pulled pork

[bigben]

every year my family has a party.  This year my father wanted to do pulled pork but wanted it smoked.  Well I got to do the honors and I can tell ya I was a bit uneasy smoking 80lbs of pork but nothing was left at the end of the day.  

here is a run down of what went on through out the day.  

up at 4 in the morning to get the charcoal going.  I am using just a regular charcoal chimney on top of a propane gas burner.


The meat.  Prepackaged boston butts or shoulder roasts.  already deboned.  yellow mustard brush and bowl as well.  I use the yellow mustard to act as glue to hold the rub on.  Pour some into the small bowl and use a brush to brush it on.  you want a thin layer.


Here I am spreading the mustard on in all the nooks and crannys and then applying rub.  


Here they are all rubbed up and into the smoker.  I place the fat cap on the bottom so if a flare up happens it doesnt burn the outside.  I smoked em with hickory wood chunks and kept the temp between 200-250.



here they are when they hit an internal temp of 160.  at this point I put them in foil pans and covered with foil.  I also stopped putting in wood chunks.  Kept cooker at 200-250 yet.  



here it is pulled.  It took close to 8 hours till it hit an internal of 190-200.  I then pulled the fire trays out and let the butts rest for a hour to redistribute the juices.  then pulled them apart and this is what I got.  


on a bun with home made sauce.

[KySongDog]

Now I am really hungry.   Thanks Ben.   

That weight loss goal is getting harder and harder.   

[bigben]

actually this was back during aug-sep time frame.  this pork is long gone.  but i do need to make some more canadian bacon soon.

[Dave]

Wow does that look good.

[FinsnFur]

Holy pulled pork, that looks so good.

Talk to me about putting the fat cat under the cooker to prevent burning the meat on flare ups, that interested me, but confused me.

[bigben]

I got that question alot jim and hear is my reasoning on it.  I shouldnt have said it would prevent flare ups because it did get burnt.  but it burned the fat cap and none of the precious meat that would have got burnt if it had the fat cap up.  understand what I mean?  the rub I use has a fair amount of brown sugar in it and that is what really burnt on mine.  a few flare ups but nothing that hurt the meat you eat. 

[FinsnFur]

Meat ya eat....hey you made a ryhme

Yeah that makes sense now, I always roll mine around on the grill, but all it does is lead to a nice crust burned wrapping.

[bigben]

see if ya leave the fat cap down and not roll it around it gives the outside a good bark that tastes friggin awesome.  I get that alot in person and over the net that they say they put the fat cap up to make the pork juicier but if you get good pork that has a good bit of fat through the meat then no need to have it up.  and sticking it in alum pans at 160 helps baste it as well.  just make sure it rests before pulling or your destined to have dry pork. 

[Hawks Feather]

You know if there are pictures it happened, but if we haven't tasted it . . . . .   

Jerry