Pulled pork - picture heavy

[Lightning]

Everything in my back yard had been settling into disuse because work sent me out west for several weeks.  It was great but it was also a lot of restaurant meals for better or worse.

I was glad to be home and have some friends over on the weekend and we decided to chip in together on a pork shoulder for pulled pork. I continued with using hardwood lump charcoal in the WSM with this cook finishing off a bag of Royal Oak and then a top up with some lit Maple Leaf to prop up the temperature in the last couple of hours.

I wrapped the shoulder at 165 degrees. Unwrapped it at and let the bark firm up for an hour before saucing.  Then another half hour to let the sauce set before I attempted to remove it from the WSM.  The shoulder collapsed and fell apart under its own weight when I did.  Thankfully one of my friends was standing there with the glass baking dish and caught it just as it began breaking apart otherwise half of it would have landed on the ground.  The one picture in the pan before shredding shows how it came apart just from being moved off the grill.

The pork was amazing.  This is the best one I've made yet.  I'm also pretty much convinced that there is absolutely no problem using lump charcoal in the WSM apart from the vent opening adjustments being far more touchy than they are with briquettes.  At this point, I don't really have many use cases for briquettes so once I finish up my current stash, that'll probably be it except for purchasing them on an as-needed basis.  I do still use them in the ranch because they're tamer than the lump which I've found can easily burn too hot in that giant beast.


Sent from my iPhone using Weber Kettle Club mobile app

[Jtayres]

Looks awesome! I can see how juicy it is from here. Do you know what your final temp was?

I still use the briquettes for long and slow along with some pecan wood for smoke. Mostly because once a year Home Depot or Walmart will do a sale on kbb for $9.99 for two bags. Whenever that happens I usually buy 10 or so bags to have around then fill in the rest with royal oak or the like.

[JEBIV]

Well that looks really good, I love it when you cook self pulling pork

[Lightning]

Looks awesome! I can see how juicy it is from here. Do you know what your final temp was?

I still use the briquettes for long and slow along with some pecan wood for smoke. Mostly because once a year Home Depot or Walmart will do a sale on kbb for $9.99 for two bags. Whenever that happens I usually buy 10 or so bags to have around then fill in the rest with royal oak or the like.

Thanks!  Your comment made me realize an oversight on my part - I forgot to mention what wood I used.  I used pecan this time, loaded right at the start of the cook and topped up about an hour in.  The finishing temperature was about 173 degrees after it peaked at 185 and ran at that for several hours until it cooled off after I unwrapped it.  The shoulder never reached the magic 205 degree temperature that I always try to shoot for that's supposed to cause all the tough material to break down but it clearly wasn't necessary given how it fell apart as soon as I tried to move it.  The overall time in the smoker cooking came to just under 12 hours so that appears to have been the more critical part to making it come out tender the way it did.

I picked up a ton of Kingsford since it rarely goes on sale here about two years ago when Home Depot had them listed for half off to try it out and found I didn't like it all that much.  I'm slowly working on that stash since I only use it in the ranch and I've got a stash of Weber briquettes that I picked up while those were on sale which I had been using regularly in the WSM except I don't think it's so necessary any more.  I really don't know how much I'll be using briquettes now that they're relegated to ranch-only duty.

[Jtayres]

Pecan is my favorite all-purpose wood.

I always try to aim for the 203-degree mark but generally get impatient or run out of time. The one I made this past weekend I pulled off the grill at 197, but I got a later start than I expected so I was pushing deep into dusk.