Before I even try...


 
Floris Vande Walle

Floris Vande Walle

TVWBB Member
Hi people,

I just decided what I'd like to cook next. And I'd like to try pulled pork.
There is only one problem: the lack of experience, but, since this forum always helped me out, I hoped you'd do it again :)

I'd like to have a straight up guide on how to do the full cook. Starting with preparations, how to set up my MasterTouch, cooking itself, when to lift the lid... In other terms, all the when's and how's...

I'll go to the butcher this weekend, so how many pork shoulder shall I order? With bone? What about top skin/fat?
How shall I prepare the meat?
What smoke chips?
Any recommended recipes for rubs?
...

I own a MasterTouch, but no heatcontrol system, only a digital core temp gauge and the lid temp.

I know it's alot to ask... But pls, write me down your steps for cooking a pulled pork.

Thanks allready TVWBB-people!
 
Pulled pork is a great way to ease yourself into long cooks. There is a lot of fat on pork shoulders and it will withstand a large temp range and still come out pretty good. I usually use a dry rub and cook it low and slow around 225 till the meat gets to 190-200. There are several people that do it hotter and faster and very pleased with that as well. I prefer bone in and how many you get is totally dependent on how much food you want when you're done. Unfortunately, I am not familiar with a Mastertouch so I can't help you there. In any case you'll end up with some tasty meat. It's really hard to ruin a pork shoulder.
 
Steven Tree said:
Unfortunately, I am not familiar with a Mastertouch so I can't help you there.
Click to expand...

I purchased a Weber "Mastertouch" 22" Grill last year and it is basically the same as a Weber OTG 22" with the significant addition(s) of a Lid Holder, spring-loaded legs and larger wheels which makes it a little taller than the OTG. Also, if bought in the USA it includes the Weber Warming Rack and Charcoal Holder Grates at no additional cost. As I recall, the price of this unit was around $50.00 more than the OTG.
 
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Here is an excellent tutorial for smoking a pork butt, it is an excellent process for your first butt. You can find this under " cooking topics" on The Virtual Weber Bullet at the top of this page.
You won't have the water pan but I never use one anyways and don't panic if the temps run a little hot, pork butt is very forgiving.

http://www.virtualweberbullet.com/pork1.html

Good Luck.
 
What Rich said!
There is a lot of forgiveness in a butt, getting one with skin is not very easy here in the US so, my knowledge is all from "peeled" product.
I like doing them on the kettle, the last one I did was about a year ago (other things came up) I went basic indirect (split coals, half each side) six good sized chunks of cherry (I had it) touched off the chimney dumped as said above, added the cherry, closed the top and just didn't look for about four hours. Pulled it out, double foiled, big towel wrap, tossed it in the cooler, went to a movie. Home and pulled it from the cooler, shredded beautifully I skipped sauce but, some of the family used some. It was great!
As for rub, a good starting place is the Stephen Raichlen basic rub, 2 parts b. Sugar, one part each coarse salt(kosher is fine), ground black pepper, paprika. Beyond that, I have used all sorts of spices and herbs, black cocoa powder for one a few years back, the sky is the limit.
Every cook you do will build your knowledge of what works and what doesn't. It's kind of nice because failures don't stay around too much to haunt us! The memories of the really good ones stick!
 
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