Had a successful and interesting (to me, at least) pulled pork experience. For a Saturday party, I decided to do rthe pulled pork Thursday night into Friday and reheat on "game day". I couldn't find a Boston Butt, so I bough a picnic and removed the skin.
I used the last of the Memphis Dust rub I made from a recipe on amazingribs.com. I'll be trying Jeff's rub next. It sat in the rub about 24 hours.
I put her up to smoke at 225 using hickory. The last two (only two) butts I smoked took close to 18 hours, so I figured I was safe putting it up at 11:00 pm and by the time I would be getting home from work around 3:00 Friday, I'd be getting close to the point where I'd need to keep an eye on things. When I woke up, I checked on her to see how she was doing and was shocked to see she was already at 172! This was going a lot faster than I anticipated. So I lowered the temp to a setting of 180 and went to work. I figured there was no way it was going to hit 200 while I was gone. Anyway, when I got home around 3:00, the smoker temp was 215 and the butt was at 185. I raised the setting back to 225 and around 6:00 it hit 202 and I took her out, wrapped her in foil and a towel and put her into a styrofoam cooler for an hour.
The meat was falling off the bone - it was hard to hold it, but the pulling was easy.
I used the apple cider-based pulled pork finishing sauce from the sticky on this forum. What a terrific flavor. I bagged it and refrigerated it overnight and reheated it in the oven at 280 until it was warm-to-hot. A couple of my guests had gone to Sylvia's in Harlem for dinner the night before and had their famous pulled pork. I modestly report that they judged mine to be better, tenderer and tastier. But I learned a lesson about timing. (See my post on the supermarket brisket for another lesson learned this weekend about timing!)
The ribs were Costco sourced. I had never removed the membrane on ribs before, but after reading abou it, and thinking of how many times I've had to remove that stuff from between my teeth, I decided to give it a try. A little bit of a PITA, but I think well worth it.
I used the same Memphis Dust rub as the pulled pork. The ribs sat for about 2 and a half days before I started cooking them.
According to the e-course, you cook these babies by taime, so I smoked 'em at 225 for six hours, wrapped 'em in foil and a towel and put them in a styrofoam cooler to wait for the rest of the meal to come together. I was able to use their space in the smoker for my ABTs while the brisket continued to cook.
Anyway, they came out great. Well smoked, juicy and tender. Unfortunately, I was so busy hosting I didn't get a chance to sit down and chow down, so I'm looking forward to left-overs today. All in all a satisfying smokin' experience!
I used the last of the Memphis Dust rub I made from a recipe on amazingribs.com. I'll be trying Jeff's rub next. It sat in the rub about 24 hours.
I put her up to smoke at 225 using hickory. The last two (only two) butts I smoked took close to 18 hours, so I figured I was safe putting it up at 11:00 pm and by the time I would be getting home from work around 3:00 Friday, I'd be getting close to the point where I'd need to keep an eye on things. When I woke up, I checked on her to see how she was doing and was shocked to see she was already at 172! This was going a lot faster than I anticipated. So I lowered the temp to a setting of 180 and went to work. I figured there was no way it was going to hit 200 while I was gone. Anyway, when I got home around 3:00, the smoker temp was 215 and the butt was at 185. I raised the setting back to 225 and around 6:00 it hit 202 and I took her out, wrapped her in foil and a towel and put her into a styrofoam cooler for an hour.
The meat was falling off the bone - it was hard to hold it, but the pulling was easy.
I used the apple cider-based pulled pork finishing sauce from the sticky on this forum. What a terrific flavor. I bagged it and refrigerated it overnight and reheated it in the oven at 280 until it was warm-to-hot. A couple of my guests had gone to Sylvia's in Harlem for dinner the night before and had their famous pulled pork. I modestly report that they judged mine to be better, tenderer and tastier. But I learned a lesson about timing. (See my post on the supermarket brisket for another lesson learned this weekend about timing!)
The ribs were Costco sourced. I had never removed the membrane on ribs before, but after reading abou it, and thinking of how many times I've had to remove that stuff from between my teeth, I decided to give it a try. A little bit of a PITA, but I think well worth it.
I used the same Memphis Dust rub as the pulled pork. The ribs sat for about 2 and a half days before I started cooking them.
According to the e-course, you cook these babies by taime, so I smoked 'em at 225 for six hours, wrapped 'em in foil and a towel and put them in a styrofoam cooler to wait for the rest of the meal to come together. I was able to use their space in the smoker for my ABTs while the brisket continued to cook.
Anyway, they came out great. Well smoked, juicy and tender. Unfortunately, I was so busy hosting I didn't get a chance to sit down and chow down, so I'm looking forward to left-overs today. All in all a satisfying smokin' experience!
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