I'm not really new at this, but I am more of a tinkerer. I've made probably 10 pork shoulders in the 3 or 4 years I've been smoking, and there's never been a bad one. I think smoke + pork + sweet/salty/spicy rub + vinegary bbq sauce = heaven.
After reading the sticky on here about how to make a "true" shoulder, I figured I should give it a try. And despite the fact that it took me three appliances and the better part of a weekend to produce it, this was indeed the best pulled pork I've ever made.
Bought the two-pack at Sam's a few days before I was going to smoke it. Pulled one out and rubbed, froze the other. Here's the shoulder after its initial rub, right before it went into the fridge:
I think I was just overly excited, because after it was in the fridge, I realized it'd be two days before I smoked it. The good news is, it didn't affect the meat negatively to be rubbed for two days rather than just overnight. Here's the shoulder before it went onto the "first" smoker:
Put it on the electric smoker with "mapple" wood (mix of maple & apple), along with a tray of beans (carefully placed to catch the pork drippings) - sprayed with the apple juice / captain mix:
Well a few hours go by, and I notice there's less and less smoke coming from the top vent. I ignore it for a bit, and then check. No more heat coming from the element. This thing is only 2 years old, and it's dead. And in the middle of a pork shoulder! (in related news, I read about a common problem with these masterbuilt smokers, and sure enough, the lead to the burner had corroded on mine as well. It's fixed as of last night! Very lousy construction, though)
Never fear, always have a backup plan, right? I pulled out the offset smoker and started a fire, and moved the shoulder to the offset:
Left 'er on the offset for a number of hours until I was running out of daylight and lump. So here's the shoulder in the third appliance, the oven, on a timer for another 5 hours at 200 degrees:
I was quite glad that I'd done the pork shoulder the day before people were coming over!! Hooray for happy endings, though - I've never had a shoulder be this tender when it had finished, I had never taken it to a high enough internal temperature. Here's the pulled pork:
On day two when guests were expected, I'd already brined a whole chicken, plus I made somewhere in the neighborhood of 30 ABTs:
and another 30 or 40 wing drummettes in "chaka's MMMMM sauce", and loaded up the grill:
And here's the ABT's / chicken wings after they finished. Everyone loved all of the grub, and we had pulled pork left over, even!
Thanks for checking out my pork shoulder smoke.
After reading the sticky on here about how to make a "true" shoulder, I figured I should give it a try. And despite the fact that it took me three appliances and the better part of a weekend to produce it, this was indeed the best pulled pork I've ever made.
Bought the two-pack at Sam's a few days before I was going to smoke it. Pulled one out and rubbed, froze the other. Here's the shoulder after its initial rub, right before it went into the fridge:
I think I was just overly excited, because after it was in the fridge, I realized it'd be two days before I smoked it. The good news is, it didn't affect the meat negatively to be rubbed for two days rather than just overnight. Here's the shoulder before it went onto the "first" smoker:
Put it on the electric smoker with "mapple" wood (mix of maple & apple), along with a tray of beans (carefully placed to catch the pork drippings) - sprayed with the apple juice / captain mix:
Well a few hours go by, and I notice there's less and less smoke coming from the top vent. I ignore it for a bit, and then check. No more heat coming from the element. This thing is only 2 years old, and it's dead. And in the middle of a pork shoulder! (in related news, I read about a common problem with these masterbuilt smokers, and sure enough, the lead to the burner had corroded on mine as well. It's fixed as of last night! Very lousy construction, though)
Never fear, always have a backup plan, right? I pulled out the offset smoker and started a fire, and moved the shoulder to the offset:
Left 'er on the offset for a number of hours until I was running out of daylight and lump. So here's the shoulder in the third appliance, the oven, on a timer for another 5 hours at 200 degrees:
I was quite glad that I'd done the pork shoulder the day before people were coming over!! Hooray for happy endings, though - I've never had a shoulder be this tender when it had finished, I had never taken it to a high enough internal temperature. Here's the pulled pork:
On day two when guests were expected, I'd already brined a whole chicken, plus I made somewhere in the neighborhood of 30 ABTs:
and another 30 or 40 wing drummettes in "chaka's MMMMM sauce", and loaded up the grill:
And here's the ABT's / chicken wings after they finished. Everyone loved all of the grub, and we had pulled pork left over, even!
Thanks for checking out my pork shoulder smoke.
