Chris Lilly's Six-time World Championship Pork Shoulder injection and rub

[Dave Russell]

They came out pretty well. Flavor was good but not anything to really write home about, and they were a little dried out. I pulled them when the probes were 195F or so thinking I'd be golden, but not so. I may try the foiling method or a lower temp next time..I cooked at 250.

I looked back at your post and see that you left the salt out. Yes, the recipe can be too salty with table salt, but it's perfectly fine if you'd used kosher, and the garlic salt wasn't enough on it's on. Injections are supposed to be too salty, since the liquid ends up all running out, thus not being a factor in helping with moisture. It's just to add flavor and baste from the inside out, so to speak.

Dry pork comes from not cooking long enough or too long, cooking too fast or too slow, or holding too long at too hot a temp. Cook to tenderness, and that could be at 185* or 200*. It just depends, but wherever you lay the blame of dry pork, the juiciest pork shoulders I've smoked were NOT foiled until holding after the cook, and that was for less than two hours or not at all. The driest pork butts I've ever pulled were cooked to tenderness and then held wrapped in a hot cooler for too long. (Of course, larger and more marbled butts end up more moist, as well.) As to cooking temps, I find that water in the pan seems to give more "forgiveness" in temp variation and spikes, but have had great pork cooked at around 250*, water or not. I use water for overnights, full cookers, or if windy.

 

[Dave M..]

I looked back at your post and see that you left the salt out. Yes, the recipe can be too salty with table salt, but it's perfectly fine if you'd used kosher, and the garlic salt wasn't enough on it's on. Injections are supposed to be too salty, since the liquid ends up all running out, thus not being a factor in helping with moisture. It's just to add flavor and baste from the inside out, so to speak.

Dry pork comes from not cooking long enough or too long, cooking too fast or too slow, or holding too long at too hot a temp. Cook to tenderness, and that could be at 185* or 200*. It just depends, but wherever you lay the blame of dry pork, the juiciest pork shoulders I've smoked were NOT foiled until holding after the cook, and that was for less than two hours or not at all. The driest pork butts I've ever pulled were cooked to tenderness and then held wrapped in a hot cooler for too long. (Of course, larger and more marbled butts end up more moist, as well.) As to cooking temps, I find that water in the pan seems to give more "forgiveness" in temp variation and spikes, but have had great pork cooked at around 250*, water or not. I use water for overnights, full cookers, or if windy.

I had a few technical difficulties during that cook that I believe were the culprit. I have made one since then and it finished in 10 hrs at 225 and was absolutely awesome, hands down the best one I've done yet. In any case, I have two more going on the smoker in about an hour with this same recipe - hoping to keep the good streak up. I sourced some 2yr seasoned apple wood from a local apple orchard and am about to saw up a few chunks for the cook. Hopefully dad and grandpa enjoy the fathers day lunch tomorrow!

 

[Camille C]

Help

I really want to make this recipe and i have an 11lb roast ready to go but I don't have a smoker. Could I do it in the oven?

 

[Chris Allingham]

A smoker is a charcoal- or wood-fired oven, and the smoke wood adds smoky flavor. You can put that pork roast in a 225-250*F oven for the same amount of time as in a smoker and you'll get a moist, tender product...but no wood smoke flavor. After cooking, you might pull the meat and mix with a thinned BBQ sauce that has just a tiny bit of liquid smoke added, to try to get some smoky flavor in there.

Good luck!

 

[Ralph Q]

I normally do this recipe on the grill with a smoker box but I can't see why you couldn't do this in the oven if you are okay with less smoke flavor. I would glaze it with a BBQ sauce and some liquid smoke like Chris suggested.

I also cooked this with table salt one time while away on a family reunion because we had no kosher salt available. I halved the amount of table salt and it still came out too salty. Stick to kosher salt or use just a little table salt.

 

[Brian Brooks]

I cooked this recipe two weeks ago with a couple of minor changes to the injection. It came out as the best effort yet for me. I didn't have any apple juice, so I subbed apple cider vinegar for the vinegar in the injection and added in a couple of tablespoons of applesauce to it to offset the acidity. I will be using this method again!!!