The Money Muscle

Money Muscle is really a misnamed piece of meat.  The Money Muscle we know as The Money Muscle is about 1/4 inch thick and is flat.  It actually comes off the other piece as a piece of anatomy. How it ever became known as The Money Muscle is funny. Competitors thought it was the key to taking home the money. You have to cook a mean money muscle. Money Muscle The money muscle we think of is a carved piece of meat. As we have seen in competition they act as if the round medallions that are turned in are one piece of the Pork Butt.  They clearly are not. This is the first cut of trimming a money muscle and as you can see the actual money muscle is to the left and the rest are tubes as they are called or pieces of the center part of the Butt.

You have to be careful there is a lot of fat on the fat cap side of the Money Muscle and the center of the MM.  The first step of the first cut is to make it big enough to sculpt.

I did not separate it completely from the Butt as in some sanctioning bodies its illegal.Money Muscle If your at a tailgate or backyard cook by all means take the money muscle off and sculpt into a perfectly round piece.  What your going to run into is the center is going to have a divide and if you keep following the divide soon you’ll be left with nothing but the 1/4 inch actual MM.

Keep taking the corners off as you can see in this picture there are two corner like a box end on both sides.  These corners have to be removed to round the money muscle up.

Once its good and round inject it. Money Muscle I can usually get three places one close to one end, the middle and close to the other end then turn it over and do it again. If you can get a smaller injector you can inject it more in more places. There is a little fat showing here buts its on the end we will probably only get 5 pieces out of this anyway.  Pork fat melts so cook it all the same you never know what will be the finished results of this piece.

Now That you have injected put some bands around it.

Money Muscle

Make sure the bands are food safe

You can use string but these bands are stout and will not move. I put three on there you and them to end up in an area where you may do a cut to hid the indention’s is any appear later.  Now its time to put it in the brine,

I thought brine’s didn’t help and they wont it you don’t inject first. If you inject first you have opened up ports for the bring to enter and penetrate that meat. I’ve opened every bag of water contained in this system.

Make a brine with your pork injection as your base.  It is going to take a gallon to 1 1/2 gallons of water to cover your 2 Butts. I did 2 because that is what it comes in a pack of 2.  Then mix your brine up. Money Muscle

  1. 16 oz of injection
  2. 1 1/2 gallons of water
  3. 2 tbsp of Garlic Powder
  4. 2 tbsp of Onion Powder
  5. 1 tsp of Liquid Smoke
  6. 1 tsp of Dale’s Original


If you hang the bag it will guarantee that the brine will cover all the meat in the bag and that is key. Brine it for 12-24 hours take it out and its time to cook it.

Here the Money Muscle is after 15 hours of being in the brine.

It is highly hydrated.  Then I re injected. IMG_7201 It didn’t take much to fill it up again. go over the whole butt again.  Make sure its as full of new injection as you can get it. The wholes from the previous injection allow it all to move in and out. 

Now its time to start the rub process.  Start off with Garlic-Pepper-Course Salt mixture. No I mean It’s Incredible by Heaven made products. Its so good and it has butter flakes in it.  I coated the whole Butt. 

Make sure you look in every flap and crevices. Then put on the Mustard right over the top of Its Incredible. Use as much as you like try to make your Butt as yellow as you can.

Then apply the Championship Combo, Big, T, Sucklebusters Texas Pecan and Butcher BBQ Honey Rub. In that order.  You can use anything you want that is just my favorite.

I had to crank the straps down to tighten them as it got loose during brine – ing. I coated everything to the max and put it into  the smoker at 300 F.

Cooking a Money Muscle is tuff.  It cannot be cooked the same as the whole Butt.

Two hours is our Money Muscle is looking some kind of good. The straps are keeping it round. color is good!

Cook it for 3 hours at 300 F and then check the internal temperature.  Don’t wrap it with the Butt.  Cut it loose and wrap it by itself. Take it out of the cook for and hour and leave it in the foil.  When the cook comes down to 250 F then put it back in in the foil for an hour. If the internal temperature comes up to 185 F take it out.  Don’t wrap it again.  Now put it in the cambro until it is time to box.

The center should be done at this point enough to eat and the exterior should have some good bark. If the bark isn’t good enough.  Put it in for an hour unwrapped at the end of your cook.

Now take it out and lets try to make medallions.  You have to use and electric knife.  You need to set it on a cutting board and cut the medallions in sauce then roll them around.  It your doing a back yard this will be a lot of fun.  If the money muscle is to done it will fall apart.  If its not done enough it will be tough to eat.  This is where championship cooking comes in.

Money Muscle