The Pulled Pork Thread

[Clark Addison]

Just called my dad, the butt is at 185. He is going to bed in an hour (which would be hour 16). I asked him to move it to the oven (set at 250) and have my mom turn it off when it hits 195 +/-. This is not going to end well.

I hate that. One of the great things about pulled pork is that it is tough to screw it up too much, but sometimes the timing just doesn't work out. A few months ago I had a butt in the smoker that just sat at about 170 for what seemed like hours. I had a hard stop so I turned up the heat but still only got it up to about 180 or 185. It was not awesome.

[wuapinmon]

Sorry, man. I often suffer from "I can taste it already" syndrome when cooking a boston butt, and it's no fun to want to treat friends/colleagues to a meal and have it not work out.

[Drunk Tank]

If you run into a time crunch and have a hard finish time you have to hit, turn up the heat to 350-375 and finish cooking it.. You may consider wrapping it in foil with some apple juice first, but it will get thru the stall and cook much faster. The pork isn't going to get any more smoke flavor than it already has at that point. This will get you out of a pinch.

*Disclaimer......I am not saying that the pork will be just as good as if you cooked it low and slow the whole time, but it will still be good. Just watch that it doesn't dry out and try to get a good FTC in to allow the juices to redistribute. "Not your best pulled pork" is better than no pulled pork any time....

[Joe Public]

I smoked my first butts last weekend. Here's a recap:

Prep:

I purchased the Costco two-pack, which weighed a shade over 12 pounds. Following Coach's lead, I made some Memphis Dust rub. I rinsed the shoulders, patted them dry, rubbed them with oil, and applied the spice rub. I wrapped each shoulder in plastic wrap, set them in Pyrex 9x9 pans, and left them in the refrigerator for a few hours.

Cook:

I removed the shoulders from the refrigerator about an hour before they went into the cooker. Twenty minutes before starting the cook, I filled the fire bowl in the kamado with lump and lit it. Stealing a page from the WSM guys, I placed a foil pan with water on the lower grate to deflect heat. I will get a pizza stone or similar for this eventually, but it was nice to have the pan there to catch drippings.

Here is the meat going into the cooker:



The shoulders were at 50 degrees internal temperature when I placed them. I ran the cooker at 220 degrees. I used hickory chips for smoke, but it was very trial-and-error in that regard. I think I'll pick up some chunks for future long smokes; I'll keep the chips for steaks and such.

The shoulders went from 50 degrees to around 150 degrees in about four hours. They then creeped up to 170 degrees over the next eight hours. I bumped the heat up to 250 degrees shortly thereafter, and I removed the shoulders when they hit 197 degrees.

Here's one of the shoulders right off the cooker:



The lump burned for over 15 hours, and a little over half of it remained unburned at the end of the cooking session. I probably spent less than $3 on fuel for that cook.

Post-cook:

I wrapped the cooked shoulders in foil and let them sit for about an hour. After that, I pulled the pork. We made sandwiches with the pork, Lexington dip for the sauce, and coleslaw. It tasted great, and I was happy with my first effort.

P.S. - That Lexington dip is legitimate. Make it a day or two before using it to let the flavors combine. Unreal.

[Coach McGuirk]

Looks great JP. No pics of the final product?

amazingribs.com has been a well of knowledge that I continue to go back to.

[CJF]

Looks great JP. No pics of the final product?

amazingribs.com has been a well of knowledge that I continue to go back to.

Agreed on both the food looking great and amazingribs.com being a great resource. It's one of my favorites.

[HuskyFreeNorthwest]

They are called bear claws. I told you to buy some. Why doesn't anyone listen to me?

I guess I missed where you told me about them earlier. ldc got me some for my b-day, I'll be wolverining some pork soon!

[TripletDaddy]

I guess I missed where you told me about them earlier. ldc got me some for my b-day, I'll be wolverining some pork soon!

I have milked a lot of mileage out of those things. I walk around with them on cook days with the claws poking out my shirt sleeve as though they were hands, I will throw a few fake punches/jabs at others to make it appear as though I am going to stab them, I also did the X-men thing. It is pretty fun.
I would recommend not making any jokes about your wife's mom, though. While talking privately to MMM, I made an innocent joke about slashing my MIL "like this" as I took some bear-like swipes and my wife didn't like it.

[SCcoug]

I did pulled pork today, I didn't take any pics though . Started it last night with an 8.5 lbs trimmed and rubbed butt and took it off around 2 PM. I was having trouble keeping temp down but since I had been salivating over the butts in this thread all week I would have had to mess it up pretty bad to not enjoy it. I think my problem was starting out with too many lit coals. All in all not bad for my first try, and we have plenty of left overs.

[Joe Public]

Some leftovers came out of the freezer last night and made their way onto pulled pork tacos with cheese, lettuce, avocado, tomato, and raspberry/chipotle sauce.

I did pulled pork today, I didn't take any pics though . Started it last night with an 8.5 lbs trimmed and rubbed butt and took it off around 2 PM. I was having trouble keeping temp down but since I had been salivating over the butts in this thread all week I would have had to mess it up pretty bad to not enjoy it. I think my problem was starting out with too many lit coals. All in all not bad for my first try, and we have plenty of left overs.

Nice job. What kind of rub did you use? Did you use the Minion method for lighting the charcoal?

[SCcoug]

Some leftovers came out of the freezer last night and made their way onto pulled pork tacos with cheese, lettuce, avocado, tomato, and raspberry/chipotle sauce.





Nice job. What kind of rub did you use? Did you use the Minion method for lighting the charcoal?

I used the amazingribs memphis dust. I did do use minion method. The other problem was it was a very windy day. I haven't done chicken or brisket yet but it is hard to imagine anything better than freshly pulled pork.

[Drunk Tank]

I am currently 12 hours in on smoking 10 pork butts. I think it is stretching the limits of the Yoder. I had a hell of a time getting the smoker back up to temp after I put the 80lbs of very cold pork butts in there. Most of the meat is between 150-165 with a few stragglers. I need these to be done by 4:00 so I just bumped the temp. I put them on at 1am.

Here are a few picks.

[FN Phat]

Wow. You and FM doing work!

[wuapinmon]

Wow. You and FM doing work!

Seriously. Those look delicious already, and I can almost smell them from the photos.

[Joe Public]

That's quite the undertaking, and it looks like you're more than up to the challenge.

Are all of those temperature probes leading to the same unit? If so, what kind of unit is it?