Smoking 30lb bone in pork leg and have questions.

[bcgeogirl]

Hi everyone. I have been smoking for about a year and have had pretty good success but I am second guessing the timing for my next project. We found these huge pork legs at the store for a no brainer price. It is just the whole upper leg with bone and it is a monster, 30 lbs! We are going to pull it.

Here is what I am planning and what I do in general, I am brining this pork leg for 24 hours. I use probes while cooking, I put a pan of apple cider vinegar in the grill, I have no temp setting between 200 and 250 on my grill so I am going to cook it at 250 for 4 hours (to get its smoke) and then wrap it in foil, I will cook it wrapped until it reaches an internal temp of 203, I am going to use a faux cambro once it gets to temp (our smoker is fast so it will likely be done early).

I have been googling, like I do with all my smoking experiments, but have run into some questions I cannot answer:
1. Do I still need to put a rub on it with having brined it? it seems superfluous to re-season it.
2. I saved the fat from trimming it, should I put some on top of the roast if I am going to wrap it?
3. is 1.5 hours / lb an accurate approximation of cooking time?
4. do i need to keep a pan of liquid in there while it is wrapped up?

I appreciate your help. :)

 

[BrianGSDTexoma]

Welcome to the forum. That's a monster for sure.

 

[tallbm]

Hi everyone. I have been smoking for about a year and have had pretty good success but I am second guessing the timing for my next project. We found these huge pork legs at the store for a no brainer price. It is just the whole upper leg with bone and it is a monster, 30 lbs! We are going to pull it.

Here is what I am planning and what I do in general, I am brining this pork leg for 24 hours. I use probes while cooking, I put a pan of apple cider vinegar in the grill, I have no temp setting between 200 and 250 on my grill so I am going to cook it at 250 for 4 hours (to get its smoke) and then wrap it in foil, I will cook it wrapped until it reaches an internal temp of 203, I am going to use a faux cambro once it gets to temp (our smoker is fast so it will likely be done early).

I have been googling, like I do with all my smoking experiments, but have run into some questions I cannot answer:
1. Do I still need to put a rub on it with having brined it? it seems superfluous to re-season it.
2. I saved the fat from trimming it, should I put some on top of the roast if I am going to wrap it?
3. is 1.5 hours / lb an accurate approximation of cooking time?
4. do i need to keep a pan of liquid in there while it is wrapped up?

I appreciate your help. :)

Hi there and welcome!


1. - yes add seasoning but maybe no salt. The meat is so thick that u will get little if any seasoning to it until after you shred it all. So I would season before cooking and then once all pulled shake the same seasoning in to get the meat that got no seasoning deep in th emuscle.

2. - I would add all the fat on top of it and wrap the fat in it too. You can't ruin it with the fat being there but u can ruin it with all the fat gone.

3. - 1st question I have, is this leg a front leg or back leg? Back legs will have much leaner cuts of "roasts" in them so I'm not sure how well they will turn into pulled pork. If skin is on and fat is on and it is wrapped in foil then I think it can happen but it may be dry like a pork loin may turn out dry. I'll set someone with more experience on bag legs of pork give real life details on it done as pulled pork.
My experience with whole back pork legs legs is to separate into whole roasts or to grind for sausage meat that I mix with pork fat.

With pork butts in my efficient, well insulated, smoker I cook at a steady 275F and they take a little over an hour a pound. So at 250F and the size of the leg u are talking about I wouldn't estimate less than 2hr a pound. Honestly I would estimate 2hr 30min a pound then add 4 hours to overall time and hope it finished in time. A leg that big and hot finishing early is ideal. U can wrap it in foil and then in towels and it will hold temp for 5-6hrs easy so finishing early is idea. If u need to hold it longer then throw it in a cooler or put in an oven set to 160F and it will never get cold and stay at safe heat temps.

4. -No need for liquid while it is wrapped well in foil.

I hope this info helps :)

 

[bcgeogirl]

Thank you. I am not sure if it is a ham or butt. There was no label to indicate but if pictures on the internet are an indicator I am going to say it may be a back leg but it appears really well marbled with thick interstitial layers of fat. I may just cook to 185 and play it by ear.

 

[Nick-IA]

With that weight I would say it’s likely a ham (rear) of the pig. When I have butchered hogs in the past, I typically keep one of hind quarters for a whole bone in fresh ham, and those are anywhere from 22-27 pds typically.

Most front shoulders would be hard pressed to reach 18-20 pds between the boston butt and the picnic, which is typically what the front shoulder is split into.

I only say this because the cuts are different and the rear has larger muscle groups and will be leaner. With a cut that size, brining for 24 hours will not absorb very far into the meat, so I would definiately season as well. I’ve never pulled a cut like that before, I’ve always cured and smoked as a ham - so I’m not sure what to expect when trying to pull it. Generally, I would say you’d still want to go 203 +/- so everything breaks down. I dont think at 185 it would pull very well.

That’s my relatively novice opinion from having taken apart a number of these animals before. I’d be curious what some of the seasoned smokers in this site would say about the actual cook itself.

 

[Brokenhandle]

For a whole rear leg to make it a cured ham would have to be injected with cure, especially all around the bones and still kept in a curing brine for at least two weeks. Whether you use something like pop's brine or daveomak method of an equilibrium brine. Maybe he will chime in as one of the best safety experts here. But you will not make pulled ham by only going to 185 degrees. I have never tried it with a rear leg myself so not sure how well that would work compared to using a front leg or picnic.

Ryan

 

[Brokenhandle]

One other thing to keep in mind that I failed to mention in my previous post...be careful what advice you take from the internet...it's not always correct or correct as far as food safety is concerned. But on this site, you'll be much safer...as in if someone gives incorrect or unsafe advice it will be corrected.

Ryan

 

[DougE]

But on this site, you'll be much safer...as in if someone gives incorrect or unsafe advice it will be corrected.

^^^^^^^^

What he said.

 

[pineywoods]

Personally I'd mix some of the rub I was using into some apple juice and inject it in multiple places then brine for the 24 hours. Then I'd apply the rub and put it into the smoker which I'd have running 225-250 and I'd smoke it until the internal temp was about 160 degrees then I'd wrap it in foil and seal the foil well might even double wrap it then back into the smoker at 250 or so until I got to 200-205 internal. Once wrapped you could put it in an oven to finish once wrapped heat is heat doesn't matter smoker or oven. When it was done I would wrap it into an old towel and put it into a warm dry cooler to rest at least an hour before taking it out and pulling it. You might also consider having some finishing sauce made up for it.
As for the fat you have trimmed off it's a matter of how much fat you left on it and how much there seems to be inside it.
Good luck with your cook take pics and let us know how it comes out

 

[daveomak]

Morning... When you have time, take a look at a couple of my threads....

Waiting longer for the curing process adds a lot of flavor to the meat..
12-14 days is about right... Kitchen Basics unsalted veggie stock is about the best stock you can use for excellent flavor...

~5 days from Picnic to Ham.... | Smoking Meat Forums - The Best Smoking Meat Forum On Earth!

Pork loin... faomheart style.... Canadian bacon, made in America... Recipe added | Smoking Meat Forums - The Best Smoking Meat Forum On Earth!

 

[chopsaw]

. I am not sure if it is a ham or butt.

Here's a couple pictures of a whole front shoulder . Weighs 22 pounds .

Here's a link on what I did with it . May or may not help .

Whole front leg . Ham , sausage and some bacon .

I bought this at GFS when other stuff was out of stock . They don't normally have them , so I figure they were putting out what they could get . This was a at least 3 months ago . Maybe more . 99 cents a pound . Cleaned it up and boned it out . Tied up part of the picnic end and did Dave's...

www.smokingmeatforums.com

 

[bcgeogirl]

For a whole rear leg to make it a cured ham would have to be injected with cure, especially all around the bones and still kept in a curing brine for at least two weeks. Whether you use something like pop's brine or daveomak method of an equilibrium brine. Maybe he will chime in as one of the best safety experts here. But you will not make pulled ham by only going to 185 degrees. I have never tried it with a rear leg myself so not sure how well that would work compared to using a front leg or picnic.

Ryan

Thanks. I was thinking I would get it to 185, see how jiggly it was looking and then decide if try to go to 203 for pulling. Update. I put it in last night at about 8pm expecting a 45 hour smoke and checked it with my probes at 11 this morning and all my probes (pushed all the way in in many of the thick places) said the stinker was over 200. I even dropped the temp last night from 250 for the initial 4 to 200 once I wrapped it. My smoker is getting faster and faster. That said it is jiggly wohoo. Probe went all the way in line butter. She is sitting in a faux cam to right now. Ridiculous how fast it cooked.

 

[TNJAKE]

Thanks. I was thinking I would get it to 185, see how jiggly it was looking and then decide if try to go to 203 for pulling. Update. I put it in last night at about 8pm expecting a 45 hour smoke and checked it with my probes at 11 this morning and all my probes (pushed all the way in in many of the thick places) said the stinker was over 200. I even dropped the temp last night from 250 for the initial 4 to 200 once I wrapped it. My smoker is getting faster and faster. That said it is jiggly wohoo. Probe went all the way in line butter. She is sitting in a faux cam to right now. Ridiculous how fast it cooked.

Pics or it never happened!

 

[Brokenhandle]

And for those that haven't tried daveomak way of curing hams with the vegetable broth... its definitely worth it!

Ryan

 

[Nick-IA]

Thanks. I was thinking I would get it to 185, see how jiggly it was looking and then decide if try to go to 203 for pulling. Update. I put it in last night at about 8pm expecting a 45 hour smoke and checked it with my probes at 11 this morning and all my probes (pushed all the way in in many of the thick places) said the stinker was over 200. I even dropped the temp last night from 250 for the initial 4 to 200 once I wrapped it. My smoker is getting faster and faster. That said it is jiggly wohoo. Probe went all the way in line butter. She is sitting in a faux cam to right now. Ridiculous how fast it cooked.

Sounds like you’re on point. Make sure you send some pics. I’m intrigued on how this turned out!

 

[912smoker]

Well I wonder how this turned out

Keith