark ("Texas Crutch"). Butcher paper = better bark, slightly less juicy. The Founding Hog uses paper, but you can't go wrong either way.

12. Continue cooking until 203°F internal. This is THE number. Not 195°F. Not 200°F. Two hundred and three degrees. At this temperature, the connective tissue (collagen) has fully broken down into gelatin, and your meat thermometer will slide into the meat like it's room-temperature butter. This is "probe-tender." When you hit it, you'll know.

13. THE REST. This step matters more than any other. Pull the wrapped butt off the smoker and place it (still wrapped) into a dry empty cooler. Close the lid. Walk away for AT LEAST one hour, ideally two. The cooler holds the heat while the juices redistribute. Skipping this rest is the single most common mistake in pulled pork. Don't be that person.

14. Unwrap and shred. Once rested, unwrap the butt over a sheet pan or large bowl (catch every drop of those juices — they're liquid gold). Use two forks or meat claws to pull the meat apart. The bone should slide out clean. Discard any big chunks of unrendered fat. Mix the pulled meat with the captured juices so every bite is dressed.

15. Sprinkle one final pinch of rub. Yes, after pulling. A light dusting of The Butt Bill on the freshly pulled meat brings back the flavor profile and seasons any bite that didn't get bark. Old pitmaster trick.

16. Serve and accept the compliments.

Pro Tips

Cook the night before. Most serious pitmasters cook their butt the night before, hold it in the cooler overnight (yes, really — a well-insulated cooler keeps it food-safe for hours), and serve fresh the next day. Tastes even better.
Don't bother trimming the fat cap if it's already thin. Some butts come pre-trimmed. Don't trim into the meat.
The bone tells you when it's done. When you can wiggle the bone freely and it slides out of the meat with zero resistance, the butt is done. Internal temp is the safety check, but the bone is the truth.
Save the juices. Mix them back into the pulled pork. Or use them as a dip for sandwiches. Or freeze them for the best pulled pork tacos of your life next week.
No sauce on the smoker. Sauce burns at low-and-slow temps. Serve sauce on the side at the table — the Founding Hog respects sauce as an option, not a requirement.

The Pairing

Cold beer. Always cold beer. A pilsner, a lager, a kolsch. Skip the IPA — too hoppy for this. If you must drink wine with pulled pork, a chilled lambrusco is the move. The Founding Hog would not personally choose wine, but he respects the variety.

Serving Ideas

Pulled pork is the most versatile cook in BBQ. With one shoulder, you can make: