Pulled pork

[maineman]

Hi all, I need some advice. I’ve been asked to smoke some pulled pork for a bday party. I’ve never done it on my reverse flow offset stick burner. Any suggestions s are greatly appreciated

chad

 

[TNJAKE]

My suggestion would be a practice run before the party. Don't try new things when you have an event happening. If the practice run turns out good. Save the defatted juices, vac seal and freeze and you can use some of that for the party as well

 

[jcam222]

Score the fat deeply in a cross hatch. Coat in thin layer of mustard or olive oil. coat liberally with pork rub of your choice and rest overnight. I would smoke at 275F , you can go lower for longer time but really no need with good fatty butt. When the butt(s) hit 165F out in a foil pan with 1/2 - 1 cup liquid. Can use apple juice or chicken broth. Continue cooking until the butt is 200F-205F. Put the entire pan in a cooler with towels for an hour to allow it to rest. Get it out and pull, defat the pan juice and mix back in the meat. That’s a pretty basic start to finish for you. I do not mix finishing sauces in mine as I prefer serving them in the side. You can search here for Chef Jimmies (RIP) finishing sauce.

 

[OldSmoke]

Freeze it before you add sauce. It freezes really well, nobody will know and you can enjoy your party stress free.

 

[maineman]

Thanks guys. I think I’ll try to do it ahead of time. Should I use a pork shoulder, roast or something else?

 

[jcam222]

Thanks guys. I think I’ll try to do it ahead of time. Should I use a pork shoulder, roast or something else?

Pork butt / shoulder

 

[smokerjim]

The others have you covered and as mentioned I would definitely do ahead of time, pork butts are very forgiving , under cooking is probably the biggest mistake you could make

 

[SmokingUPnorth]

If your crunched for time. when the butts stall around 150-160* you can wrap it in foil to help it get through the stall. Sometimes it will sit there for hours without going up. As others said look up JJ’s finishing sauce on here. Bread guy who recently passed away. But his finishing sauce (along with all his other recipes) put the pulled pork on a different level. I use Jeff’s rub on pulled pork, if you haven’t purchased it any brown sugar based rub goes good with it.

 

[thirdeye]

Thanks guys. I think I’ll try to do it ahead of time. Should I use a pork shoulder, roast or something else?

Either of the shoulder roasts will work fine. Butts are more popular, and more common.... but the shoulder picnic has really good flavor and some of my favorite muscles (near the bone). Picnic's will usually be less expensive, but there is skin and more bone. When I cook both at once, I always take the butt to pullable, but don't have a problem serving some sliced from the picnic. Butts on top, picnic below.

 

[maineman]

Does anyone care to share a good seasoning or trick to cook the butts? I have a go to pork rub for while hogs and sausage, guess that might be fine?

 

[pineywoods]

I use Jeff's rub 99% of the time you can buy the recipe cheap and it's actually a couple rub recipes and bbq sauce recipe and they are good. It's a whole lot cheaper to make your own and you can tweak the recipe to suit your tastes tho I use it pretty much as written the only thing I change is I use turbinado sugar (sugar in the raw) instead of brown sugar as it doesn't clump as easy and has a higher burn temperature.
The rub recipes are for sale right here and it also helps support the site

 

[Nefarious]

Have you by chance read Bearcarver step by steps. He has a couple for pulled butt, the link is in his signature.

 

[maineman]

Thanks all, 2 of 5 done. Using one of Bearcarvers technics. Vac packed and into the freezer for Saturdays party.

Two more tomorrow and the last one Tuesday.

 

[bauchjw]

Looks like you nailed it! Did you use finishing sauce or drippings?

 

[DougE]

Looks like you did a fine job of it!

I use Jeff's rub 99% of the time you can buy the recipe cheap and it's actually a couple rub recipes and bbq sauce recipe and they are good. It's a whole lot cheaper to make your own and you can tweak the recipe to suit your tastes tho I use it pretty much as written the only thing I change is I use turbinado sugar (sugar in the raw) instead of brown sugar as it doesn't clump as easy and has a higher burn temperature.
The rub recipes are for sale right here and it also helps support the site

One of the first things I did when I joined was buy the recipes. The Original has been my go to rub for years and use unless I don't have time, or am too lazy to mix a batch up. I just got the Texas rub recipe a short time ago, and haven't tried it yet, but I'm sure it's great, too.

 

[maineman]

No sauce, I plan on putting in a foil pan with finish sauce and putting in my big offset reverse flow cooker as the chicken is on. I’ll then put my homemade bbq sauce out if anyone wants. I normally do chicken and whole hogs, I’m very happy with the way this turned out!