Graduation Party Big (for me) Smoke!

cybergoon · May 25, 2012

My nephew graduates high school tomorrow and I am in charge of the meat. We are expecting 50-75 people. I'm smoking some pork shoulders to make pulled pork. I had kind of planned on smoking 5 shoulders around 8lbs each. When I went to Sam's yesterday, they had 2-packs for $1.89/lb, or by the case for $1.39/lb. Never one to pass up a good deal, I bought a case. 5 2-packs totaling about 90lbs. I went home and started prepping the meat last night. I got 5 prepped and decided that since I had already cut open a package to get the 5th butt, I might as well smoke an extra one, since I couldn't vacuum seal it. Got the prepped for an overnight in the fridge.

Got home from work today and fired up the smoker. Decided to throw them on a scale to see how much my starting weight was. 59.4lbs! WOW! I was only meaning to make around 40lbs. Oh well, got the smoker up to temp and threw them on. I've got 17 hours to get them as close to 200F as I can. I got stuck working later than I anticipated.

I will post my progress tonight. It is rainy and 63F out currently.

I have a WSM 22.5" smoker, for those interested. I used "Memphis Dust" for the rub. Here are a few pics.

edit: Pics got out of order and I seem to have lost the captions, so going to try and fix.

First 3 on bottom rack.

Last three on top rack.

Hard to see, but I put the smoker thermometer on the underside of the top rack to keep it from getting in the way

and touching the meat. Thought that one up all by my lonesome! Hope it works okay!!!

Butts spread out on the tailgate of my truck.

-Marc

pops6927 · May 25, 2012

How much you reckon you lost in bone and shrink? I'd be great if you'd weigh the final product before shredding but boned out, trimmed and ready to pull! I'd say about 43 lbs. - any other guesses?

scarbelly · May 25, 2012

Looks like you are off to a great start

cybergoon · May 25, 2012

Pops...I'm with you on weight after cooking. I plan to wrap them when done and i will try to weigh them before pulling.

On a side note, I'm less than 5 hours in and meat thermometer says 171 already. Temps have been at 225-235 all evening, so I'm guessing I have the probe in a bad spot. Friend is supposed to be bringing his ET732 over here in a bit, so will poke another one and see what it says.

Sure smells good in my neighborhood!!!

cybergoon · May 26, 2012

11 hours in now. Woke to smoker temp at 221, bottom probe reads 187 and top probe reads 180.

Had to add some more charcoal at this point. Been a cool and breezy night. Going to add a couple more pics. 1st was around 1am, second taken a few minutea ago around 530am.

ironhorse07 · May 26, 2012

Sounds like your ok on time, looking good.

diesel · May 26, 2012

Awesome! I think you and everyone else involved will be really pleased with the final product. Noting like an all night Q.

good luck.

cybergoon · May 26, 2012

Went back to bed for a couple of hours and when I got up a few minutes ago, smoker temp was 230, bottom meat probe at 210f and top meat probe at 198. I think these bad boys are done!

Now...my helper isn't planning on being here for another 1.5 hours. Not sure if I should leave them on and reduce the temp of the smoker or pull and wrap. It would be much easier if helper was here to pull and wrap without them cooling down too much. Thoughts? Not serving for another 4 hours. They cooked a little faster than I had anticipated.

Thanks,
Marc

cybergoon · May 26, 2012

Well, meat is resting comfortably now. Pre-cooked weight was 59.4lbs, after the cook, the final weight was 35.8lbs before shredding. Looks like about 40% reduction with cooking. Will be pulling it in about an hour.

I will post pics later on.

oldschoolbbq · May 26, 2012

Nice cook...

ironhorse07 · May 26, 2012

Sorry didn't get back sooner. But yeah, pull, wrap in foil and put them in a cooler lined with towels and they will stay warm for hours. It is good fudge factor when timing your smoke as butts can be a bit unpredictable. Nothing worse than folks smelling q cooking and hungry then it's late. I like to rest my butts this way at least an hour before pulling. Great job on a big smoke. Thumbs Up

jp61 · May 26, 2012

That would be a big smoke for me too. Sounds like you did well and I'm looking forward to pics of the finished product, especially since my WSM will be delivered on Tuesday

smokinhusker · May 26, 2012

Looks and sounds like some good food! Can't wait to see the final results.

jirodriguez · May 27, 2012

Always nice to see another 22.5" WSM fille to the gills and just chuggin along doing its thing!

For those cool beezy nights, buy a 6'x8' welding blanket (about $45) and 3 or 4 metal spring clips (look like giant clothes pins), then wrap the blanket long wise around your smoker and where the ends meet roll them together and clip. On the top just gather up the top as best you can while leaving the vent and therm uncovered, and clip it. You will be amazed at how just that little bit of wind break and insulation helps for long overnight cooks in even the worst weather. I can run my 22.5 WSM on nights that have 20-30 mph winds with temps down to 40'ish degrees.

cybergoon · May 27, 2012

Sorry for the delay in getting the rest of the pics up, but here they are!!!

By the way, the PP was fantastic and we had tons of leftovers. I'd say we went through around half of it, so had 3 1-gallon bags of leftovers.

Enjoy!

jirodriguez · May 27, 2012

Nice job! Bet you were wallowing in praise at that party!

holladw · May 27, 2012

ohh my, that just looks wonderful. Way to go. Did you use anytime of sauce??

cybergoon · May 27, 2012

We had Sweet Baby Ray's BBQ sauce but out of about 75 people, we didn't even finish one bottle of it.

fracwilt · May 27, 2012

awesome job! that was a ton of meat!

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