Anniversary Pulled Pork. Pic Heavy

[Craig]

Did a pork butt the other day for our wedding anniversary. I finally tried the snake method. Which I love BTW. Counterclockwise as directed. Put it on at 8:00am on the nose. The grill maintained a temperature between 225-255 for about 7 hours. The snake was 3/4 around the bowl and rowed in a 2-1 and chunks of apple wood spaced apart. I used spicy brown mustard and some pecan rub. It gave the pork a nice sweet and salty combination. Enough talk, time for photos. Feel free to give honest feedback. I haven't done many pork butts.





Made a drip pan. I actually prefer this to buying the pre made ones.







Yeah....I didn't use the chimney on this one. I placed the cubes under my snake.

Added water pan.

0800 Butt going on.


Time to fire up the redhead Easterner for some sunday breakfast.... Sausage and smoked gouda biscuits.




3 hours in Temp was 158 front, 168 back.


5 hours in... Stalled at 156 front, 176 back...I moved the water pan to the other side after this was taken.

Pulled off at 7 hours and about to be covered to rest for 30 minutes. 175 left, 185 right.

All pulled apart. It wasn't as finely shredded as I wanted but it had a nice smoke ring on it. It wasn't too smokey, a little sweet and salty taste to it, and we devoured it. It was a 3.85 lb. butt. Sorry no plated pics and I forgot to take more pics of the breakfast food.



Thanks for stopping by.

[G$]

Looks terrific Craig.

[jcnaz]

Looks fantastic. Thanks for the show!

[greeny03]

Nice!! I have been wanting to try this! To get it to hold that type of temperature, did you have the top and bottom vents wide open or partially shut? If shut down, roughly by how much, 1/2,1/3,1/4....?

[1buckie]

Lookin' pretty good, buddy !!!!!

If you need a more dense smoke flavor, mix in a few oak, or hickory, maybe dense maple......I've found apple is nice, kinda sweet, but will only get 'X' smokey flavor buildup....

If you want it to fall apart when you pull, just run to a bit higher int. temp ~>  195+
(it can run a bit higher heat with no ill effects, 250~280...the pig can take it!)


Happy Anniversary !!!!!!


PS:What's the gouda news on those  biscuits?

[edhead35]

The snake method is awesome. It is an engineering marvel. As long as you burn the right direction.

[One Touch Platinum]

It looks pretty good to me....I'll have some please. If you want to save some space and not have to move your water pan, you can kill two birds with one stone.....Use the water pan as the drip pan. Unless you are using the drippings, you can line your pan with that tin foil and fill it with water. I do this so I have water in the kettle and I have a drip pan that I don't have to clean after the cook....just dump the water and grease and throw the foil away. I love pulled pork, and love cooking it too....if I had my way I would make it everyday but my family would probably leave me.

[edhead35]

It looks pretty good to me....I'll have some please. If you want to save some space and not have to move your water pan, you can kill two birds with one stone.....Use the water pan as the drip pan. Unless you are using the drippings, you can line your pan with that tin foil and fill it with water. I do this so I have water in the kettle and I have a drip pan that I don't have to clean after the cook....just dump the water and grease and throw the foil away. I love pulled pork, and love cooking it too....if I had my way I would make it everyday but my family would probably leave me.

My wife is getting pretty sick of grilled and BBQ food. I went a week with nothing on charcoal, so now I am back on again this week.

[MacEggs]

Happy Anniversary to you and the missus! Fantastic looking cook-ups. 
Gotta love the snake method. I haven't tried it with a butt, yet. Just ribs.
I like to just set-it-and-forget-it. Walk away ... come back ... chow down. 

[Kilted_Griller]

Happy Anniversary to you and your lovely bride, Craig!! The pork looks awesome!!! Well Done!!!

[Craig]

Thanks for the compliments guys!
Greeny, to answer your question, I had all three daisy vents and the lid vent fully open the entire cook. 225-255, it would spike to 320 for about 3-4 minutes as a new wood chunk would begin to light and burn.

[greeny03]

Cheers Craig! Having a go at this method as I type! Hopefully it works out fine, fingers crossed!

[Craig]

Cheers Craig! Having a go at this method as I type! Hopefully it works out fine, fingers crossed!

Awesome! Looking forward to seeing some pics of the setup and the cook!

[Duke]

Happy Anniversary Craig!

Sorry I was so late. The pork looks fantastic all set up on your vintage grill. Did the water pan make any noticeable difference? I may put one in next time and give it a shot. I need to give that pecan rub a try. I bet your wife loved it.

[Craig]

Thanks Duke and she did love the rub. I did that same rub on my Christmas ham this last year. Its one of my favorites. The water pan seemed to work pretty good. There were a couple instances where it was pretty steamy inside.