Best Tool to Pull Pork

[chef jimmyj]

At an Avg of 225°, figure 2 hours per pound plus your rest to get to an IT of 205°F. At 195, even with a rest, you may still see a good portion of meat that will not pull. Taken to 205 and a probe slides in without resistance, a 30 to 45 minute rest on the counter, will give crunchy bark and easily pulled meat through and through. If you foil and cooler a few hours, kiss the texture of the bark good bye. Still will taste great but the bark will be soft. If you run the smoker at 250-275 you can cut back to 1.5 hours per lb. To get 1 hour per pound, smoke at 325°F...JJ

 

[mtnlakeman]

Wow, I'm glad I asked and thanks for the response. I have a tough time getting it too hot otherwise the flames flare too much and it gets real hot so planned on shooting for 235 avg. Also appreciate the 205 target, that surprised me. I agree with the no foil as I've had many skins and smoke rings ruined tying to retain moisture. Planning for 20 hours vs 10 saved my bacon.

 

[chef jimmyj]

Keeping the smoker at 235 with higher swings will likely go a little faster, say 1.5-1.75 per pound. If you go 2 hours per, stay close to 225 or you may find your meat done a couple hours early. Hitting a specific time frame so you don't have to Foil rest, can be tricky. Evaluate what is most important, being done a little early and softening the bark with a foiled rest? Or making the guest wait a bit to get crunchy bark that ran over the time expected?
It's a party with guests...The" Best Plan " is to plan on stuff going sideways and how you will fix it...JJ

 

[mtnlakeman]

I just hope to have some good bark when some friends are around then who cares once it hits the bun. Bourbon is the back up plan with friends as it covers for greatness between 180 - 230.

Really appreciate the hints.

 

[mtnlakeman]

I wanted to follow up of how it turned out, and unfortunately didn't snap any pics to show the perfection that came out. I started at 2:00 am at 225ish and fed wood every 2 - 3 hours which made for a long night. I pulled it at 198 right at the kickoff at 3:30 held it till halftime, and it melted off the bone. The bark was just okay because it was fairly soft which surprised me since I hit 250 a lot during the cook. Perhaps in my resting stage I didn't let enough steam escape? Not a big deal, but was what I was looking forward too.

I took everyones advice except for Preacher Man and used my fingers. I hate to be wimpy, but it was hot. Almost too hot. I pulled it earlier than I wanted both from the smoker and from the bone, but the way if pulled and fell off the bone I think the 198 worked great. It took me 3 minutes to pull it, and I think with two forks it would have taken 10 so appreciate everyone's advice. I'm looking forward to the next attempt.

 

[Preacher Man]

I'm glad it turned out good! With how awful that game was, I'm sure the pulled pork was the highlight of everyone's evening.

I took everyones advice except for Preacher Man

I'm used to it. My congregation does it to me every week.