I got my first "contract cook" and thought it would be fun to share. My wife's niece asked if we'd be willing to cook some pulled pork for her hubby's 30th birthday party in a couple of weeks. Looking at the calendar, I noticed that it was a 'now or never' situation. The cook had to happen this weekend.
Wouldn't you know it, we had a major weather system move through late this week. We've lived in the Wisc/Minn area all of our lives, so not much phases us anymore with regards to the weather, but this was a true 'blizzard'. It started with 8hrs of rain, then turned to huge fluffy snowflakes for another 6hrs, then light blowing snow, then MAJOR winds and fast dropping temps. It's now 48hrs later and the interstates are still coated in a 1-2" thick coating of packed ice. Here is a shot of our driveway the next morning. It had already been cleared off late the night before, but had drifted back over as if nobody had stepped outside.
Anyway, onto the cook! Here are the 4 butts I picked up from the store. 30lbs of glorious pork shoulder:
I had ordered some Tatonka-Dust recently to have on hand, so what better excuse to try it out. Man, this stuff is fantastic!
Two of the four butts rubbed before going in the WSM:
Here's the shot of me lighting about a dozen briquettes on a 1970's Coleman camp-stove. At this point, the wind was howling, but the show had to go on. As you can see, the WSM is tucked up pretty close to the house. Our wind always comes from behind the house, so this was somewhat protected: (Sorry for the crappy pics, my cell phone doesn't like low-light)
We have coals!
I wrapped the cooker in it's welding-blanket and monitored the temp for another hour or so before heading to bed for the night. I woke up at 3am for a bathroom break and the cheapie digital Wal-Mart therm read 258 deg. Perfect! At 5am the temp started to drop to 195deg, so I gave it a good shake and laid down for another hour. At 6am, it was down to 175, so I tossed in more charcoal and luckily had JUST enough heat to get them restarted. Here's what it looked like once the sun came up:
They're coming off!
(Cue heavenly angel chorus... Come on girls LOUDER!!! Give us moar!!!!!!!)
"Aaahhhoooooo!"
After being towel-wrapped in a cooler for 2-hours to rest, it was time to pull some pork.
Massive bowl of pulled pork. I forgot to snap a pic, but it ended up producing 9 fully stuffed quart-sized freezer bags of meat. Plenty for the upcoming party. I added a ladle full of a vinegar based finishing sauce to each bag to give it some moisture:
Here's the best part of any cook. (Ironically, it was time for some breakfast)
Nothing like a little fresh pulled pork and eggs!
Thanks for listening!
Topic: Blizzard Butts (Read 1961 times)
