First time at Pulled Pork = Night mare...... with Q-views

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shoneyboy

Master of the Pit
Original poster
OTBS Member
Nov 3, 2010
1,895
58
Denham Springs La
Well, it all started out great; I had a twin pack of Boston Butts just and nice as they could be. I read several post on how to cook them, different rubs and weather or not to spritz with apple juice or not. So I started out with a nice layer of yellow mustard then a rub that I can up from looking at several others post (Thanks to anyone who spent the time to post information about pulled pork rubs). The rub consisted of brown sugar, salt, black pepper, a little cayenne pepper, onion powder, garlic powder and then I stuffed them with 10 pieces of fresh garlic each….MMMMmmm!!!!!.   I rubbed my butts down with mustard first, then with the mixture, let them rest in the refrigerator for about 12 hrs. So I had everything going good, then I started having concerns about how long it may take to smoke these butts (due to some post that I read). The more I thought about it, the more I worried that I wouldn’t have it ready for 12 noon,  I had 9-12 people coming to eat.  So after I celebrated the New Year with the wife and kids at midnight.  I decided that I would get a jump on smoking my butts.  At about 12:30am I fired up the smoker (which I had cleaned earlier and had the wood in it already, all it needed was to be lit) and by 12:45am I was ready to put the meat in. My wife and kids had given me a meat probe, so I was playing with trying to figure out how it works. I didn’t have a place to put the base so my son and I came up with the ideal to use a ladder to set it on about 2 ft from the smoker. OK now it’s going on 2am and everything is going great.  I went in to watch a movie with the kids, I had the timer set and everything was looking great.  I planned on checking on it again at around 3:30a, well I was ancy and couldn’t wait any longer, so at about 3:20a I went to check on it. Well, here is where it all started falling apart, as I walked to the back door I noticed a strange yellow glow through the curtain, once I opened the door then I noticed the “FIRE!!!” Thinking that it was the grease off the butts I really didn’t know what to do. So I walked closer and noticed that the gas line that connected to the burner broke loose. So I just shut off the bottle and the 3ft flame went out…. Luckily….  Well once I thought I had everything under control I happen to notice that the ladder was still on “Fire” so I grabbed the hose and put it out. So now it rounding 3:45a and I have 2 butts that are getting cold fast. I grabbed the foil and turned the oven on and went outside to foil the butts, rapped them with foil really well and added a little apple juice and finished them in the oven. Well by 7a they were 195 deg. I turned the oven off to let them cool, by the time everyone started showing up for lunch they were perfect!! What a way to bring in the New Year !!! LOL….So here are some Q-views  
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Wow! that had to be quite the adrenalin boost at 3am!!!  So glad the ladder was the only real casualty.  and the meat looks great!   You and Smoke Dawg really made the new year a little too exciting.  I'm not letting either one of you near the fireworks on the 4th of July!
 
A heck of a way to start of the new year with a heck of a save!!  Something I do with my thermo base unit is just set a block of wood on top of the smoker to set the base unit on.

Definitely glad to hear things weren't worse! 
 
That is completely insane.good thing you checked it early,could have been real bad.glad no one was hurt,your pp looks great...
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Man that could have been a bad deal if that fire would have spread. I started keeping a fire extinguisher by my smoker for that exact reason but I need to upgrade to a bigger one. You can't be too careful.
 
Man - glad you caught that before it spread. That could have been a nasty start to NY - Looks like the meat turned out good.

So I am guessing that with a saw just above the burned area you now have a ladder for shorter projects
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Dude that is scary! Thats probably why I would never leave my smoker unattended for to long even if I have to stay up all night. The ladder looks unbelievable. When I was reading the post I thought it must have been a wooden ladder. I'm really glad it wasn't worse and you have a great New Years Story to tell and you saved the pork.
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Well atleast the butt came out of it all looking good. Now for the ladder it didn't like being a 6 ft ladder anymore. So I would see if you can save the feet and if you can you now have a good 4ft ladder. I use my 4"er more then I do my 6"er or 8"er too.
 
Yea like mark said, now you have a step ladder. Why do you use a pitchfork to pull pork, 4th pic down, I wear rubber gloves to pull pork.

How was the garlic, could you taste it, smell it, overpowering? 
 
Never new you could catch a fiberglass ladder on fire.... lol.

Glad to hear you caught it before things got really bad, and that the pork was still edible.
 
What a story with a happy ending, good pork pulled with a pichtfork and new hillside ladder.  Thanks for sharing what could have been a disater.  Happy New Year.


Rangecop, I spit a mouthful beer all over my keyboard when I read about the new hillside ladder, That is Funny 
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Wow that is intense! I bet you couldn't get to sleep with all that adrenaline pumping. All in all, the pork looks good 
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Glad this story ended well, especially considering it wasn't even a  grease fire!  Food looked good, so great start to the new year!
 
I'm glad to hear everything turned out ok and nobody got hurt.

Now on to the cook. I like the way your bark is looking on your ladder, however it looks like it is cooking a little uneven. Next time I would rotate the ladder half way through so that you get a more even bark. I'm not sure what temp. you were cooking your ladder at, but I would lower it a bit. Remember when smoking a ladder the best advice is low and slow!
 
It's only a nightmare if the meat gets ruined. 
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Seriously, glad nothing important was damaged and no one was hurt.  Makes one second think the idea of trying to set up a smoker for unattended operation.
 
That's good. I'm still laughing!   
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I'm glad to hear everything turned out ok and nobody got hurt.

Now on to the cook. I like the way your bark is looking on your ladder, however it looks like it is cooking a little uneven. Next time I would rotate the ladder half way through so that you get a more even bark. I'm not sure what temp. you were cooking your ladder at, but I would lower it a bit. Remember when smoking a ladder the best advice is low and slow!
 
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