Pulled Pork Shoulder

Epicurean Exploits - Food and Recipes
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Pic’s from today’s dinner:

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Paul, that looks great…how long was it smoked for?

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Here you go, Paul. We can compare notes. The Smoked Pork Butt Experiment - Epicurean Exploits - Food and Recipes - WineBerserkers" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

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About 4.5 hours at 300-330, then in foil on the counter for 30 minutes.

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Wow, talk about food porn! [give_heart.gif] [cheers.gif]

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Looks like you got good results from the Weber as well. I have to admit I was a bit skeptical at the instructions I was going by as it seemed to be pretty high heat to me. But I was able to get about 80% pullable meat. The part that sat on the grill got a bit dryed out but the rest of it was nice and moist and shredable.

Since you cooked yours over a longer time you probably did not have the problem. I never did get up to 190 but I’m glad I pulled it when I did as it was definitly done.

Next time I will use a bit more smoke and cook for a bit longer at a lower temp (say 275 or so). It was fun experiment and I will repeat with guests next time.

For now I have a ton of leftovers though . . .

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Paul, here are my instructions that I gave to Bob for his shoulder. It is in actuality for ribs, but can most definitely be adulterated for shoulder.

First off, this particular set of ribs was very thick and heavy…around 2 3/4 pounds. As I did these last minute, I didn’t have enough time to brine them and they suffered from a lack of enough salt in the meat. Usually thinner/smaller ones will get enough salt from the rub, but I would like a six to eight hour soak for ribs like these.

If brining use these ratios for an appropriate amount of liquid to cover the ribs in a gallon ZipLoc bag and make sure to completely dissolve the sugar and salt:

1 cup of kosher salt
1 cup of turbinado sugar
1 gallon H2O

After brining, dry the ribs as thoroughly as possible with paper towels and allow to come to room temperature on a wire rack on a half sheet pan.

Dry Rub…of course there are myriad permutations, but here is what I ran with on these:

8 TSP Dried, Evaporated Cane Juice
3 TSP Kosher Salt
3 TSP Sweet Paprika
1/2 TSP Granulated Garlic
1/2 TSP Onion Powder
1/2 TSP Yellow Mustard Powder
1/2 TSP Finely Ground Telicherry Pepper
1/2 TSP Szichuan Peppercorns

When the ribs are at room temp, apply a fairly thick coating of the rub on all sides. When liquid starts to appear on the sheet pan, it is time to hit the smoker. Since you are the proud parent of a new Weber, I will give the instructions for how I use mine.

Approximately 30 to 40 minutes before you intend to put the ribs on, start some hardwood lump charcoal in your chimney. About half full give or take…this will require trial and error based on your brand and chunk size. When the coals have all started, place them on one side of the grill in a nice mound as close to the wall of the kettle as possible. Keep the bottom vent 100% open and play with the top between 25 and 50% to keep temp around 225 to 250 deg F. As for smoke wood, I use pecan and pecan shell from my parent’s trees. For best results, IMHO, find some pecan/hickory/apple smoking chips and make several foil pouches filled with about a half to full cup worth. Make sure they are very tightly wrapped and poke a couple of holes in each of them. When the coals ash over, place the foil pouch directly on them and wait for smoke to appear. It might not seem like very much, but once the lid is closed, you have a smoker. Throw the ribs on as far away as possible from the fire.

Here is the tricky part…maintaining a decent temp and keep the smoke going uninterrupted. I usually put a new foil pack on every 15 minutes for two hours. That is about as much smoke flavor as is needed for ribs. After that, just add charcoal to keep the heat going. Based on wind, ambient temp, your internal temp, etc…I would say look at six hours for good results. If you don’t want to fuss with all of that, you can of course put them on your wire rack on the sheet pan and put in a 225 deg oven for four hours post smoking.

Mopping:

I get a good glaze on the ribs by applying a mop sauce vs. a traditional BBQ sauce and in the end no sauce is needed. If you want to go this route, mop the ribs every 15 minutes after the smoke has been halted.

Mop Sauce:

1 Cup Apple Juice
1/2 Cup Turbinado Sugar
2 TBS Of Left Over Rib Rub
2 TBS Worchestershire Sauce
2 TBS Apple Cider Vinegar

Combine all ingredients in a sauce pan and heat to dissolve sugar.

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Did you remember to put the roast on the cool side of the grill, away from the fire?

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I actually had some coals/wood chips on either side and drip pan in the middle that the meat was positioned over. Next time I may try all the coals to one side technique.

I’m used to doing Prime Rib in the Weber with coals on either side but that is a higher heat cook (350). Overall I was please with the first time.

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When I did mine, I had a little fire on one side and the meat on the other. When I say “little”, I mean very small. About a dozen briquettes with the vents open per Tex’s instructions, though I had to play with them a bit. It held at 250 very nicely and I only had to replenish the charcoal (about 6 briquettes at a time) every hour or so.

I gave up on Tex’s foil packets for the chips and simply threw them on the charcoal every 20 minutes or so (after a good soak) until I ran out. It seems, from the anecdotal evidence I’ve read, that the meat stops absorbing smoke flavors after 3 or 4 hours. When I did my brisket last year I took advantage of this and smoked the beast for about 4 hours beginning around 4:00 PM and then put it in the oven at 225 until the following morning around 7. It was perfect.

If you want to try a brisket, you can get one CHEEEEEEEEP at Cash and Carry and, though they’re USDA Select, they’re just fine for this purpose. There’s also a great treatise on “that other board” by Tom Cole on brisket. http://dat.erobertparker.com/bboard/showpost.php?p=1880320&postcount=33" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

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So you went with less fuel and open vents with frequent replenishment.

I put in more coal at the begnining, with closed down vents and never had to replace any, however my temp was a bit high at some points.

I’ll probably go for something between both of these methods next time.

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I’ve read the same thing. Also related, I’ve read that colder initial meat temps will lead to more/prolonged smoke flavor absorption…so this is the lone instance I can think of when I grill where I do not pull the meat out early and let it come up to room temperature prior to throwing it on the heat…straight out of the fridge to the grill, once fire temp seems steady. It adds to the cook time, but time should not be something in short supply when you plan to do this anway.