next Pork...the cold shoulder?

[catnip]

Quick update, last weekend I tried out the cold smoker with some cheese, butter, garlic and a pepper for next door. All fine, the cheese is great, the butter is so so not what I expected but so good it hurts!

Tomorrow am I will be up at the crack of dawn for my first long slow smoke with pork shoulder, in the ProQ, off the bone.

Having spent one weekend doing my 'alchemy', otherwise known as making new batches of BBQ spice, pork rub and BBQ sauce passed down through generations in a book next door brought back from the US of A, one cold smoking it's back to the hot stuff!

Will be tasted as pulled pork (or cubed!) sandwiches with sweet & sour coleslaw + sauce.

Now I have a quick question, to keep the pork more cubed than pulled do I reduce the cook time, resting time or lower the final cooking temp, this is to try for a firmer texture pork which I can cube up with a crust for the chef if I can?

[Toby]

I think what you may be referring to is chopped pork, which has a cube shape, this is used in a lot of BBQ joints in the states and its just a quicker way of getting the pork ready to serve, ie just literally chopping it into chunks. I would stick to the same temp, but thats just what i know I am sure a few other will jump in with opinions.

[catnip]

yeh it''s more an attempt to please the other half who has stated that shredded pork is too sloppy...some people I tell you, oh and too sweet don't put BBQ sauce on it....a bad pulled pork sandwich at a pizza place in Oxford is to blame, too watery defiantly not smoked pulled pork. I've got some hot sauce on hand

So I'll go for the same temps and hope for a nice crust on it and chunk it not shred it, I'm sure that will work...if not then it's just me the cats and neighbours who get to eat it, there's some left mac'n cheese in the fridge after all as a side I can make into a main

[catnip]

It's coming up to 12 hours (8pm tonight) and the pork is still at 176f, the BBQ is at 253~ it's been like this for a few hours now, do I just leave it going until it hits 190-5f? or add more charcoal to up the heat?

[Swindon_Ed]

have you wrapped it in foil yet?

if not wrap it in foil as this will help speed up the cooking process.

[Minesamojito]

or a different cut?
pork belly would be much easier to make into squares, and would cook quicker, I reckon it would cube up lovely.
Cheers
Marcus

[LM600]

If it's overcooked on the outside (to me no such thing!....it's just another texture) then you could carve this off and cube it then pull the inside.

Personally, I like brown (bark or outside meat) with the moister inside meat but then again I am partial to a skin sandwich every now and again!

Seriously, if you just pull the whole shoulder, remove any fatty bits or gristly or other 'nasty' bits, mix it altogether and serve it, it'll be moist but dry if that makes sense?

Just serve some sauce, coleslaw, chilli vinegar or au jus on the side if people want it.

[keith157]

I always have pork juices (au jus) in the freezer, I've made it a habit of doing 1 rolled shoulder low-n-slow in the oven in a roasting bag to ensure plenty of it for additionally moistening the BBQ'd shoulder. That's cos I've not quite cracked it yet.....

[catnip]

Pictures from the day, forgot to upload them at the time, and forgot to get one of the cubed pork, it was nice first real smoke ring i've made

Now my clay saucer sits on top of the water pan, is that OK? you can see it in the 7th image

Smudge our 19 y/o kitten

[Chris__M]

Quick update, last weekend I tried out the cold smoker with some cheese, butter, garlic and a pepper for next door. All fine, the cheese is great, the butter is so so not what I expected but so good it hurts

I love my cold smoked butter. Try making scrambled egg with it, and serve on brown toast. It is delicious.