I did a big cook two weeks ago, a brisket and three pork butts, for a friend’s hand-fasting. I cooked the pork in my usual way, and it went very well.

I enjoyed myself so much, I decided to do another cook, while the enthusiasm lasted. My big cooks were always based on catering for large groups connected to my board-gaming, and since I stopped hosting, post-COVID, there is not the same excuse.

But I can equally cook just for myself, my freezer and my neighbours.

So I ordered more meat, from Tom Hixson – another brisket and a single pork butt.

Meanwhile, I had been thinking. My “usual way” for pork butt involves a heavy coating of seasoning before the meat hits the grill. For other cooking, I have been reducing the amount of seasoning I used, and although the outer bark gets distributed through the meat when pulling, I was struck by the amount of salt in the seasoning I use routinely. I wondered… what would happen if I cooked a pork butt naked, then seasoned/sauced afterwards, to taste? Surely, without a coating of seasoning, there is more surface to absorb the smoke?

I did some googling, and found that this is not an original thought (I may include some links in the comments). So this cook, both brisket and pork have gone on the grill naked. Also, I usually cook a butt fat layer down, but this time I am reversing that, to baste the joint more. The premise of “fat down” is to protect the meat from the heat of the grill, but I am cooking in a pan, which should do that anyway.

Anyway, here are the two pieces of meat, at the start of the cook, this morning. Let’s see how this goes.

[Edit: 25 December 2023]

It’s now several months on from originally writing this. Yes, it is actually Christmas Day, and scrolling through looking for a bit of information I knew I had here, I discovered, I never did follow up on this post, to say how it turned out!

That seemed a shame. Fortunately, I did write on Facebook about it, so here are some pictures and notes from there.

Purely on a whim, the pork has now been turned fat side down, as the underneath wasn’t getting as much smoke.

But all in all looking good. The brisket, in particular, has taken on a marvellous mahogany colour.

After 9 hours

Meat is now wrapped, and the grill temp raised a bit. Probably another 4 hours to go.

Meanwhile, two very nice burgers have smoked for an hour, and been finished off in the Foodi.

At this stage, the brisket was resting in my portable fridge/freezer; open and switched off, as I needed to give it an hour to cool before closing and turning it on. After turning it on, I went to bed, and dealt with it the next day.

This was my first use of the portable fridge/freezer for cooling/chilling BBQ, and it worked perfectly. The next morning, the brisket was at a perfect safe (fridge) temperature; as another experiment, the fridge had been running on my Delta 2 battery for 10 hours – the battery started at 85% and ended on 35%. Considering that included cooling the brisket somewhat, it’s a good performance from the fridge and battery. As mentioned, I allowed it to passively cool for an hour first, but the chamber was still 40°C when I turned it on, chilling down to 4°C (meat internal temp was higher than that, above 60°C).

This is definitely a method to remember (with or without the battery), being able to cool stuff down to a safe temperature without compromising the existing contents of my kitchen fridge (or freezer).

Plus it is a smooth surface inside, and easy to clean from the inevitable grease (even when the meat is wrapped), and it makes good use of kit I already have.

My final comment, on Facebook:

I should mention here. The “cooking naked” idea was a complete success; so much so that I completely forgot I had done it.

The pork was cooked as-is, without a rub; it acquired a nice smoke bark, and gave off a good gravy. After pulling, I added back some of that gravy with some commercial mustard sauce and a very small fraction of the rub I would have normally used pre-cook – about two heaped tablespoons for a whole pan of pork. I then gave it a very good stir, then let it rest.

As you will have seen from my other posts, the results were brilliant.

So naked is how my butt will remain in future.