Pulled Pork


 

Dan C. FL

TVWBB Pro
I had no plans to do any sort of a "big" cook this weekend. I was going to relax, watch football, and maybe grill a steak or something...nothing too involved. Then, the wife went grocery shopping. She texted me from Whole Foods and said that she found a really pretty pork shoulder, but it was bone in. Wanted to know if I can cook it. She apparently thought that since I hadn't done a bone-in one that it would be much too much of a challenge for me. She sent me a picture and I thought it looked pretty, plus pulled pork. I told her I'd cook it.

The only thing I wasn't really sure about what which wood I wanted to use. I have a whole bunch of pecan chunks, and what remains from a sampler package I got from Maine Grilling Woods. The box comes with one bag of about 5-6 small-ish chunks of each variety of wood that they offered. I had a whole package of beechnut wood, plus what remains of some hickory, maple, and other things. Ultimately, I decided to experiment...I went with the beechnut, since I had never used it before.

I wanted to see what the beechnut tasted like, so I went with my standard butt rub ( 1 tbsp. ea. of kosher salt, brown sugar, garlic, chili powder and smoked paprika). Here she is loaded up on the WSM 18".

GeshKFul.jpg


YQyZp9Nl.jpg


IAXK3U1l.jpg


The cook was uneventful. I love how you can get the smoker dialed in and it will pretty much cruise until it's out of fuel. Probably the most exciting (to me) part of the cook was that I napped for an hour while it just did it's thing. That's a first for me. She cruised right between 240-250 for 11 hours. I bumped it up a hair for the last half hour just to speed it up a little...I don't think it got to 270* before I pulled it off of the smoker. The Smoke was reading 193* when I pulled it, but I had probed it elsewhere and and everything was right at 195*. The probe was right near the bone, so that made sense to me.

Here she is getting ready to be wrapped and thrown in the cooler.

xemaw90l.jpg


I only let her rest for about 40 minutes in the cooler, the wife was hungry and it was almost 8:20 when I pulled it off of the smoker. After the rest, I shredded it with two forks:

pTERCU8l.jpg


I was really pleased with how it came out. It was juicy, tender, and had a nice smoke ring to it. The beechnut experiment was a big success. My wife doesn't like really strong smoke flavors. This wood was a nice mild, subtle smoke flavor and it really let the meat and the rub stand out. The misses was even happier than I was...she pronounced it my best pulled pork yet.

I'll take it. Thanks for looking!
 
I concur with all the above...:wsm:

I prefer the bone-in butts. I buy boneless (netted) butts for 99 cents/# every once in a while, but they seem to be missing some of the best parts.

I cook them along with a bone-in and mix them together after the pull.
 
Last edited:
i prefer bone-in pork butts for the extra flavor. Yours looks terrific! I try to keep pulled pork on hand (in the freezer) at all times. Personally, I am a fan of Harry Soo, and pretty much follow his recipe. I do smoke at a higher temp (275 target to as much as 300). I see little or no difference and it finishes considerably quicker.

Keep on smokin’,
Dale53:wsm:
 
Why do I visit this site after I eat? I'm always hungry the minute I see ANYTHING here anymore! I'm apparently under barbecued!
 
Thanks everybody!! There seems to be a consensus that the bone in has better flavor. I think that I agree with y'all. But, the debate between bone in and no bone has me wanting to do a cook with one bone in and one without to compare.
 

 

Back
Top