ChadVKealey
TVWBB Pro
I needed to cook some pulled pork for a scout camping trip next weekend and for dinner Sunday. I usually cook butts overnight at around 225-250, but Saturday night they were calling for heavy thunderstorms. Rather than (potentially) setting up in a downpour (it ended up not raining at all), I decided to do them hot & fast on Sunday.
I injected them (in the cryovac) with Chris Lilly's injection on Saturday night and got the WSM prepped with a full load of KBB and three chunks each of hickory and cherry.
Sunday morning, about 6:30 AM, I added a fully lit (compact) chimney to the cooker and let it get up to temp while I opened up & trimmed the butts a bit. I've gotten into the practice of cross-hatch scoring the big sides of pork butts. It gives a little more surface area for bark formation and ensures that the rub sticks a little better, or at least I tell myself that.
Anyway, at 7:00 AM, I got them on and set the PartyQ (I was going to be out most of the day) to 275.
I found that running as it's designed (the other two intake vents closed and the exhaust 100% open), the PartyQ had trouble getting to 275. I propped the lid with a metal skewer, which seemed to take care of the problem.
After about 5 hours, this is how they looked. Temps were about 165-175 in each of them.
I've been wrapping in butcher paper lately, but decided to use foil this time to speed things up a bit. It worked, because in another 3 hours, they were between 205-210 and tender as could be. After a couple hours rest in an open cooler with a heavy towel on top, they literally fell apart when I opened them up. The upside of using the foil is that I ended up with about 2 cups of drippings for later use. The butcher paper absorbs some of those juices and lets some drip away, but preserves the texture better, especially the bark.
Sorry, no finished or plated pics
I injected them (in the cryovac) with Chris Lilly's injection on Saturday night and got the WSM prepped with a full load of KBB and three chunks each of hickory and cherry.
Sunday morning, about 6:30 AM, I added a fully lit (compact) chimney to the cooker and let it get up to temp while I opened up & trimmed the butts a bit. I've gotten into the practice of cross-hatch scoring the big sides of pork butts. It gives a little more surface area for bark formation and ensures that the rub sticks a little better, or at least I tell myself that.
Anyway, at 7:00 AM, I got them on and set the PartyQ (I was going to be out most of the day) to 275.
I found that running as it's designed (the other two intake vents closed and the exhaust 100% open), the PartyQ had trouble getting to 275. I propped the lid with a metal skewer, which seemed to take care of the problem.
After about 5 hours, this is how they looked. Temps were about 165-175 in each of them.
I've been wrapping in butcher paper lately, but decided to use foil this time to speed things up a bit. It worked, because in another 3 hours, they were between 205-210 and tender as could be. After a couple hours rest in an open cooler with a heavy towel on top, they literally fell apart when I opened them up. The upside of using the foil is that I ended up with about 2 cups of drippings for later use. The butcher paper absorbs some of those juices and lets some drip away, but preserves the texture better, especially the bark.
Sorry, no finished or plated pics