Pulled pork done wrong?

GymB

GymB

Picking it up slowly.
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Went a little off target.
put a can of chipotle peppers in adobo through a food mill to get rid of the seeds and make mush.
added black pepper, salt, smoked paprika, brown sugar, and garlic to make a paste.
rubbed all over the pork shoulder, slid it into a bag and vac sealed it.
in the fridge for 2 days

Now smoking on hickory and apple at 225

We’ll see
 
I’ve made very similar in the crock pot, so ought to be great on the smoker. Never thought to add brown sugar.
 
Studentofthegun said:
Dark brown sugar should be the first ingredient for any decent pork rub.
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Brown sugar is good, but "I love you like salt," is a thing for a reason.

learntobbq.com

Chris Lilly's Six-Time World Championship Pork Shoulder

Chris Lilly is the only five-time champion of the Memphis in May BBQ cook-off – aka the "Super Bowl of Swine" – and the author of Big Bob Gibson's BBQ Book: Recipes and Secrets From a Legendary Barbecue Joint. The Alabama BBQ joint is considered one of the most important and most influential in...
learntobbq.com learntobbq.com
 
pinkbunny said:
Brown sugar is good, but "I love you like salt," is a thing for a reason.

learntobbq.com

Chris Lilly's Six-Time World Championship Pork Shoulder

Chris Lilly is the only five-time champion of the Memphis in May BBQ cook-off – aka the "Super Bowl of Swine" – and the author of Big Bob Gibson's BBQ Book: Recipes and Secrets From a Legendary Barbecue Joint. The Alabama BBQ joint is considered one of the most important and most influential in...
learntobbq.com learntobbq.com
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Salt is on the list too.
 
I went a little easy on salt, but you can’t leave it out. I think I’m light on acid, but thought citrus would make it too mushy.

Fun to experiment
 
I brine my pork shoulders in a whiskey brine for 24 hours, then dry rub for another 24 hours, then into the smoker.
 
Warhammer said:
I brine my pork shoulders in a whiskey brine for 24 hours, then dry rub for another 24 hours, then into the smoker.
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Never tried them but … I’ve seen wood chips made from whisky barrels (charred white oak) for use in smokers.
 
Hmm. Looking at the picture. I have a Weber kettle (charcoal) grill that will do indirect heat. Might do good fora shoulder or brisket, looking at your post and getting inspired.
 
I think pork benefits from sweetness. Here are my brine and rub recipes:

Brine:
  • 3 cups water
  • ½ cup honey
  • ½ cup brown sugar
  • 1 cup molasses
  • 1 onion, thinly sliced
  • 4 cloves garlic, crushed
  • 2 tablespoons whole black peppercorns
  • 2 tablespoons whole cloves
  • 2 tablespoons fresh rosemary
  • 1 tablespoon mustard seed
  • 1 bay leaf
  • ¼ teaspoon ground nutmeg
  • ½ bottle of El Cheapo Bourbon
  • 12 oz (1 1/3 cup) kosher salt
Rub:
  • 1 teaspoon whole cumin seed
  • 1 teaspoon whole fennel seed
  • 1 teaspoon whole coriander
  • 1 tablespoon chili powder (preferably home made)
  • 1 tablespoon onion powder
  • 1 tablespoon smoked paprika
  • ½ cup dark brown sugar
 
Pack72 said:
Looking good! (Which lid hinge is that, and how do you like it?)
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So far so good, guess it’s been 3 or 4 years and it looks like new. https://unknownbbq.com/product/custom-wsm-hinge/

Warhammer said:
tablespoon chili powder (preferably home made)
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I’ve made a few, but am buying Gebhardt these days. What’s your mix?

noway2 said:
Hmm. Looking at the picture. I have a Weber kettle (charcoal) grill that will do indirect heat. Might do good fora shoulder or brisket, looking at your post and getting inspired.
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This is in a Weber Smokey Mountain. The only issue I’d imagine with a kettle would be having to add charcoal, don’t think you can get enough in there to run for 8 or 9 hours. Not a big deal, and certainly worth a try. Besides, you can always pull it off after 4 and put it in the oven.
 
Here's my chili powder recipe:


3 dried ancho chiles, stemmed, seeded and sliced

3 dried cascabel chiles, stemmed, seeded and sliced

2 to 5 dried arbol chiles, stemmed, seeded and sliced (this is the heat!)

3 tablespoons whole cumin seeds

2 1/3 tablespoons garlic powder

1-½ tablespoons dried oregano

1 teaspoon smoked paprika



Place the chiles and the cumin into a cast iron skillet over medium-high heat. Cook, moving the pan around constantly, until you begin to smell the cumin toasting, approximately 4 to 5 minutes. Set aside and allow to cool completely.

Once cool, place the chiles, cumin, garlic powder, oregano and paprika into a glass blender. Process spices into a fine powder. Allow the chili powder to settle for at least a minute before removing the lid. Makes a little more than ½ cup.
 
That sounds good to me. Like you said, maybe a bit light on salt, it could useda some lime/orange for acid and it may be a bit spicy but I wouldn't turn it down after pulling. I did something similar with canned chipotle, pineapples, B-sugar, big orange sliced, and wrapped in banana leaves and tin foil tight through it all to make a Hawaiian pork and it was dang good. Your picture doesn't show too much burning so likely not too much sugar.
 
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Just pulling out of the stall, 175.


122392D9-681E-46CE-9522-4E6BDFA71287.jpeg
Obviously missed dinner, and some of you are probably thinking “Gym, why’d you start a 9-10hr smoke at noon?” Well because I started at 9:00, but I did something stupid. When I turned on the Thermoworks Signals it said that it needed a firmware update. Instead of hitting ignore, I hit install without thinking. The update was supposed to take 1 min, but it bricked the device and it took me about 3 hours to get it back. In hindsight I should have gotten it on the smoker, but it always seemed like this next thing was going to fix it.

For those of you with a Signals, turning wifi off on my ipad and then reseting the Signals allowed it to finish the update.
 
GymB said:
Just pulling out of the stall, 175.


View attachment 669197
Obviously missed dinner, and some of you are probably thinking “Gym, why’d you start a 9-10hr smoke at noon?” Well because I started at 9:00, but I did something stupid. When I turned on the Thermoworks Signals it said that it needed a firmware update. Instead of hitting ignore, I hit install without thinking. The update was supposed to take 1 min, but it bricked the device and it took me about 3 hours to get it back. In hindsight I should have gotten it on the smoker, but it always seemed like this next thing was going to fix it.

For those of you with a Signals, turning wifi off on my ipad and then reseting the Signals allowed it to finish the update.
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Take it off when it hits 205, wrap it in paper or foil, then wrap it in a towel and put it in a cooler, let’s it rest, then Have it for breakfast
 
Burt Gummer said:
Take it off when it hits 205, wrap it in paper or foil, then wrap it in a towel and put it in a cooler, let’s it rest, then Have it for breakfast
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I’ve never rested it for more than about 90 min, can it really go 6 hours?

Wrapped in paper and then towels in a Yeti it’d probably stay warm, but I don’t know if it’d stay above 140. Suppose I could run a temp probe in through the ice drain and into the meat and set an alarm at 140.
 
Burt Gummer said:
Take it off when it hits 205, wrap it in paper or foil, then wrap it in a towel and put it in a cooler, let’s it rest, then Have it for breakfast
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Yep... do the same thing, pull it, wrap it in paper, couple of towels on a sheet tray, cover it with foil and put it in the oven (off..).... it'll still be too hot to pull apart in the morning.
 
GymB said:
I’ve never rested it for more than about 90 min, can it really go 6 hours?

Wrapped in paper and then towels in a Yeti it’d probably stay warm, but I don’t know if it’d stay above 140. Suppose I could run a temp probe in through the ice drain and into the meat and set an alarm at 140.
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I rested a brisket 6 hours not long ago. It was still too hot to handle when I took it out of the cooler
 
Burt Gummer said:
I rested a brisket 6 hours not long ago. It was still too hot to handle when I took it out of the cooler
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That's my normal rest for a butt: 4-5 hours minimum. It still has steam coming off the meat when we tear it open. It also softens the bark just a smidge.
 
Supermatch said:
So @GymB , how was it?
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It was good. Rained heavy around 11pm, had to add charcoal at 12, so I wrapped it at the same time. Took ot off at 203 (it was 3:30am) and put it in a cooler for 5 hours. It had fallen to 157 and pulled easy. Taste was good, well smoked and not overdone, but the wet rub didn’t impart as much spice as I wanted, so I made a vinegar-chipotle-cayenne sauce for it.

Next time I’m starting the night before and sleeping through most of it.
 
Since I cook with a Primo Kamado style grill, it's a pain to add charcoal if needed. Typically I get at least 10-12 hours out of the charcoal, have gotten up to 16. My current method is when the grill temp starts dropping, I'll pull the butts, wrap in foil and stick on my natural gas grill to finish off. If I light one burner on either end of the grill between low and medium, temps stay around 250-275. When the butts are at temperature, I'll wrap in a towel and put in a cooler for an hour minimum or up to 5 hours based on when we are eating. Seems to work well.
 
Carolinatlc said:
Since I cook with a Primo Kamado style grill, it's a pain to add charcoal if needed. Typically I get at least 10-12 hours out of the charcoal, have gotten up to 16. My current method is when the grill temp starts dropping, I'll pull the butts, wrap in foil and stick on my natural gas grill to finish off. If I light one burner on either end of the grill between low and medium, temps stay around 250-275. When the butts are at temperature, I'll wrap in a towel and put in a cooler for an hour minimum or up to 5 hours based on when we are eating. Seems to work well.
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I thought about just putting it in the oven, it wasn’t picking up more smoke anyway. Didn’t because the oven beeping wakes the dog and the dog barking wakes the wife and nothing good comes of that.
 
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