How to Make Pork Butt Burnt Ends

Let’s say you have a pork butt, but don’t have 6 hours to cook it. Or let’s say you want burnt ends but have neither a brisket nor a pork belly. What is one to do? Make pork butt burnt ends, of course! Pork butt burnt ends are a great budget-friendly, delicious dish that you should have up your sleeve at all times. Let’s take a look at what they are and how to make them, shall we? Let’s.

How dare we call these burnt ends?

Ok, ok…We hear you. Burnt ends are, originally, a way to use part of the point of the brisket that maybe got a little toasty, but was still worth eating Then folks decided that making them on purpose with whole cuts of brisket was a good, idea, then they got translated into another super fatty cut, pork belly. And now we want to make them out of shoulder?!? Well, yeah. We do. Why not? The idea of a burnt end is just a culinary construct that came out of necessity anyhow—the basic idea of a cube of tasty smoked meat that is well seasoned, tender, and uber-delectable could be applied to any appropriately fatty, BBQ-ready meat. Just because they made them out of brisket first doesn’t mean that we can’t cook other pieces of meat the same way. After all, innovation is what happened to make “traditional” in the first place!

And besides, some of our favorite BBQ folks have done it, too. Oh, and they’re delicious!

Thermal guidance for pork butt burnt ends

For the best burnt ends, we need meat cubes with a well-formed bark, a lovely sticky glaze (though you could leave that off if you wanted), and meat that is cooked to perfect, well-rendered tenderness. For all of this, we’re going to need a couple things.

First, we’ll need a smoker temp for the first part of the cook that is low enough to generate good smoke flavor (yes, this is a multi-stage cook, but you probably saw that coming). Monitoring our smoker temp throughout our cook is always a good idea and this cook is no different. We used the Pro-Series^® High Temp Air Probe that came with our Smoke X 4-Channel BBQ Alarm Thermometer. Smoke X’s long range allowed us to watch the pit and meat temps simultaneously from inside the building while we were writing other blog posts, editing photos, and creating social reels1. Keep the initial smoker temp in the range of 225–250°F (107–121°C) to get good smoke flavor and establish the bark on your butt bites.

As alluded to above, we also need to track the temp fo the meat. We used an optional 2.5″ Needle Probe, inserted into one of the largest meat cubes, to watch the doneness. Once the cubes reach about 165°F (74°C), we move them to a more humid environment and start to sweeten them up. Yes, it’s time for a BBQ-saucy smoke-braise. By enclosing the meat in a high-humidity environment, we eliminate evaporative cooling and skip the stall. Plus, our high-humidity environment is sugary, spicy, and delicious. Reinsert the needed probe through the foil of your braising vessel into a meat cube and reset your high-temp alarm for 200°F (93°C). When the alarm sounds, verify temperature and tenderness in a few cubes with your Thermapen ONE.

For optimal stickiness

When you remove the pork from the pan at this point, it will be sweet, savory, and tender. But if you want to add a little more sticky-sweetness to it, strain off the liquid that has accumulated in the bottom of the pan, separate out the grease, and bring it to a boil in a saucepan to reduce it. When it is thick enough to coat a spoon well and leave a clean finger track when stricken through, pour it into a bowl with the burnt ends, give the whole thing a toss, then plate and serve. The thickened sauce will cling better and bring a delicious shiny sheen to the party as well as an extra punch of sweet/spice from concentrating the juice.

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No, these aren’t brisket burnt ends, and they aren’t “traditional.” But tradition is what we make of it, isn’t it? And boy howdy are they tasty! Grab yourself a pork butt, cube it up, break out your Smoke X and get to cooking. Give it a low smoke at first, then braise it, covered, to 200°F (93°C), sauce it up some more, and make some people happy they know you. Give it a try!