- Mar 21, 2017
- 12
- 16
Well, I just completed my first smoke. I did a pork shoulder smoked with hickory. I didn't do anything too fancy, just followed the rub recipe I found on allrecipes.com for Bobs pulled pork.
I started it at midnight Friday night and finished at 5 pm today. I only had a couple temperature issues but was able to figure out it had to do with the amount of charcoal I had in the WSM. From midnight to 4 am it ran steady at 225 with no issues. At 4 am, started to lose heat. When I adjusted it a bit, and by a bit I mean barely even opening up the vent, the heat would get too high. After going back and forth like this for a bit, I looked and found I didn't have much charcoal left by 8 am. I added more at that time and got a good 2 hours steady again. When the temps fluctuated again after that, I added more charcoal and the temps leveled off again.
Towards the end of the cook, I could not get the IT over 188. So I foiled it, and pout back in the smoker for 30 min with all vents fully opened reaching cooker temps of 275. I took the shoulder off at 5 pm unwrapped it, sprayed it with apple cider, wrapped it in foil, towels, and put it in a cooler. I did an hour and 15 minute rest and took it out to serve. When I took it out of the wraps it had an IT of 177. Turns out we forgot buns so.....I sliced it as best I could. It definitely was easy to pull....the bone came out without even having to put a knife or fork to it. Just grabbed it and picked up....the meat just slid right off. Here's how it looked::
It tasted great and everyone loved it. Now to figure out what to do next, and to learn how to control temps a little better. What can I say...this 17 hour smoke has got me hooked.
I started it at midnight Friday night and finished at 5 pm today. I only had a couple temperature issues but was able to figure out it had to do with the amount of charcoal I had in the WSM. From midnight to 4 am it ran steady at 225 with no issues. At 4 am, started to lose heat. When I adjusted it a bit, and by a bit I mean barely even opening up the vent, the heat would get too high. After going back and forth like this for a bit, I looked and found I didn't have much charcoal left by 8 am. I added more at that time and got a good 2 hours steady again. When the temps fluctuated again after that, I added more charcoal and the temps leveled off again.
Towards the end of the cook, I could not get the IT over 188. So I foiled it, and pout back in the smoker for 30 min with all vents fully opened reaching cooker temps of 275. I took the shoulder off at 5 pm unwrapped it, sprayed it with apple cider, wrapped it in foil, towels, and put it in a cooler. I did an hour and 15 minute rest and took it out to serve. When I took it out of the wraps it had an IT of 177. Turns out we forgot buns so.....I sliced it as best I could. It definitely was easy to pull....the bone came out without even having to put a knife or fork to it. Just grabbed it and picked up....the meat just slid right off. Here's how it looked::
It tasted great and everyone loved it. Now to figure out what to do next, and to learn how to control temps a little better. What can I say...this 17 hour smoke has got me hooked.
