For my bachelor party camping trip, I wanted to smoke some pulled pork. This was my first try at pork after several successful chickens and wings. Unfortunately, I didn't take many photos, but they turned out very well. I had originally asked one of the guys in my wedding party to get me a couple butts from the local butcher who he is great friends with and cuts him a pretty good deal on meat. Unfortunetly, he waited until the day before I had to leave to call, and I had to settle for tyson pre-packaged meat from walmart.
I was kind of worried about the meat, but it actually turned out fairly well. I smoked them around 225-250 when I could keep the smoker that hot. I used a smoker I got for my birthday last year from Tractor supply, this guy:
I cooked them for about 8 hours before wrapping the meat in foil to finish cooking them. The picnic took about 10 hours, and the bostons butts took about 15. I dry rubbed them beforehand and let them sit in a cooler for 12 hrs. I definitely couldn't have done this without your guy's help. Here's the rub recipe I used, which turned out incredibly tasty:
rub
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/4cup paprika
1 tablespoon:
black cracked pepper (medium sized)
salt
chili powder
garlic powder
onion powder
cumin
2 tablespoons of dried cilantro
Here's the pic of the picnic butt, I didn't get any of the boston butts, I just simply forgot, but good bark formation without any sprays or injections
I pulled this one at about 175 internal temp, and it was pretty good, but not quite as tender as I thought it could be, so I waited and pulled the two boston butts at 195 I.T. and they turned out much better. I used a finishing sauce after seeing a few people on here and I'm REALLY glad I did. I tasted the pork before putting the finishing sauce in and it was great, juicy and smokey, but after adding the finishing sauce, it was mouthwatering and so very savory. I also added some more of the rub I made to one pan of pork and that made it even better! I got the recipe for the rub from this forum and I highly recommend it! Here's the recipe:
Finishing sauce
1 cup cider vinegar
2 tablespoons brown sugar
1 teaspoon tony chaceres Cajun seasoning
1 teaspoon black pepper
I'm pretty proud of my smoker, it did pretty well. I think I need to work on the firebox though, I had a lot of trouble keeping it at 250 or anywhere near that. It seemed pretty happy at 200, but I couldn't maintain anything higher than that for very long. It has a pan with no holes in it for the charcoal and wood, and I had to dump it out twice because the ashes seemed to be smothering the fire. I had all three vents open on the bottom and it still didn't want to get very hot. I used my charcoal starter to get coals ready and then dump them in, because simply adding more cold charcoal didn't work and didn't want to catch. I think I'm going to keep the pan there, but put a grate on top of that for the charcoal and wood to sit on and let the ashes fall through to the pan below, I'm hoping that will help the smoker maintain temp better. Any suggestions/feedback, please let me know. Thanks for viewing, and all of your help!
I was kind of worried about the meat, but it actually turned out fairly well. I smoked them around 225-250 when I could keep the smoker that hot. I used a smoker I got for my birthday last year from Tractor supply, this guy:
I cooked them for about 8 hours before wrapping the meat in foil to finish cooking them. The picnic took about 10 hours, and the bostons butts took about 15. I dry rubbed them beforehand and let them sit in a cooler for 12 hrs. I definitely couldn't have done this without your guy's help. Here's the rub recipe I used, which turned out incredibly tasty:
rub
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/4cup paprika
1 tablespoon:
black cracked pepper (medium sized)
salt
chili powder
garlic powder
onion powder
cumin
2 tablespoons of dried cilantro
Here's the pic of the picnic butt, I didn't get any of the boston butts, I just simply forgot, but good bark formation without any sprays or injections
I pulled this one at about 175 internal temp, and it was pretty good, but not quite as tender as I thought it could be, so I waited and pulled the two boston butts at 195 I.T. and they turned out much better. I used a finishing sauce after seeing a few people on here and I'm REALLY glad I did. I tasted the pork before putting the finishing sauce in and it was great, juicy and smokey, but after adding the finishing sauce, it was mouthwatering and so very savory. I also added some more of the rub I made to one pan of pork and that made it even better! I got the recipe for the rub from this forum and I highly recommend it! Here's the recipe:
Finishing sauce
1 cup cider vinegar
2 tablespoons brown sugar
1 teaspoon tony chaceres Cajun seasoning
1 teaspoon black pepper
I'm pretty proud of my smoker, it did pretty well. I think I need to work on the firebox though, I had a lot of trouble keeping it at 250 or anywhere near that. It seemed pretty happy at 200, but I couldn't maintain anything higher than that for very long. It has a pan with no holes in it for the charcoal and wood, and I had to dump it out twice because the ashes seemed to be smothering the fire. I had all three vents open on the bottom and it still didn't want to get very hot. I used my charcoal starter to get coals ready and then dump them in, because simply adding more cold charcoal didn't work and didn't want to catch. I think I'm going to keep the pan there, but put a grate on top of that for the charcoal and wood to sit on and let the ashes fall through to the pan below, I'm hoping that will help the smoker maintain temp better. Any suggestions/feedback, please let me know. Thanks for viewing, and all of your help!
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