Philip Madden
TVWBB Member
I finally became a pork puller! It was a couple weeks ago actually but I've been too busy to post. Well, the results were freakin' fantastic!
For my first try i went with a smaller piece of meat than usual, about 5lbs. First trick was finding the right cut. The butchers over here have different cuts, but luckily my butcher knows what a picnic is. I had him cut me off the best part of the picnic into a "mini-picnic."
I used the Renowned Mr. Brown from Smoke & Spice. Smoked it with some hickory. I estimated that this mini picnic would take about 8 hours to cook but it ended up taking 10.5 hours.. or at least that is when I pulled it off. It could have gone for probably another 45min to an hour but I had to get it off and pulled for some guests. Internal temp was 183F (aiming for closer to 190f, but was relying more on the probe test). It ended up pulling just fine and was super moist!
I was a bit worried what these Belgians would think of pulled pork but everyone seemed to be digging the pig, although they said that it was a bit too spicy. I do have to say that I too thought the black pepper in the Southern Succor rub was a bit too dominant, but I could still eat that all day.
I served the PP with some coleslaw (which they all really loved), salad, Carolina-red sauce, and some cornbread I cooked on the kettle.
All in all it was awesome, and as soon as we get a new freezer (in a week or two) you better believe it will always be holding some PP.
Thanks to everyone sharing their experiences on this forum, it continues to be the greatest source of hunger inducing info on the web!
You can see pics of the cook here
and my blog post (more in depth) here