Boneless Pork shoulder - first attempt this weekend! Que-view as it happens!

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Alright folks...I have a very early wake up call tomorrow so here's how it's gonna play out...

Right now I sit at about 190 IT after 15 hours.  I SEVERELY underestimated my task today/tonight.  I am 6'2" and 220lbs and this 5.5 punder kicked my rear all over the grill tonight!

I will wait until about 10:30-45pm then I am calling in quits for tonight.  I will snap a pic of the finished product as a whole, then will hack off a section to eat for a bedtime snack.  The rest goes in foil and in a cooler for 30-45 min, then I will pull it and store in fridge for eating later in the week.  Another photo or two will be snapped and that's a wrap.

Can't lie, feel like a mild failure on this one.  Didn't have enough respect for the pork I guess.  Did one brisket and thought I was pretty hot sauce, now I know better.  Next time I think I will try an "overnight" grill/smoke so I can finish at a decent time the following day.

Next post from me will be "finished" (although not to 200 probably) product with que-view!

Thanks for hanging in there...
 
Here we go...as promised:

Just off the grill (IT read 190, but 193 with my handheld):


(can't help but think that this looks too black...but I'm no expert...)

Here's a cross-section of the end myself and the wife "tested" (cut off upper left corner of picture above)


I peeled the bark off the piece above to show thickness...


(not joking it was like "1/4 thick)

and here's the "mini-pull" of the sample chunk:


So overall the taste was fairly good...heavy smoky flavor and the bark was pretty good also.  Meat was much more dry than I expected, but I think it was because it was the edge piece.  I anticipate more juicy and tender meat from the center portion.  In all honesty though, can't say that the sample piece was worth the wait...

Will be back with one final post after the rest of it "rests" and is pulled...

Feel free to comment honestly!  I'm a bog boy, I can take it!
 
OK, well we are knocking on midnight here, but as promised here is final pic...

The pull...


Meat pulled easily, but I was severely disappointed in the lack of juiciness.  It was moist, just not juicy.  After a 45 min rest with foil, towels, and cooler there was still NO liquid/juices in the bottom of pan or foil!  Really disappointed in that.

Most likely will not be repeating this same process again.  May try to foil my way through the stall next time to see if I can capture more juice and decrease my time (yes I know I'll lose most/all the bark}.

Let me know your feedback, especially if you've had similar problems, I value your opinion...
 
Here we go...as promised:

Just off the grill (IT read 190, but 193 with my handheld):


(can't help but think that this looks too black...but I'm no expert...)

Here's a cross-section of the end myself and the wife "tested" (cut off upper left corner of picture above)


I peeled the bark off the piece above to show thickness...


(not joking it was like "1/4 thick)

and here's the "mini-pull" of the sample chunk:


So overall the taste was fairly good...heavy smoky flavor and the bark was pretty good also.  Meat was much more dry than I expected, but I think it was because it was the edge piece.  I anticipate more juicy and tender meat from the center portion.  In all honesty though, can't say that the sample piece was worth the wait...

Will be back with one final post after the rest of it "rests" and is pulled...

Feel free to comment honestly!  I'm a bog boy, I can take it!

I wonder - did you cut the one of two boneless butts in typically in a Costco "butt bag" in half? It almost looks like its the lighter meat off the butt which does seem to get drier than the darker meat. When we pull we immediately start putting it in big zip lock baggies, but we have found it best to blend the meat so we don't end up with a bag full of lighter, drier meat. A good vinegar-based finishing type sauce tossed in with your cooled PP should combat any dryness you are battling without making it mushy ;)
 
When you cut the "sample" piece .. did all your juices drain out. It really needs to rest to redistribute the juices after any cook.. Could you have cut in, then all the juices from the pulled area flow out. at 190.... is should still be juicy. and really have some "pull" to the pull itself (If that makes since)  but it looks as though it pulled apart with ease. I finishing sauce is always a good idea, right before you serve it after its pulled.

A very popular finishing sauce.. search ----   SoFlaQuer's Finishing Sauce (For Pulled Pork) ---

GIve that a try.. it will bring it back to life ...
 
I wonder - did you cut the one of two boneless butts in typically in a Costco "butt bag" in half? It almost looks like its the lighter meat off the butt which does seem to get drier than the darker meat. When we pull we immediately start putting it in big zip lock baggies, but we have found it best to blend the meat so we don't end up with a bag full of lighter, drier meat. A good vinegar-based finishing type sauce tossed in with your cooled PP should combat any dryness you are battling without making it mushy ;)
This was labelled "boneless pork shoulder" and was about 11.5 lbs (all one chunk, not two separate cryo-vac-ed chunks).  I just cut it into one slightly larger piece and one slightly smaller piece with the intention of having the one I did first be the test, since I had never done one before.

Not sure if meat was from "lighter" or "darker" portion since I didn't know two separate parts existed (newbie)...

Also, sort of an update...last night I took one of the Ziplocs of pulled meat and threw it into some boiling water for about 60 seconds, then used a little of JJ's finishing sauce on it.  Mighty tasty!  Really good smoky flavor and not really dry at all.  Still think I did a lot of things wrong, but at least it's better than store-bought crap and I did it myself!

Thanks for the advice/comments smokeusum, I do appreciate it!
 
When you cut the "sample" piece .. did all your juices drain out. It really needs to rest to redistribute the juices after any cook.. Could you have cut in, then all the juices from the pulled area flow out. at 190.... is should still be juicy. and really have some "pull" to the pull itself (If that makes since)  but it looks as though it pulled apart with ease. I finishing sauce is always a good idea, right before you serve it after its pulled.

A very popular finishing sauce.. search ----   SoFlaQuer's Finishing Sauce (For Pulled Pork) ---

GIve that a try.. it will bring it back to life ...
Don't think I lost all the juice when cut the sample piece since I had it in a foil pan to catch them if the drained out.  Literally all the juice I got was some globs/dabs of oily/greasy looking drops on the bottom of the foil pan.  Not sure where all the juice went, but it wasn't in the meat apparently.

Yeah, meat "pulled" with ease and there were some layers of fat that were just kinda a slime that I could peel off, so it seemed the tenderness was there, just not the liquid.

As stated in the post just above this one, I did end up really enjoying the meat after reheating in boiling water (in a Ziploc) and adding a little finishing sauce (I used JJ's) that I made last week, Not a complete disaster, but still hard to justify the time and effort spent for kinda a disappointing result.  I still have a 6.5 lb chunk of the same boneless shoulder and a pork picnic roast in the freezer, so I'm committed to making this work somehow!  Just might take me some time (a few days) to get the stones to face my failure!

Thanks for the info and comments webowabo, much 'preciated...
 
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