I have never really heard of Burnt Ends until this year. A few of my friends were talking about how they enjoyed eating them but they where hard to find at some of the local Barbecue joints around our area. First of all what are Burnt Ends? Burnt Ends are made from the point part of a Brisket. After cooking a Brisket the point section is cut up into cubes tossed in barbecue sauce and returned to the smoker to cook for an hour to two hours longer. Out comes the Barbecue Candy which is sweet and savory bites of Brisket.
I have never had an officially made Burnt ends so I can’t say what exactly they are supposed to be like or taste like. But I liked the idea of them I decided to look into making them out of a Pork Shoulder or Boston Butt. To me it seems like a great way to maximize the bark on a pork shoulder which is my favorite part of smoking a pork shoulder. After a lot of research online I decided to come up with a way to make them in my Pit Boss Vertical Smoker.
A week before my wife bought me this beast of a pork shoulder at Sams Club. Weighing in at 20.95 pounds I decided to use some of this to make the Pork Shoulder Burnt Ends. Luckily it was cut in half and I was able to get two cuts of meat out of this package one was probably around 12 pounds and the other was about 9 pounds.
I decided to take the larger pork shoulder and cut about half of it off to make the burnt ends. From there I cut it up into the cubes to make the burnt ends. Above are some of the items I used to prepare the shoulder and cut it into cubes. You will need a sharp knife, cutting board, your favorite spice rub, grill grates or grill tray. I found the above Grill Tray at Walmart and thought that they would be perfect to use to cook the burnt ends on.
From the pork shoulder I cut off about 2 inch wide strips of meat. Then I cut out small cubes which were around an inch or two square.
After cutting them into cubes I threw them into my glass mixing bowl and tossed them in my favorite spice rub which is the Pit Boss Sweet Heat Rub.
Spray the grill tray with some olive oil so the pork will not stick to the the tray. After you have all cubes coated pretty well with the spice rub place them onto the grill tray. And spread them out so they are not touching to much.
Place them into your smoker. Since I was cooking the two pork shoulders as well I place the Burnt ends on the top two racks and the shoulders/butts on the bottom rack. I set the Pit Boss Smoker for 250 degrees. I check back on everything in the smoker about every hour to spritz the Pork Shoulders and the Burnt Ends so nothing would dry out.
After about 3 or 4 hours check them every hour or so to see if they have reached 190 degrees. Once they have reached 190 degrees pull them from the smoker.
I placed some in three different small aluminum trays so I could try making them a with a few different sauces and one with out any sauce at all.
Toss the burnt ends with some of your favorite barbecue sauce and then wrap them tightly with aluminum foil and return them back to the smoker for an hour to cook them up and set the barbecue sauce.
After the hour is up remove the aluminum foil covering and place them back into the smoker for another 30 minutes. After the 30 minutes are up remove them and let them cool down for about 15 minutes before eating them up.
Here is the final product all ready to eat. Enjoy your Barbecue Candy! They are quite tasty.
If you are interested in other Pit Boss Pellet Smoker Recipe articles please check out our Pit Boss Series.
Pit Boss Pellet Smoker Series
Smoked Pulled Pork in the Pit Boss Vertical Pellet Smoker
3-2-1 Smoked Spareribs in the Pit Boss Vertical Pellet Smoker