Overnight cook started 10 mins ago... Mexican pork shoulder for carnitas


 
J

Joe Milczewski

TVWBB Fan
I know it's not true carnitas because I'm not roasting it in its own fat, but what the heck. It sounded good for dinner tomorrow night.

Just dropped an 8 pound pork shoulder on my 22.5 for an overnight cook loaded with KBB and apple wood.

Shoulder is rubbed with cumin, garlic and onion powder, ground New Mexican red chile powder, salt, pepper and Mexican oregano. Injected with fresh squeezed juice of limes and navel oranges.

Ambient temp tonight should be in the 40's so I'm expecting I might be running the WSM til tomorrow afternoon. Will kill some time making a fresh tomatillo salsa verde.

And margaritas.

Haven't done an overnight before so wish me luck.

tumblr_ocnnhsgPNM1s2qn3uo1_1280.jpg
 
Good luck but you have the rite tool for the job,never injected beef with citrus other than Moho chrillio (sp) ,bought some orange wood chips last nite to try
 
Sometimes I am such an idiot all I can do is laugh.

Like a dummy, I set up the smoker in the dark (and with a little too much red wine in me for clear thinking) and completely forgot to add water or sand to the water bowl. I couldn't decide which to do and instead forgot to do either. When I checked the WSM this morning it was cooking at 301, even with all of the vents 90% shut. Pork was at 184 and getting close to tender after about 8 hours in the smoker.

So I've got a quick question for some more experienced folks as the pork will have to come off the smoker in the next hour (by about 10am Mountain time) but we're not eating dinner til around 6. I figure I've got at least an hour for it to rest and come down below 170, so that gets me until close 11. But how long can I safely keep it in the cambro before pulling it? I've held shoulders in a cambro for 2 or 3 hours before, but now I need to fill about 6 hours. Is that too long to be safe? Or should I pull it this afternoon and then re-heat somehow around dinner time? Any ideas would be welcome.

Thanks
 
If you are going to keep it in a cooler for that length of time, keep a remote in the meat and if the temp falls below 140* put the wrapped butt in the oven at about 170*.

Another approach would be to keep in faux cambro for about 3 hours and then shred the but and put into a slow cooker with a little bit of apple juice. Put slow cooker on low and it will keep fine until ready to serve.

Good luck. I have keep meat in a faux cambro for up to 5 hours with no issues. Many ways to do this but do what you are comfortable with.
 
Thanks for the good advice.

Just pulled it after a little more than 11 hours. Probe went in like it was warm butter. Temp was at 197.

tumblr_ocoionkzMx1s2qn3uo1_1280.jpg
 
Joe, sounds like it was a great cook. Don't sweat the small stuff. Have a good time and I am sure the family will love the results.
 
I would have just told everyone, "we're eating dinner early today!" Margaritas for dessert.

Meat looks great.
 
Thanks all.

I need to work on my timing game as when it was finally on the plate the pork had dried out a bit. The timeline was basically:

11 p.m. Pork shoulder goes on the WSM (which was at 250 and had held there for about a half hour before I put the pork on).
6:30 a.m.: The WSM must have run a little hot all night as when I checked it in the morning I was running at 305 and the butt was up to 178 internal.
10:30 a.m.: Pork was at 197 and a probe was basically cutting through it like warm butter so I pulled it, wrapped it and dropped in the cambro with a temp gauge
3:00 p.m.: Pork had fallen to 145 in the cambro so I left it wrapped in foil and put it back on the smoker, which was still hot and running at about 225. I am convinced this is the step that dried out my pork.
4:30 p.m. The internal temp of the pork had come back up to 170 so I took it off the smoker and pulled it.
5:00 p.m. We ate great tasting pulled pork with a Mexican kick that was just a hair dry. Life could be worse.

Am I right thinking that last session on the smoker is what probably dried it out? I guess my other options would have been to pull the pork early and drop in a crock pot with some juice or just eat earlier. Maybe re-wrap the butt in foil with some juice in it sort of Texas crutch style?

Oh well. Learning never tasted so good.
 
Also, the WSM was still running over 200* as late as 5:15 p.m., and I had not added any charcoal throughout the cook. That means the WSM held a temp over 200*, and as high as 310* for about 19 hours. I had loaded it with as much KBB as possible the night before, but this is a pretty amazing contraption we have here.
 
Joe Milczewski said:
Also, the WSM was still running over 200* as late as 5:15 p.m., and I had not added any charcoal throughout the cook. That means the WSM held a temp over 200*, and as high as 310* for about 19 hours. I had loaded it with as much KBB as possible the night before, but this is a pretty amazing contraption we have here.
Click to expand...

I've run mine for 24 hours in the summer. Awesome cook!
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

 

Back
Top