Basic Pulled Pork Smoke

[bravery]

Hehehehehe! Thanks Bravery. oh yeah adding more pics later this evening. if you live close come on down!!!

Oh upsman, I would stop by if I lived any closer. We are having my wife's side of the family over. They are Mexican, so we are making Tacos from the Butts (which will be outstanding, if they do what they normally do with food). Of course, I will have BBQ sauce on the side to make a few sandwiches.

I did a weird brine and I only lightly put a rub on it.

I already pulled it out of the smoker and put it in the dry cooler for the next 4 or 5 hours. I hope that this isn't too long.

 

[upsman]

Hey anybody got any ideals on what i can do with some of the drippings when this bad boy is done???  sure is looking good and hate to waste all that flavor :)

 

[upsman]

Bravery those Tacos sound good. i like to make butt burritos and pour enchilada sauce and cheese over the top and bake til melted.

 

[sprky]

Forgive me if I ask a question that has been asked before!!! I have been reading the board about smoking Butts for quite a while and I still haven't found the answer. 

I started cooking two butts (around 9-10 lbs each) at 5pm last night. At 4 hours I hit an internal temp of 140 degrees. Some time around 12-1am I hit 165 degrees so I pulled them out and wrapped them up in foil. I tried to keep the smoker temp around 250 and under.

So with all this information... my problem at 9am I hit 200 internal temp, but I'm cooking this for a Superbowl party today at 6pm. 

I know that I can pull the meat off the smoker and wrap it in blankets and put them in a dry cooler for a while but can I keep in there for 8 hours? I read on the board that you could do that but that is really a long time to be sitting there. I have the smoker at 210-to 220 now. Is it better to keep the meat in the smoker for a while at 200 to 220 degrees or to wrap them up and put them in a dry cooler??? My two concerns are Health (don't want the meat to go bad) and Dryness (no one wants to eat dried out meat).

Thanks for your help and input!!

You can also wrap in foil with some liquid and put it in an oven set at 175 and hold it.
 

 

[upsman]

Bravery i have had my Butt on since 8 am and about to pull it off the smoker in 15 minutes. i have never used a temp guage to check for doneness i just go on doing it a few times and in keeping same temp and the size of the butt. now i will take it off the smoker and wrap it up completely with foil and keep it there for one hour then shred it and cover it back up and it will stay good out on the stove for at least a couple of hours.

 

[upsman]

well the deal is done just waiting on half time to dig in. getting the deviled eggs together in first pic. second pic is the cucumbers n onions.3rd pic is the butt ready to shred. 4th n 5th pic a good shred but realized using a water pan makes the pull alot different. the bone doesn't seperate like if i didn't use the water pan. going back to dry method in the future!!! 6th pic look at the shine of the flash reflecting off the top of the baked beans. i took them out of the oven and a brown sugar crust has formed and oh man so so good! 7th pic is a shot back away from the baked beans. still need to make the coleslaw during half time. GO GIANTS!!!!

see the hole in the brown sugar crust about 2 o'clock on the above pic. test bite Hehehehehe

 

[bravery]

Nice pictures of the entire spread Upsman.

Everything went well here too. The Giants won the Superbowl, the food was great, and everybody enjoyed themselves.

I pulled the Butts out of the dry cooler and after 5 hours the thing was still HOT. Like I mentioned before we were going to make tacos out of the pulled pork. The sauces (salsa ... but please don't think of the stuff that comes out of the can or jar when I say that... we had two different kinds of salsas, one was a green one and the other was a brown one) that we had made for it were out of this world!!! We put the pulled pork in a hot soft corn tortilla then put some salsa on, along with some cilantro... we also had some beans and rice but I didn't touch it because my tacos were always too full of meat.

Next time I am going to brine a lot longer with a stronger brine, and I am going to put more rub on the Butts (I went mild this time because I was afraid of making it too strong).

I really want to THANK everyone that posts on this board and people that directly helped me. You all really helped to make this smoking experience a success. They have loved everything I have smoked (ribs, TURKEY (they were actually singing songs to me because they came out so well), and now the Boston Butts). I wonder .... what will be smoked next?

Thanks again!!!

 

[jeff in aus tx]

Just joined and tried this most excellent pulled pork.  How can I improve on this?  Only by posting an idea for the roll.

I went to the local Mexican bakery and got some fresh baked bollitos (Mexican hard rolls).  I cut them in half and gave the top and bottom crust a quick wash of egg whites & water (50/50), then popped them into the toaster oven.

Wow - crispy, crunchy toasted roll with this meat on the inside.

Nice.

 

[archernut]

I might of missed this question, however, I am going to ask anyway.

Should I have a water pan in the smoker when cooking pork butts?

This will be my first attempt on PP. I volunteered to cook 6, 5lb butts and pull them for a friend at work. They will be rubbed this evening and cooked tomorrow.

Thanks,

Archernut

 

[upsman]

in my honest opinion of smoking Butts no way! just keep the temp right at 225 for the hours and weight of your butt. the water pan slows the cooking process down very much and changes the chemistry of the fats in the pork gelling with the meat BIG TIME!!!! because of the moisture!!!!

 

[archernut]

I cooked 45 lbs in two batches the last two days.

I am so glad I came here to learn the basics. I did not use the h2o. I wrapped them at 160 degrees. Total cooking time was near 12 hours for it to reach 205.

This turned out excellent as the meat literally fell apart.

I also did the sprinkle sauce. My oh my!!  This is the best tasting stuff I've had.

The next ones will be for me and my family.

I've got a couple of pics and will post later. (I have to upload them first)

Thanks ya all for the great advice and for a wonderful site.

Archernut

 

[swalker]

Meowy,

   It is nice to see you still like the Captain Morgans spiced rum....I have been away a while, but that doesn't mean I haven't been smoking meat..

LOL...You still got the best Idea for smoked meat loaf... Steve

 

[fielies]

Good pictures, good job, good eats!

 

[chad groenhout]

Can someone post the link to the finishing sauce everyone is talking about. I found one, but want to make sure it is the one people are referencing. Thanks.

 

[alblancher]

You might try this one

http://www.smokingmeatforums.com/a/finishing-sauce-for-pulled-pork-by-soflaquer

 

[rtbbq2]

Good sticky meowey!....I use Captain Morgan apple juice spray on most all of my pork smokes and sometime my beef smokes. I have been known to put a little in a glass and drink it while waiting for da-meat to smoke.

I think it puts a mahogany bark on my brain at times......

just kidding...

On a serious not now. This was an excellent tutorial! Anyone who follows it to the ....T ........will make an excellent Boston Pork Butt for the almighty pulled pork....

 

[smot]

Just wanted to say "thanks" for taking the time to put this post together.  First time for pulled pork was Sat, and it was good enough that I'll have to do it again for poker night this Sat ("Phenomenal" was actually the word the wife used...).

So - thanks to Meowey for the plan, SoFlaQuer for the finishing sauce, and the forum for a good rub recipe.  Can't tell you how great it is that y'all enabled me to perform what has always been magic to me before.

For the other first-timers: get the right thermometer (Maverick ET732 is great), get the chimney if you don't have one, take your time, and follow these guys' instructions.  It'll make you happy.  (Oh, and plenty of beer -- this stuff takes a long time.)

Thanks again.

-Andy

 

[tangfj]

This post is awesome!  Did my first butt yesterday and got pretty good results.  Not much bark but very tender meat!  See pics below.

 

[jeremy cole]

Today I'm smoking two 9lb shoulder butts.  Got them on the smoker at 7am.  I'm going to smoke until 4pm.  Been looking forward to this all week.  Pictures to come.

 

[jeremy cole]

Today I'm smoking two 9lb shoulder butts.  Got them on the smoker at 7am.  I'm going to smoke until 4pm.  Been looking forward to this all week.  Pictures to come.