Well, got tired of waiting for the replacement door for my new WSM so decided to fire it up and do my first smoke on it. Chose hot n' fast due to the 1/8" to 1/4" gaps at the top of the door (was 1/2" and was able to bend it to the smaller gaps). Seasoned the smoker over a week ago to burn off the shipping oils.
Due to my schedule lately there was no special prep on the 8.5 lb bone-in shoulder. Just washed, dried, oiled, rubbed, then put in a 9x13 disposable aluminum roaster with a rack to hold it up out of the drippings. Loaded the WSM on a dry smoke with Kingsford Blue and apple wood chunks. Cranked the lid temp up to 325F then loaded the meat. Took 4 hours for the pork to reach an IT of 150F. Took it off, wrapped it with bourbon and apple cider. Turns out I really couldn't taste the bourbon at the end so just wasted a cup of Makers Mark. No big loss.
Put it back in the WSM at 330-350F on the lid (top rack chamber temp was measured on the side of the roaster and it was running 25-45F lower than lid temp). Took another hour for the pork to reach IT of 170 and another hour to reach 205F. I didn't notice a stall at all! Took it off and just tucked it in three big, old bath towels to rest on the kitchen island for 2.5 hours. Then it pulled apart beautifully. Tender, juicy, and delicious. It's in pieces below before I pulled it because I couldn't keep a fork out of it!
I put about a cup of apple cider vinegar "finishing sauce" on it, a recipe I found here in SMF. Really made the pulled pork POP with flavor. I added a little more to my sandwich with a little Q sauce. Very satisfying!
All in all it was 8 hrs 45 minutes from loading the meat to first bite, relatively quick for a roast of that size. The only thing I noticed between "hot n' fast plus wrap" compare to "low n' slow no wrap" is you don't get the same depth of bark/smoke ring like you do on low n' slow. Was tender, juicy, and delicious though and ready in no time flat, relatively speaking.
Happy New Year!
Due to my schedule lately there was no special prep on the 8.5 lb bone-in shoulder. Just washed, dried, oiled, rubbed, then put in a 9x13 disposable aluminum roaster with a rack to hold it up out of the drippings. Loaded the WSM on a dry smoke with Kingsford Blue and apple wood chunks. Cranked the lid temp up to 325F then loaded the meat. Took 4 hours for the pork to reach an IT of 150F. Took it off, wrapped it with bourbon and apple cider. Turns out I really couldn't taste the bourbon at the end so just wasted a cup of Makers Mark. No big loss.
Put it back in the WSM at 330-350F on the lid (top rack chamber temp was measured on the side of the roaster and it was running 25-45F lower than lid temp). Took another hour for the pork to reach IT of 170 and another hour to reach 205F. I didn't notice a stall at all! Took it off and just tucked it in three big, old bath towels to rest on the kitchen island for 2.5 hours. Then it pulled apart beautifully. Tender, juicy, and delicious. It's in pieces below before I pulled it because I couldn't keep a fork out of it!
I put about a cup of apple cider vinegar "finishing sauce" on it, a recipe I found here in SMF. Really made the pulled pork POP with flavor. I added a little more to my sandwich with a little Q sauce. Very satisfying!
All in all it was 8 hrs 45 minutes from loading the meat to first bite, relatively quick for a roast of that size. The only thing I noticed between "hot n' fast plus wrap" compare to "low n' slow no wrap" is you don't get the same depth of bark/smoke ring like you do on low n' slow. Was tender, juicy, and delicious though and ready in no time flat, relatively speaking.
Happy New Year!
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