by Texas Homesteader ~ 

It’s grilling season, y’all! And that means you’ll need a good BBQ rub and mop sauce. Boy do I have a treat for you!

RancherMan was planning to smoke a whole grill-full of pork roasts using pecan wood. But he needed a flavorful BBQ Rub & Mop Sauce. And he certainly found a good one!

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Family Gathering Means Good Food 

You see, every year RancherMan & I host a fun family gathering we’ve always called ‘RanchFest‘. It’s actually celebrated on the anniversary of the date we purchased this little piece of paradise. 

Back when the kids were young (but before we actually lived here) we’d bring our kids and my siblings would bring theirs. We’d have a big celebration & bonfire. Oh how much fun it was to get together, and the kids loved hanging out with their cousins.

But they’re all grown and most have children of their own now. So every year at RanchFest we get together again to relive those fun times. We consider it a mini-family reunion.

Does Wild Hog Meat Have A Strong Wild Taste?

We’ll be serving pulled-pork sandwiches using meat from the Wild Hogs RancherMan’s harvested.

By harvesting only smaller or sow hogs, the wild hog meat has almost no wild taste. Only mild flavored delicious white meat.

For these smoked roasts RancherMan was looking for a rub/mop sauce that appealed to him for smoking the meat.

He found one that sounded pretty good at the BBQ Bible Newsletter. It’s got beer and coffee – perfect! He decided to gave it a try.

Mixing Up A Flavorful Dry Rub

First he whipped up the dry rub. The simple ingredients to a flavorful dry rub are:

2 Tablespoons kosher salt  

2 Tablespoons chili powder 

1 Tablespoon coarse cracked pepper 

2 teaspoons garlic powder 

2 teaspoons oregano 

1 teaspoon cumin 

1 teaspoon powdered cayenne 

(breathes deeply) Ummmmm… that smells pretty good.

Since he knows he’ll need this rub for more than today’s grillin’, RancherMan typically makes a double batch. That way he’ll have some for now and still have some for an impromptu grilling session.

He stored this double-batch of dry rub in a 1/2-pint canning jar with a Repurposed Parmesan cheese lid. That handy lid has dual flip-top sides, one for sprinkling directly onto the meat and the other opens wide for a measuring spoon. PERFECT!

How excited I was to find out those handy repurposed parmesan lids fit any volume regular-mouth canning jar whether half pint, pint or quart.

Seasoning Meat With Dry Rub For The Smoker

Now that his rub is made, let’s get the meat prepared for Smoking That Pork Roast!

He started out by rubbing  a generous amount of the BBQ rub mixture onto all surfaces of the meat.

Then he placed the meat onto a large tray, covered it and placed it in the refrigerator while he prepared his grill.

Making A Homemade Grilling Mop Sauce

When all was ready he mixed up the mop sauce using a few simple ingredients:

2 Tablespoons dry rub 

12-oz bottle lager-style beer 

½ cup cold coffee 

½ cup white vinegar 

What a simple mop sauce, yet bursting with flavor. Now let’s do this!

Smoking A Pork Roast On The Grill

He brought out the roasts and laid them on the heated & prepared grill. He knows that anytime you’re smoking meat you want to cook it low & slow. That makes for a more moist and very flavorful meat.

As the meat was smoking he rotated the roasts every hour, coating the meat each time with his homemade mop sauce.

This helps keep the meat moist and also offers quite the delicious flavor infusion too.

How Long Do You Smoke Meat On The Grill?

He smoked 4 pork roasts for a total of 11-15 hours using this rub & mop sauce.

NOTE: If you’re going to smoke more than 2 roasts you might go ahead & make a double batch of the mop sauce to make sure you have plenty.

What Is The Proper Internal Temperature of Smoked Pork?

RancherMan is trying to reach an internal temperature of 145 degrees for this pork roast.

The secret to moist smoked meat is to allow the meat to reach the proper internal temperature but no higher.

So he monitored the temperature of the roast closest to the heat source using a *Meater Wireless Meat Thermometer.

Right before the internal temps of the roasts reached 145 degrees he coated the meat with added some of my homemade BBQ sauce after the last mop sauce coating on the meat.

We both think this was a nice meat flavor and moisturizer boost.

Making Pulled Pork BBQ Sandwiches

After the meat was smoked I shredded it all in preparation of serving our pulled-pork BBQ sandwiches.

(I found the easiest way to shred all this meat, y’all!)

I like to make Jalapeno/Beer Buns for the sandwiches. Just seems like the perfect way to top off this home-smoked meat, #dontchathink??

We piled on the pulled pork and add some rings of fresh onion & a spoonful of my Homemade BBQ sauce. It doesn’t get any better than that, y’all!!

All fresh, all homemade and certainly delicious!

RancherMan initially found his now-favorite rub & mop on the Barbeque Bible Newsletter, and we love it. I’m happy to share it below.

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