With my son's birthday coming up, and droves of relatives planning to descend on my house I thought I had better begin prepping to feed an army of people. Over the weekend I made my first attempt to smoke a pork shoulder. After consulting with MartyG and my grilling yoda (mike.stavlund) I felt prepared for the task. I got up around 6 (an hour later than I wantedt to) to light my charcoal. I prepped a charcoal snake on my copper OTS the night before. I used a rub that I found on extraordinarybbq.com.
The shoulder smoked for 8.5 hours and then rested, wrapped in foil and towels, in a cooler for 2 hours. Overall I am thrilled with the results and feel confident I can tackle this again when our family comes to town.
Here are some pictures of the process:
My meat is all rubbed down :P
(http://i879.photobucket.com/albums/ab354/teerhardy/Grilling/39CD313A-5D1F-4F45-94D3-73366626B038.jpg)
Onto copper with some applewood chips
(http://i879.photobucket.com/albums/ab354/teerhardy/Grilling/CE9AE401-54B6-4BB5-9B37-287C640CCF9F.jpg)
(http://i879.photobucket.com/albums/ab354/teerhardy/Grilling/C5BC54CE-EF7C-45B6-B50E-9023EB39C4E3.jpg)
DING! It's done
(http://i879.photobucket.com/albums/ab354/teerhardy/Grilling/7708F637-FF62-42B4-861C-7A4EB3E062FF.jpg)
All shredded up
(http://i879.photobucket.com/albums/ab354/teerhardy/Grilling/34A9B944-6F67-4EFB-A515-F81CD3D61A45.jpg)
Smoke ring & bark
(http://i879.photobucket.com/albums/ab354/teerhardy/Grilling/531C91CA-1166-4636-8197-930AC49B3DBD.jpg)
Nice work! What size is that shoulder and what temp did you pull it at?
It was 8-10# shoulder and I pulled it at 207. I wanted to it off a bit earlier but hit every red light on the way home. I was able to keep the temp between 240 and 275.
Sharp Cookup !!!!
Never get tired of seeing someone's first "attempt" at pulled pork not just be an "attempt", but a raging success !!!!!
Quote from: 1buckie on May 27, 2014, 05:28:56 AM
Sharp Cookup !!!!
Never get tired of seeing someone's first "attempt" at pulled pork not just be an "attempt", but a raging success !!!!!
I was seriously suprised at how it turned out. Slow cooking a chunk of meat like that is intimidating. I hoping to do another one over the coming weekend.
teerhardy
Nice job! I like how you put the chips into the foil
Dan
Quote from: Cuda Dan on May 27, 2014, 05:46:06 AM
teerhardy
Nice job! I like how you put the chips into the foil
Dan
Thanks Dan! I was at my in-laws and forgot to bring wood with me. I soaked some chips I picked up at Lowes and was worried they'd dry out and catch fire rather than smoke over the course of the cook. No flare ups that I can report, so the foil method worked well.
That's awesome you're able to take off and leave the grill unattended while using the snake method.
The pork shoulder looks great.
"Slow cooking a chunk of meat like that is intimidating."
Obviously not...................... 8)
Quote from: 1buckie on May 27, 2014, 06:37:04 AM
"Slow cooking a chunk of meat like that is intimidating."
Obviously not...................... 8)
I guess I should have said "
was intimidating"
Good looking shred you got there. When I got around to doing brisket I was glad I had my experience with butts.
Looks great teerhardy. Can you fill in these info gaps for the unexperienced?
You weren't home, but knew the temps it was at?
From what I THINK I remember reading, something around 225 for a piece that size should/could take longer than 8 hrs. but since you were closer to 250-275, is that why you knew to come back sooner, rather than expect it to take longer (if say, it was at a lower temp I mean.)
Quote from: addicted-to-smoke on May 27, 2014, 06:46:35 AM
Looks great teerhardy. Can you fill in these info gaps for the unexperienced?
You weren't home, but knew the temps it was at?
From what I THINK I remember reading, something around 225 for a piece that size should/could take longer than 8 hrs. but since you were closer to 250-275, is that why you knew to come back sooner, rather than expect it to take longer (if say, it was at a lower temp I mean.)
I monitored the temp for 5 hours before I left, and it was running between 240 and 270. It spiked a few times to 300, but went down after closing the vents a bit. When I left the temp was holding at 247 and when I returned the temp was 256. The shoulder could have been smaller than I think it was. It came it a 2 pack and the other weighs in at 8.5 pounds.
Quote from: teerhardy on May 27, 2014, 06:44:11 AM
Quote from: 1buckie on May 27, 2014, 06:37:04 AM
"Slow cooking a chunk of meat like that is intimidating."
Obviously not...................... 8)
I guess I should have said "was intimidating"
now that we have the semantics & the time line figgered out.............. 8)
Awesome job! Even better that you had to improvise with the wood chips and figured out a way to make it work. Congrats on a fine cook.
Winz
Nice bark.