Friday night (more on that in a moment) I smoked my first pork shoulder. I bought a 9 lb. picnic shoulder not knowing that most pit master prefer the "butt" portion of the shoulder to the picnic.
But (pun intended) I had what I had...and it turned out delicious.
I started by trimming off quite a bit of fat (not all of it mind you) and the skin on the lower portion of the roast. I don't have a scale that goes high enough to weigh this size roast, but I'm guessing I took at least a pound or two off of the bone-in piece of meat.
Next, I rubbed it with a mixture of brown sugar, Spanish smoked paprika, salt, black pepper, garlic salt, shallot flakes, hot hungarian paprika and ground mustard powder. I only used about half the rub on the first application (Friday morning) and used the rest just before putting it in the smoker (reserving a couple table spoons for the mop).
After letting the pork rest in the rub most of the day Friday, I fired up the smoker and put the pork in at about 6:30 p.m. Friday night. That's right, Lenn was about to attempt his first over-night cook.
What a breeze. Just before going to bed I applied the mop sauce (blend of apple juice and the rub).
This smoker is an amazing piece of equipment. It stayed hot, between
225 and 250 degrees all night and the only thing I had to do when I
woke up at 5 a.m. was add water to the water pan.
Around 9:30, the
internal temp had reached 190 degrees, which is the target for pulled
pork, so I pulled it out of the smoker (gently, the meat was pulled
back from the bone and very tender) and wrapped it in heavy duty foil
for a 45-minute resting session.
Now, I messed up here...I didn't take any pictures after I pulled the pork. Next time I definitely will. The smoke ring was a thing of beauty and this was the best pulled pork I've ever had. Now, I'm not a BBQ expert just yet, but I was very happy with how it turned out. As were my party guests.
We served on hamburger rolls with homemad cabbage-green apple slaw for crunch and a vinegar-mustard-onion sauce I thought would be good...it was.
I was hoping to have pulled pork to last me the weekend...but we
finished most of it Saturday night, then polished it off for lunch
Sunday. Next time I'll do cook two pork butts.
that sounds so effin' good! yum!
though ending the post with "Next time I'll do two butts" was a little off-putting.
;)
Posted by: p | May 30, 2006 at 03:55 PM
That pork sounds great! Cograts!
Posted by: WhiteTrash BBQ | May 30, 2006 at 10:32 PM
What type of smoker did you use?
Posted by: Chad | May 31, 2006 at 12:41 PM
When you are in the Finger Lakes tasting wines, try the pulled pork at the Stonecat Cafe in Hector. It'll inspire you to more efforts and Scott Signori who is the chef does all his own smoking. They used to be attached to Bloomer Creek (not my fave at all) but are no longer. They do lots of nice-ish Finger Lakes on their wine list. Review upcoming on my site.
Posted by: Bibliochef | June 06, 2006 at 10:06 AM