Got back on the horse today and made my second attempt at smoking a Pork Butt. As I found out, it was a Pork Shoulder, bone-in.
Can someone explain if there's a difference between the two?
So I prepped the Pork last night, rubbed with McCormic and put in plastic bag in fridge.
Started the smoker at 7am this morning with the following settings. It's a Master Built Propane, 2-door model. I really like it.
I used Pecan wood chips and Pecan wood chunks. First time using Pecan and it was very good.
Filled the water pan, put the pork on the middle top rack with fat side up.
Under the pork, I put an empty pan to catch drippings - which turned out to be very, very little in the pan after pork was complete.
Set the smoker temperature for between 250 and 275 for the whole day.
I don't know if it was the vents, but several people told me to keep the air vents and top smoke vent open all the way. This is the first time I did that, and I wonder if that helped the smoker keep a stable temperature all day long.
Usually, with the vents closed up more, I was always fiddling with the gas control knob.
So, thanks to everyone that told me to open the vents!!!
3 1/2 hours into the smoke, it looks amazing. The internal temp of meat is 145.
Good progress. Like I said, I'm running around 265 for smoker temp.
You can see the probe in the bottom left of the photo. That's hooked to an I Grill mini.
I like it, but it only has one probe. It's bluetooth so I can keep track of it on my I phone.
At 6 1/2 hours, I hit 170. There was no 'stall' at 160 as I've read about. So, I wrapped it in aluminum foil, and stopped putting new wood in, and just kept going at 265 smoker temperature.
At 9 hours, I hit 205. I turned off the smoker and left the pork sit in the smoker for maybe a half an hour, still wrapped in foil.
As I picked it up off the smoker rack, I could feel how soft it was. It was breaking apart slightly as I moved it to a tray to bring in the house.
All I can think about is, "Is that bone going to come out, and is it going to be tender?"
Well, let me just say, it pays to ask questions and listen to experienced people.
I unwrapped the pork and could tell immediately it was tender through and through.
As I tried to pick it up with a big fork and tongs, it literally fell apart.
I picked up the bone and it just fell away from the meat.
And it had great 'bark' on it too.
Oh yea, I took pics. :)
That's the top piece of fat. It came right off in one piece.
This is how it fell apart as I tried to put it on the cutting board.
The bone fell right out. Beautiful.
All shredded up. It took less than 5 minutes to pull it all apart.
Grand Finale.
Ok, so I made a pulled pork sandwich, cole slaw, and uh, more pulled pork!!!!
Thanks for the help, as usual.
It is so satisfying to successfully do something like this.
I did drizzle some BBQ sauce on it but didn't take another photo.
And, the best part? My wife loved it.
She said "I really like the pieces with the 'crust'.
I told her "That's the bark!". :)
Can someone explain if there's a difference between the two?
So I prepped the Pork last night, rubbed with McCormic and put in plastic bag in fridge.
Started the smoker at 7am this morning with the following settings. It's a Master Built Propane, 2-door model. I really like it.
I used Pecan wood chips and Pecan wood chunks. First time using Pecan and it was very good.
Filled the water pan, put the pork on the middle top rack with fat side up.
Under the pork, I put an empty pan to catch drippings - which turned out to be very, very little in the pan after pork was complete.
Set the smoker temperature for between 250 and 275 for the whole day.
I don't know if it was the vents, but several people told me to keep the air vents and top smoke vent open all the way. This is the first time I did that, and I wonder if that helped the smoker keep a stable temperature all day long.
Usually, with the vents closed up more, I was always fiddling with the gas control knob.
So, thanks to everyone that told me to open the vents!!!
3 1/2 hours into the smoke, it looks amazing. The internal temp of meat is 145.
Good progress. Like I said, I'm running around 265 for smoker temp.
You can see the probe in the bottom left of the photo. That's hooked to an I Grill mini.
I like it, but it only has one probe. It's bluetooth so I can keep track of it on my I phone.
At 6 1/2 hours, I hit 170. There was no 'stall' at 160 as I've read about. So, I wrapped it in aluminum foil, and stopped putting new wood in, and just kept going at 265 smoker temperature.
At 9 hours, I hit 205. I turned off the smoker and left the pork sit in the smoker for maybe a half an hour, still wrapped in foil.
As I picked it up off the smoker rack, I could feel how soft it was. It was breaking apart slightly as I moved it to a tray to bring in the house.
All I can think about is, "Is that bone going to come out, and is it going to be tender?"
Well, let me just say, it pays to ask questions and listen to experienced people.
I unwrapped the pork and could tell immediately it was tender through and through.
As I tried to pick it up with a big fork and tongs, it literally fell apart.
I picked up the bone and it just fell away from the meat.
And it had great 'bark' on it too.
Oh yea, I took pics. :)
That's the top piece of fat. It came right off in one piece.
This is how it fell apart as I tried to put it on the cutting board.
The bone fell right out. Beautiful.
All shredded up. It took less than 5 minutes to pull it all apart.
Grand Finale.
Ok, so I made a pulled pork sandwich, cole slaw, and uh, more pulled pork!!!!
Thanks for the help, as usual.
It is so satisfying to successfully do something like this.
I did drizzle some BBQ sauce on it but didn't take another photo.
And, the best part? My wife loved it.
She said "I really like the pieces with the 'crust'.
I told her "That's the bark!". :)