First Pork Shoulder Coming Up

[Braindead]

I don't normally buy supermarket meat but Tesco had a killer deal on Pork shoulder so I bough 4.5kg. I halved it and put one half in the freezer. Other half had the skin and fat removed and soaked in apple juice for 24 hours.

2Kg Pork shoulder after 24hrs in apple juice

Now I've made a rub with brown sugar, paprika, maldon salt, pepper, juniper, fennel seed and some fresh sage and garlic.
Rubbed, wrapped in cling film and n the fridge till tomorrow morning.

With the dry rub

....what have you people done to me? I'M PHOTOGRAPHING PORK!!!!!

I've modified my Brinkmann so it now has a raised grate in the charcoal pan and controllable input airflow to the charcoal pan. It may not be Rolls-Royce grade engineering but it'll do the job. This is the first test of the mods.

Three small bolts added to support a grate about 25mm above the charcoal pan base

My plan is to fire up at 8am, pork on at 9am and try hold a temp of 250F until about 5 or 6pm. If I understand correctly I should be aiming for an internal meat temp of 200F if I want to produce good pulled pork?

Wish me luck

[JEC]

Welcome to the pulled pork club, I picked up a shoulder last weekend from Tesco, only a baby at 1.5kgs but just enough for a smoke session, I would normally take a trip to the butchers but this one just caught my eye!!

Yes photographing meat does take some explaining, not something everyone (barely anyone!) understands. I pulled mine at 190F and allowed 1.5 to 2 hours per pound when working out my start time, it came off around the 1.5 hrs/lbs mark but a preheated oven kept it warm until dinner time

[Braindead]

Thanks for the advice.

8:30am
Coals are about up to temp so the mat will be on in the next 20 mins. I'm going to put the apple juice marinade in the water bath with the water. I'm using Mesquite chips and they'll be in foil.

[LM600]

Nice!

Aim for 190°F internal then wrap in foil and a couple of towels. Leave for an hour or so and then pull.

Good call on removing the skin...you can always turn this into pork scratchings

[Ady]

With the last shoulder I cooked I held out till 205f, I was able to push on it and it fell apart or mash it with a fork like a well boiled potato. Worth the extra wait imo

[LM600]

Here you go Mate, this is what my last one looked like the next day (after pulling)...





I didn't take the temps. at time of pulling but I'd guess they were 195-200°F what with the residual heat increase whilst resting.

[Braindead]

8:45
Shoulder went in

10:45
Struggling to get the temp down,. Bottom vents closed right up but I don't have any top vents.
I've put the lid on a tilt so there are gaps round it. We'll see if that drags it down a bit.

Newly added bottom vent control made of old server rack blanking plates. Viewed from underneath

Just filleted some fresh tout to go in there for lunch. First time I've tried that as well
Got the instructions HERE

[Braindead]

Any recommendations for a sauce recipe to go with the pork?

[LM600]

I like cider vinegar with crushed, dried or flaked chillies in it. Or a good shop bought sauce is Newmans Own.

[Braindead]

12:45

Still running at high temperatures. I think it's probably down to the fact I used a lot more charcoal because of previous low burn times....but I've modified it so it burns better and doesn't clog with ash. My guess is I needed less colas at the start.

Internal meat temp is 157F