The Pulled Pork Thread

[TripletDaddy]

Wow. Does that happen on all of your cooks?

I have noticed that my smoker is hotter at the back where the hot air comes up, but no difference side to side.

havent noticed it before. however I did recently remove all my fire bricks and reposition so maybe that has something to do with it.

[MarkGrace]

4.5 hours of sleep? You are committed to smoking butts.

[Vic Vega]

I have a Weber Smokey Mountain. It's a cold night. I should not have used water in the pan, and I should have boiled it 1st if I was going to use water. I just checked the temp and I'm only running at 190 3 hours in. I threw in another 5 pounds of charcoal in and opened the vents a little more to fully open. This may be a tough one. I also made up a new butt rub recipe from scratch.

I have never had worse than what I would call a good butt out of a smoker, but this one may set the low bar if I am not careful.

[Sizzle]

I want to see the finished pics!!!

[Vic Vega]

A delayed reaction post.

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I had some family in town for the weekend, so I ended up using these for dinner rather than lunch. As I mentioned earlier I have become silly and superstitious about insisting on resting it in foil and a cooler for at least 2 hours before it is served. These absolutely fell apart, but I don't think I would have loved them if they were used for lunch that day. It's nice when you can be flexible with meal times.

I liked the new proportions in the rub I tried. I will pass on the recipe if anyone wants to try it out. It's most of the same ingredients you see in every recipe. This rub compliments the pork well, but you could definitely add a signature spice or flavor and it would stand out well. It's a nice blank canvas to where you can create your master piece. This has just a light kick and the cumin flavor is mild enough most people at the diner could not identify it as cumin.

The yield will be for a little over 4 butts, so make sure you have a container you can store some in for next time. I like the rub a little sweeter for pork, but its all just bark anyway in the end.

2 Cups Brown Sugar
2/3 cup sea salt (pick this up instead of just using salt; it really does taste better)
2 Tablespoons Cayenne Pepper
2 Teaspoons Cumin
3 Tablespoons Garlic Powder
3 Tablespoons Onion Powder

Pork butts are wet and the rub will stick. I coat the butt and like it that way. You can buy a bulk pack of mustard, and rub that on first. The bark will be thicker and a little gummier that way. I think most people have a slight preference for a rub that goes on the mustard first.

I like the subtle butt rub, so I just threw a couple more butts on without making adjustments to the rub. I will probably add more Cayenne when I get used to this flavor. I bet a healthy addition of Rosemary would also be good in this rub.

[Pelado]

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I had some family in town for the weekend, so I ended up using these for dinner rather than lunch. As I mentioned earlier I have become silly and superstitious about insisting on resting it in foil and a cooler for at least 2 hours before it is served. These absolutely fell apart, but I don't think I would have loved them if they were used for lunch that day. It's nice when you can be flexible with meal times.

I liked the new proportions in the rub I tried. I will pass on the recipe if anyone wants to try it out. It's most of the same ingredients you see in every recipe. This rub compliments the pork well, but you could definitely add a signature spice or flavor and it would stand out well. It's a nice blank canvas to where you can create your master piece. This has just a light kick and the cumin flavor is mild enough most people at the diner could not identify it as cumin.

The yield will be for a little over 4 butts, so make sure you have a container you can store some in for next time. I like the rub a little sweeter for pork, but its all just bark anyway in the end.

2 Cups Brown Sugar
2/3 cup sea salt (pick this up instead of just using salt; it really does taste better)
2 Tablespoons Cayenne Pepper
2 Teaspoons Cumin
3 Tablespoons Garlic Powder
3 Tablespoons Onion Powder

Pork butts are wet and the rub will stick. I coat the butt and like it that way. You can buy a bulk pack of mustard, and rub that on first. The bark will be thicker and a little gummier that way. I think most people have a slight preference for a rub that goes on the mustard first.

I like the subtle butt rub, so I just threw a couple more butts on without making adjustments to the rub. I will probably add more Cayenne when I get used to this flavor. I bet a healthy addition of Rosemary would also be good in this rub.

Who doesn't like a subtle butt rub?

[Vic Vega]

Who doesn't like a subtle butt rub?

Sometimes I just want it like POW.

[mtnbiker]

I suppose I should post some pics every once in a while, just to show that I'm still actively using the smoker. We have family dinners just about every other week, and most of them involve smoked meat of various types. Last week it was pulled pork, a couple of butts from Costco. I like to try different flavors, although we really have liked the Spade L Ranch rubs the best. This time I rubbed on of them with Famous Dave's rib rub. It was ok, a little heavy on the taste, and I didn't care for it all that much. But the Spade L butt was perfect.

After a year of smoking my own and reading the comments from others here, it seems that my Traeger tends to cook a little on the cool side compared to others. So I just allow for more cooking time or sometimes cook at one setting hotter than specified. I put these butts on at 11pm on Saturday night, at 225* and just let them cook. By about 12:30pm Sunday they were both up around 195*, so I pulled them off the smoker, put them into disposable pans with about 1/2 cup of apple juice, foil on top, and put them in the oven at 195* to let them rest. Around 3pm we needed to use the oven for rolls and dessert, so I wrapped a towel around the pans and put them into a cooler. Pulled the meat apart at 5pm, and it was fantastic.

[FMCoug]

The stall time in pork shoulders and how it is different every single time fascinates me. I'm doing two shoulders for a total of about 16 lbs. right now. Put them on at 2AM and by the time I checked on it at 8AM or so we were already at 175. 4.5 hours later it has only gotten to 182. Crazy.

[Coach McGuirk]

Yeah not real dark. rightly or wrongly, I attributed that to the rub. I don't use mustard but olive oil. I've tried mustard before but didnt see a differnce. I wrap them iindividually. Maybe I need to cut some more sugar into the rub to get the bark I'm looking for?

after some experimentation,

I have nailed the bark I was looking for about a week ago,

[FMCoug]

The stall time in pork shoulders and how it is different every single time fascinates me. I'm doing two shoulders for a total of about 16 lbs. right now. Put them on at 2AM and by the time I checked on it at 8AM or so we were already at 175. 4.5 hours later it has only gotten to 182. Crazy.

Well that sucked. Ran out of pellets and the fire went out. Turned it back on and came back 15 minutes later to find a raging grease fire. Saved the butts using insulated gloves and some roasting pans. Threw them in the oven in some roasting pans with apple juice and covered with foil. We'll see how they turn out. Let's just say they have a serious bark now!

[TripletDaddy]

Well that sucked. Ran out of pellets and the fire went out. Turned it back on and came back 15 minutes later to find a raging grease fire. Saved the butts using insulated gloves and some roasting pans. Threw them in the oven in some roasting pans with apple juice and covered with foil. We'll see how they turn out. Let's just say they have a serious bark now!

a raging grease fire in a smoker?? how did that happen?

[Jeff Lebowski]

after some experimentation,

I have nailed the bark I was looking for about a week ago,

You going to tell us how you did it, or just tease us with that beautiful photo?

[FMCoug]

a raging grease fire in a smoker?? how did that happen?

Not really sure. The fire had gone out and when I put pellets in and just left it at 225 it didn't restart. So I switched it to smoke. Went back out there about 15 minutes later to find billowing smoke. When I opened it up the flames quickly reached a foot or two. So I guess it wasn't really a raging fire until I opened the lid and gave it lots of O2. I am thinking that while the fire was out the butts dripped lots of juices and they caught when it re-lit? Not sure. I hadn't changed / cleaned the thing in quite some time either.

[Coach McGuirk]

You going to tell us how you did it, or just tease us with that beautiful photo?

this.