Thanks for the group invite, Bobank. Glad to see a fellow MA ECB fan too!
Throwing this puppy on tomorrow morning around 7am. 7.55lb picnic all rubbed down and injected. The rub was a mish mash including salt, pepper, cayenne, paprika, garlic powder, brown sugar, wasabi salt, and a dash of curry powder. Injection was Louisiana hot sauce, Worcestershire and apple cider vinegar, plus a slurry of leftover rub.
I plan on smoking around 250 with applewood chunks and hickory chips, foiling after 5 hours and power cooking her til she hits 185. I'm going for sliced/chopped meat, as I intend to spin the majority of this into a pork chili and I don't want it getting too fine and losing the texture in the chili. I'll have my crock pot simmering away with crushed tomatoes, bell pepper, onion and jalapenos while the smoker is running. I also plan on collecting all my drippings and adding those in for added flavor.
I'm foiling this time around for two reasons: one, last time I did a butt of similar size, she ran for 17 hours at 275 and STILL only hit an internal of 177F. I figure I'll try the crutch this time to try to speed things up. Second reason, since the meat is going into a chili to simmer I'm not too concerned with getting a solid bark.
I have some leftover lard in the fridge and I'm thinking about foiling with that, along with the cider vinegar and a little tangy Stubbs spicy sauce. I know people foil with butter/Parkay a lot, so I figured using actual pork fat should accomplish the same? Anyone ever do this or am I crazy?
I'll toss a thread up in the Pork section once everything wraps and I have some completed Q-View.
The meat:
I like to lay out my charcoal/Minion method setup the night before, so I don't have to scramble early in the morning. Just carry it outside, spark the fire and get it rollin' while I sip my coffee. On the left is my 14" charcoal grill I use as my fire pan. It has vents to allow air control which the stock fire pan lacks.
Grates, drip tray and foiled water pan ready to roll. I like to double up on the upper grates with an extra one I had kicking around. No real reason, just like laying the meat on a more secure footing and maybe it adds a little thermal mass?