This past week was our last days of school (students and teachers) in the district I work for. With a busy and hectic week, it was difficult to get a dish together for the teacher-end-of the-year party/dinner on Friday evening. My wife kept saying I should make some pulled pork.
Wednesday was grocery night, and small pork butts were on a lower price. I say small because they were only 3.5-4 pounds. The store also had some regular size butts, but I was worried about finding time to smoke a full size butt. Overnight wasn't really an option when dealing with middle schoolers on their last day...you need every ounce of energy. My daughter had tagged along to grocery shop and suggested that two small butts should smoke faster and I couldn't have been prouder.
After seeing the students out Thursday, I started the two butts on my 14.5 WSM around 4 pm. I used McCormicks cowboy rub and mustard and apple chunks for flavoring. I needed to have them done before Friday morning as teachers had their closing day then. I could afford to go late into the evening but not overboard. I kept the WSM running at 275 and used two extra loads of charcoal to keep the temp up to get the IT over 200. Just a little after 11pm, I took the buts off at 202 IT. After closing up my classroom Friday, I got home and pulled the pork(I put the butts in a crock pot when I got home to reheat them). I have never done PP like this before and was nervous, but my wife was picking at it while I was pulling.
Skip to the party about 1.5 hours later and at first no one was eating anything other than chips. When the host was ready to serve the food, the PP was getting rave results. People kept going back for more, and complimented me on it, so I was happy. Sorry, only one pic and that was after we got home with the minimal leftovers. Hoping to have more consistent postings and pictures now that summer is here.
Wednesday was grocery night, and small pork butts were on a lower price. I say small because they were only 3.5-4 pounds. The store also had some regular size butts, but I was worried about finding time to smoke a full size butt. Overnight wasn't really an option when dealing with middle schoolers on their last day...you need every ounce of energy. My daughter had tagged along to grocery shop and suggested that two small butts should smoke faster and I couldn't have been prouder.
After seeing the students out Thursday, I started the two butts on my 14.5 WSM around 4 pm. I used McCormicks cowboy rub and mustard and apple chunks for flavoring. I needed to have them done before Friday morning as teachers had their closing day then. I could afford to go late into the evening but not overboard. I kept the WSM running at 275 and used two extra loads of charcoal to keep the temp up to get the IT over 200. Just a little after 11pm, I took the buts off at 202 IT. After closing up my classroom Friday, I got home and pulled the pork(I put the butts in a crock pot when I got home to reheat them). I have never done PP like this before and was nervous, but my wife was picking at it while I was pulling.
Skip to the party about 1.5 hours later and at first no one was eating anything other than chips. When the host was ready to serve the food, the PP was getting rave results. People kept going back for more, and complimented me on it, so I was happy. Sorry, only one pic and that was after we got home with the minimal leftovers. Hoping to have more consistent postings and pictures now that summer is here.
