Pulled pork - how much smoke?

[YetiDave]

I'm going to take a shot at my first real BBQ this weekend with a pork shoulder, probably in the region of 2/3kg, on my new ProQ 20 and was wondering - for how many hours should I expose the meat to smoke? I've read that it should generally be at least 2 and up to 6.. I'm going to be using BBQers Delight pellets (either apple or hickory, I've not made my mind up yet! ) - 1/3 cup seems to give a decent amount of smoke for around 40 minutes so I was planning on refilling the smoke box once an hour for however many hours is necessary. Thanks for any advice!

[Riverrat]

I am sure you will get a wide range of answers to your question about how many hours to apply the smoke, I normally go for around two to three hours for a long session, from what I have read after that amount of time the meat won't take on board any more anyway ( just lets the neighbors know what you are up to !!)

From my own experience, go gentle on the amount of smoke - less is better than more on this occasion, too much smoke and you will impart a bitter taste to your cooking ( you are producing creosote)

Good luck with the cook - don't forget the picture's!!!!

[Eddie]

If you are going to use the cast iron pot? It may be worth making some foil pouches for refill and put a couple of holes in it. The pot becomes extremely hot and it's best left alone. BBQ Delights are very good as you can try woods that are very hard to get hold of.

Eddie

[YetiDave]

I got the ProQ smoker box as part of a bundle from hotsmoked.co.uk (hope I'm not breaking forum rules by posting links) and it seems to cool very quickly once it's out, but I'll make up some pouches just in case. I'm looking forward to seeing the difference between this and my Cameron's smoker

[keith157]

No general links are okay, I think it becomes undesireable if you are touting for business as several recent ex-posts have done

[Swindon_Ed]

I'm going to be using BBQers Delight pellets (either apple or hickory, I've not made my mind up yet! )

Why not use a mix of both

[YetiDave]

In time I shall blend my previous experience with smoking has been using a stovetop smoker though - they burn FAST. I want to see what kind of effect a longer, slower smoke with have on the flavour profile of each wood before I start mixin' em up. I'm veering towards apple this time as I'm injecting the pork with cider and basting with apple juice and apple cider vinegar, so why not go the whole hog? (Pun intended)

[Tiny]

Hi DaHi dave,
As with all these things it all comes down to a matter of taste but my preference personally with shoulder is a stronger smoke and plenty of it, I would go hickory for 4-5 hours.

But apple for less time would still be jolly tasty as well so in reality you cannot lose!

Cheers
Tiny

[YetiDave]

Okay, one more question just to make sure I've not fallen at the first hurdle here... As I'm sure you all know, supermarkets suck for getting cuts of meat and unfortunately my local butcher didn't have any shoulder cuts in, so this was all that I could find -

http://i1258.photobucket.com/albums/ii5 ... fdca31.jpg
http://i1258.photobucket.com/albums/ii5 ... f595f9.jpg
http://i1258.photobucket.com/albums/ii5 ... 66138b.jpg
http://i1258.photobucket.com/albums/ii5 ... 8f01f3.jpg

Apologies for the giant pictures

It's a boneless leg joint, nowhere near as much fat as a Boston butt but there's a bit. My plan's trimming off that skin and leaving a good coating of fat on the top and largely leaving the rest of it alone. Then I'm gonna inject and rub it and sit it overnight before the smoke Saturday morning. My question is - will it behave and pull? Or is it just too lean?

[Mike_P_in_Tucson]

Just my opinion, but I think apple is best to use on pork shoulder. If I were using chunks, I would limit the amount of smoke time to around 2 hours, but with pellets, I would go 3 or 4 hours. Meat will only produce a smoke ring up to around 140F internal temperature. But it will absorb smoke flavor for the entire cook and it is very possible to oversmoke the meat, which produces an unpleasant taste.