I just bought a new smoker and am going though various meats..... this time i'm doing pork shoulder for about 15-20 people. This time I'm injecting it for the first time.
The solution is a rough cut of apple juice, sugar, salt, and water.
i injected it every few inches, obviously on all sides. as expected there was quite a bit of overflow.
note.. the shoulder on the left, that was pre trimming. i trimmed most of that fat off. This is also a first for me. usually i leave 1/4 inch of fat on the shoulder. i have been reading that there is enough marbling in the muscles that that fat cap is not really necessary and may not allow smoke to penetrate well enough on that side of the shoudler.
next i slathered the shoulders with mustard.... to allow the rub to adhere to it.
note.. i do not know why but some of my pics are uploading smaller or not at all... the rub is a standard rub i've used for years that has brown sugar, paprika, salt, pepper and a bunch of other stuff.
this is out of the smoker @ 225 for like 16-18 hours or so.... i mopped/basted with a combo of oil and apple juice hourly towards the end (last 8+ hours).. and every so often the first 8 hours.
i used a rough 1/3 each combo of oak, hickory, and apple... the coal was natural hardwood....
I wrapped these in foil for a good 30-45 minutes before pulling..
hmm... a few more pics will not upload (annoyed a bit :) )
on the side i served a lot of standard stuff. one thing that was interesting to note is that i double smoked
jalepeno poppers... i smoke and/or grill them depending on how i am doing on time. these were grilled as i had a bunch of stuff in the smoker and i did not want to disturb the temp. they are cored, seeded jalepenos stuffed with a combo of cream cheese and/or cheddar. (very little cheddar if any..) with a small raw shrimp on top wrapped in lean bacon. you really can only see the shrimp protruding on the bottom left popper.
some double smoked bacon. to be used in the beans and potato salad..
the beans.. with bacon and some burnt ends from the pork
a friend and KCBS judge was at the bbq... and had good things to say about it... all in all it turned out fairly well.
