First pork shoulder! With photos!

[tallbm]

I've read through so many awesome pulled pork posts that I finally cracked and bought a little 6 pounder at Kroger yesterday.

I rubbed it down the night before and then added a little more rub in the morning. I threw together a rub that turned out so good I'm kicking myself for not measuring. It started with SPOG with brown sugar, cumin, coriander, fennel, chipotle powder, and ginger.

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It went in the smoker at 9:45 with Lumberjack hickory pellets in the amnps. I didn't preheat the MES and for the first hour or so I though I had some wonky temperature issues. I think I just needed to have more patience because eventually everything leveled out. I used two different Inkbird thermometers (got them for cheap on Amazon Prime day) and I'm really liking them.
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My ambient temps averaged at about 250 and I wrapped the shoulder (in foil with hard cider) when it got to about 167 internal. It had gotten 6 solid hours of smoke at this point. It seemed like 167 to 175 took FOREVER but after that we were cruising. I pulled the shoulder out of the smoker when it hit 200. It was super tender and the bone came out easily, but it wasn't the kind of tender where you just nudge it with your pinky and the whole thing collapses. Is there a magic number for max tenderness without mush? I was afraid of hitting the mush stage. Or is it less a number thing and more just going off probe-tenderness?

Anyway, here it is in all it's glory. I was surprised by how dark the bark was and actually a little worried it might taste acrid but OMG it was amazing. My only criticism was that the texture of the bark was a little soft from wrapping. I might not wrap next time (and maybe start at 4am), just to see what kind of bark I can achieve.
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Same pork, no bone
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Snapped this pic of the doggo before telling him to scram.
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one more shredded pork pic
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Since this wasn't for any occasion I didn't make any fancy sides or finishing sauces. We had the pork with brown rice pilaf with homemade chicken stock and herbs from the garden that I made in the Instant Pot the night before and a kale salad with sugar snap peas from the garden and homemade creamy honey Dijon dressing (this dressing recipe is amazing), and a 2nd glass of wine. Tonight I'll pick up some rolls and make coleslaw and bbq sauce for some PP sandwiches.

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Thanks for reading and thanks to all the really knowledgeable people who've responded to my numerous questions about everything MES, amnps, and food related!

Great job!
I usually take mine to 205F or so since it is hard to screw up a pork butt. I tenderness test at that point and it is usually fine.

For bark, keep experimenting. I can't wait until you do a naked pork butt and see that bark! I did a funny little thing (not rocket science though) by kind of splitting pork butt so it had butt cheaks lol. It allowed me to get more seasoning and bark in there and was great!
You can read about it here :)
https://www.smokingmeatforums.com/threads/butterflied-pork-butt-or-pork-butt-butt.288566/

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• tallbm
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[yodelhawk]

Looks great! Congrats