Just like with my first fatty, I had not yet joined the forum when I did my first pork shoulder. But I just did my second one today and... well, here's the story. My local grocery store (HyVee) was running a sale on Boston butt roasts, and I decided to grab about a 7.5 pound butt. I did a French's mustard massage and covered in my own homemade pork rub, wrapped it in Saran wrap and let it sit overnight in the fridge. Got up bright and early at four in the AM (aka the butt crack of dawn) to set out the roast. Here it is, seasoned and ready to roll:
Fired up my Bradley smoker with a huge stack of hickory wood pucks (if you've never seen a Bradley, they use a proprietary wood puck instead of chips or pellets, about the size of a hockey puck that the smoker continuously feeds onto a hot plate; more expensive but super convenient). Preheated to 250 degrees, threw the roast in at five AM and promptly returned to bed for an hour.
Here's a shot four hours into the smoke:
Kinda hard to see, but the bark was forming up very nicely. This picture was the first time the door had been opened, and from this point forward I mopped the butt every hour with a 60/40 apple cider and EVOI mix.
After ten hours I checked the temp with a meat thermometer and I was holding steady at 190, which I've heard is the perfect temp to pull a butt from the smoker. I was a little surprised, because on my first butt after ten hours I was only at about 170. Then again, I was using a digital wireless thermometer for that smoke and I really think I got a dud. So this time I went with an old school dial meat thermometer.
Here's the pulled roast immediately out of the smoker:
And here it is after being wrapped in foil for an hour:
I knew this was going to be a good smoke when I simply lifted the bone right out of the roast without a hint of hesitation. My dog loved me for that one. I shredded the pork mostly by hand, but used a couple of forks as I got deeper into the roast because it was just too hot for me to comfortably handle. Some of the bark was tough, but in general the pork just simply melted in my hands and most of the bark was still soft enough to be blended into the pulled pork to add the flavor of the rub into the deeper meat.
I served up the pulled pork with some Stubbs BBQ sauce for my wife, and a Carolina style finishing sauce for myself. I whipped up up a creamy cole slaw as a side and sat down to a dinner better than I could get in any barbecue joint within driving distance. My wife also couldn't wait to dig in.
The dinner plate picture is washed out because without the flash on my phone it was too dark.
After dinner, my wife and I agreed that the money I laid down for the smoker was some of the best money I'd ever spent.
Happy smoking.
Fired up my Bradley smoker with a huge stack of hickory wood pucks (if you've never seen a Bradley, they use a proprietary wood puck instead of chips or pellets, about the size of a hockey puck that the smoker continuously feeds onto a hot plate; more expensive but super convenient). Preheated to 250 degrees, threw the roast in at five AM and promptly returned to bed for an hour.
Here's a shot four hours into the smoke:
Kinda hard to see, but the bark was forming up very nicely. This picture was the first time the door had been opened, and from this point forward I mopped the butt every hour with a 60/40 apple cider and EVOI mix.
After ten hours I checked the temp with a meat thermometer and I was holding steady at 190, which I've heard is the perfect temp to pull a butt from the smoker. I was a little surprised, because on my first butt after ten hours I was only at about 170. Then again, I was using a digital wireless thermometer for that smoke and I really think I got a dud. So this time I went with an old school dial meat thermometer.
Here's the pulled roast immediately out of the smoker:
And here it is after being wrapped in foil for an hour:
I knew this was going to be a good smoke when I simply lifted the bone right out of the roast without a hint of hesitation. My dog loved me for that one. I shredded the pork mostly by hand, but used a couple of forks as I got deeper into the roast because it was just too hot for me to comfortably handle. Some of the bark was tough, but in general the pork just simply melted in my hands and most of the bark was still soft enough to be blended into the pulled pork to add the flavor of the rub into the deeper meat.
I served up the pulled pork with some Stubbs BBQ sauce for my wife, and a Carolina style finishing sauce for myself. I whipped up up a creamy cole slaw as a side and sat down to a dinner better than I could get in any barbecue joint within driving distance. My wife also couldn't wait to dig in.
The dinner plate picture is washed out because without the flash on my phone it was too dark.
After dinner, my wife and I agreed that the money I laid down for the smoker was some of the best money I'd ever spent.
Happy smoking.
