Questions on my pulled pork

[iamrip]

I did my first successful pulled pork smoke this weekend. I followed the instructions in the pulled pork sticky and it turned out great. I also did a couple fattys and some ABTs. I do have a couple of questions I was hoping you could help me with.

1. I wrapped the pork in foil once it hit 165 but I also had my temp probe in it. I left the foil a little open near the probe because I didn't want the hot foil to ruin the probe. Is this a problem? I have been told not to let the probe touch the grates but is foil going to ruin the probes?

2. My smoke ring did not seem to penetrate very deeply. I used one home depot bag of hickory chips during the smoke. Should I have used more? It seemed to be smoking fine.

3. I used Jimmy Dean sausage for the fattys. I just cut open the package and pushed them out. I did fill them so I did not flatten and reroll so they were still in the original package shape. Is there any problems with this method?

Thanks everyone for you help!

 

[meowey]

I would keep the smoke going until I foiled. What kind of smoker are you using. I get a deeper smoke ring when I use the CharGriller burning charcoal and wood chunks than when I use my GOSM.

The foil touching the probe should not affect anything.

Your fatty sounds fine.

Hope this helps.

Take care, have fun, and do good!

Regards,

Meowey

 

[iamrip]

I am using my GOSM. I was wondering if not using charcoal had something to do with it. I think next time I will add a couple chunks to the chips to see if that helps.

Thanks!

 

[meowey]

Some folks here suggest that you add a piece or two of charcoal to the wood pan of the GOSM for a better smoke ring. Give it a try and let us know how you make out.

Take care, have fun, and do good!

Regards,

Meowey

 

[seboke]

You and the ones you feed are the judge on success.

Agree with meowey to keep smoke going till ya foil.

I remove and reinsert the probe through the foil, the foil never bothered it (as far as I know...).

Your call on how many bags of chips to go through per smoke. But you already said good smoke flow, so keep doin what you did!

Never did notice a smoke ring on butts. There's so many color variations in a butt whey you're done, as well as a nick black bark, just never noticed one. And I always just pull out the bone and kind of crush the butt into chunks to cool enough to pull by hand. Never looked for a smoke ring.

Not a real wrong way to do a fatty. Any chance you got some pics of yours? What did you stuff with?

 

[pigcicles]

Adding charcoal to the smoke box will help with the smoke ring.

The sausage straight out of the package is just as good and any other way.

The foil shouldn't hurt the probe. I would seal the foil then poke through the foil. But that way was fine.

You done good.

 

[iamrip]

Thanks everyone. I am glad that the foil doesn't effect the probe. The meat seemed quite a bit drier at the open point. It was small so not a big problem but it wont be a problem at all next time! The only reason I checked for the smoke ring is because this is my first big smoke and I wanted to see what it looked like on a big piece of meat. The pork fell apart very easily and the smoke ring is gone now. The meat tasted great. I used SoFlaQuer's finishing sauce and prepared SoFlaQuer's mustard sauce and Jeff's BBQ sauce as well. It all tasted great. The mustard sauce was awesome. My wife loved the ABTs which were only jalapenos cut in half and filled with cream cheese and topped with bacon. It was a great day. Unfortunately, while I took a couple "before" pictures, I went straight to tasting instead of making "after" pictures.

 

[meowey]

LOL I've done that!

Take care, have fun, and do good!

Regards,

Meowey

 

[iamrip]

I had one last question about this smoke. I thought about using a foil pan underneath the meat to catch the juice. I had thought of two ways to do this.

1. Put the foil pan on a lower rack.
2. Place a cookie cooling rack in the pan to keep the pork out of the juices.

#2 would work better when I have a lot of meat in the smoker. Do either of these methods effect smoke penetration? Is the juice from pork okay to put in other items like beans for flavoring? (I am talking from a health perspective)

 

[7outof10]

use an upside down minny muffen pan


you can see the pan i used off to he side of the pic it works prrtty good ....the cooling rack might not lift it up high enough

 

[iamrip]

Our cookie cooling pans are actualy designed to hold pies as well and have legs that raise them up about 3" so they are pretty tall. As long as it is higher than the juices the smoke should still penetrate the meat on the bottom as well as the top right? What about health issues?

 

[meowey]

Don't think it's a problem.

Hope this helps!

Take care, have fun, and do good!

Regards,

Meowey