Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Food, Cooking, and Game Preparation A test run for a pulled pork project.

My oldest boy, Nathan is graduating from high school this spring and I've been tasked once again with cooking duties for the event. So today I'm doing a small sampler test for the big batch I'll be cooking soon.

This is a half of a pork shoulder (bost butt).

I'll be doing about 6 whole's for graduation I believe.

So I did an injection, Roughly a 4:1 apple cider to apple cider vinegar, Mixed in a sazon packet (sin achiote).

I injected about 10-12 oz into this half so I'm thinking about 20 oz per whole shoulder roast.

I did a simple sugar rub, 1 cup brown sugar, 1tbsp Louisiana cajun seasoning which is just a cajun season salt, 3/4 tsp black pepper. I shook the rub mix in a sealed tub to mix it.

I applied the rub after injecting, I'm thinking I'll prep for about 2 cups rub per whole shoulder roast. This was one cup applied to the half roast.



Meat is ready to go on, coals are lighting.

That looks good Dave, what is the "tariff" per pound on a pork shoulder in your neck of the woods?

I believe we are at around a buck foty?

Dumped my coals out of the can and raked them forward to the front of my fire box.



A handful of chips to start with, these happen to be mesquite. I think the flavor is about like alder.



I just sprinkle em on top of the coals, nothing fancy here.

Looking good. What time are you serving today?

Probably around 4-5 PM Siberia time. (also known as Minnetoba)

Here comes mr Prom right now (it's also Prom day here, Nate's senior prom).





That's his prom buggy, just taken out of winter storage, he's returning home from the car wash in town where there is a line of high school kids cleaning up their prom wheels.

Nathan was born in 1997, his truck is a 1977. It's 20 years older than he is, that's his prom rig. To put it in perspective, what is the model year 20 years prior to your birth year? For me it is 1950. So, to match the vintage to driver age ratio, my prom buggy would have had to have been something like this:

smoking

About an hour in.

Keep that smoker shut.

Nuttin' ta see here folks. Move on.

Looks good Dave. Are you doing the whole cook in the foil pan?

foil pan all the way, uncovered for the first 2.5-3 hours. I will cover with foil soon and let it simmer the rest of the way. I'm hitting about 135 inside meat temp right now.



I'm about 2.75 hours into it, uncovered so far.

I'm going to hold off until I hit closer to 165-170 before I wrap it. Then I think I'll pull it from the cooker when I hit about 200 meat temp. Wrap it in a towel for a 1/2 hr to 45 min rest then pull it apart.


I'm totally winging it, but I'll write my notes down so I can adjust things for next time if needed.

I decided to turn the roast over in the pan once I hit 145 meat temp, basted and tossed in more wood chips to try to get a little smoke into that side that had been facing down in the pan's juices.

Hold @ 195-205 on the cooker for an hour or so then rest and pull.

SOOOOOO tender and juicy. Don't forget the slaw.

Thanks, time permitting I will try.

Agreed, the slaw is a must.

5.5 hours in I finally hit 165 and covered with foil. I'm going to have to bring it up to 200 a little quicker than I wanted to because we have prom stuff to go to this evening.

Hi Dave,

You didn't ask for my opinion or advice, but I'm going to throw some your way anyway. Lose the pan and cook it on the grate with a drip pan below. That that way the smoke can flow all around the meat and allow formation of bark, which is my favorite part. As is, laying in the juices, no bark will form on the bottom and by flipping it any bark that did form on the top will be killed. Just my 2 cents.

Mike

Much appreciated, I'm thinking that could be the plan for the next practice run.

I like these practice runs, lol!

Would you wrap it at some point, Mike?


I used to cook and pull right on the grill, the rest step and pull afterwards is new for me.

Trying to do things right, having a good time learning, or trying anyways.

No problem, here's a couple I did. It will look like a couple meteorites landed in your cooker, but the tasty pieces of bark that will mix in when it's pulled will be what people rave about.



Mike

Looking great Dave. Like Mike said, loose the pan and go for the black look. Your injection likely is the reason it is taking so long to get up to temp. Just plan ahead on the next, burp, practice run.

I dunno guys, all my testers are telling me we nailed it. Nobody seems to open to changes, so we may have to go with this program.

Gross...











Looks delicious man

I like to chop it instead of pulling, we dont care for long stringy pieces, that said it looks good.

we were stuffing food down our necks and rushing out the door for grand march at the high school.

So all I got was a couple of quick crappy cell phone pics.

Looks barely edible! Hey, if you like it and everyone else does why change it up? Carry on my friend!

Mike

Sorry I missed this earlier, I'm not sure how I did. My answer is no. I never wrap butts and the only reason I have ever wrapped a brisket is to speed it up to make a turn in time. Wrapping, like pans, is a bark killer. I hate to see a guy work so hard to get good bark and then steam it soft by wrapping it.

Mike

Mike,

Doesn't wrapping help tenderize it? I'm learning also, on a Traeger.

IIRC a Jeep, I mean truck, in the air is not a bad thing for prom night. Viddles look killer. Prom girl will be here tomorrow for an EdM ghetto-Mexi-meal...

Well not really IMO. It speeds up the cooking time because you're pretty much steaming it. Most of the time tough brisket = underdone brisket. Cook them until a probe slides in like butter and all will be right with the world. Usually 200-205* is the magic number, but I have had them go as high as 215 before they probe right. Maybe Sean or some of the others can chime in.

Mike

I don't do a bunch of them, but I don't usually wrap either. Never pork. As to temp/doneness, I have had some that just didn't ever want to get tender. But I have cheated and put brisket on the smoker for two to three hours for the smoke and finished in a 350 convection oven in less than three! Like Mike said, if it probes soft, eat it!

I never wrap briskets, butts, or ribs. I don't inject either. I put a rub on them all and spray or mop on a 50/50
mix of apple juice and cider vinegar on my pork about every hour. Yours looks good and if everyone liked it i guess your trial is a success.

Mine would be like this:

Cool

No pan ever. the bark is so important towards additional flavor, that if I needed a 12 pounder, I would rather do two 6 pounders, more surface area equals more bark which equals more flavor.

trust us.

Dave, looks good enough to devour !!

Hope Nate's prom went well ?

Same Gal as last year ?

P.S.; Can't add any advice, I always do mine in the slow cooker !

Yes, same girl. They are pretty serious, she's real nice, comes from a real good family. We're totally cool with it.

Prom went very well, no accidents or major incidents that we have heard of.

That's great Dave !

Saw the photo on the ChickenBuck thread.

I just had some of the left over pulled pork for lunch, I flopped a chunk of pepperjack cheese on each sammich, that was good.

I'm happy with the recipe, now if I can just repeat it for 60 lbs of meat. lol

I do a pulled pork (lazy man's way) one week & a deer burger chilli the next week.

Either, + buns, PJ cheese & a bottle of Sweet Baby Rays seems to keep my man child happy all week !

As an aside, bought some pepper jack cheese slices in Biwabik & your version certainly has more bite than the Canadian versions.

WTH you doing in Biwabik? Lol.

Thanks for the photos.

You guys taking off the fat cap on these?

I did, I fillet it off and tossed it to the dogs.

We bought season passes at Giants Ridge this winter. Spent 14 days helping your economy !

Stayed in the lodge, in a self contained unit, so stopped there to buy groceries & booze !

Snow boarding was fantastic, this year !

Thank you good sir.

How many bars they got in that little town? 15, 20? lol

that was 10bucks worth of info....

Don't know, can think of a least 3 that I saw !

Ours was a quick blast into the "little brown jug" for a sixer, bottle each of white & red wine & bottle of bourbon, then across the road to the grocery store.

Sometimes, we switched it up & did it in reverse !

I saw a clip of someone slicing off the fat cap from a smoked brisket, and I thought to myself that would be great to lay on top of a casserole full of baked beans before they go into the oven.