Alan S.
TVWBB Member
For July 4 I did my first cook of a pork butt. It was a bone-in, weighing in at 8.96#. I trimmed off a fair amount of fat, and rubbed it with some Magic Dust before putting it on at 6:50 AM. I also put on a bacon-wrapped fatty for mid-morning snackin'. The bone was very wiggly and I pulled it out easily at about 2:30, then ended up pulling the butcher paper-wrapped butt out of the smoke a little after 3:00. Rested it, and shredded it about 4:40. Here's the only pic I took, you can see the pork with a nice bark an hour or so before pulling it out.
Got to say it was extremely delicious! Since pulled pork is not real big here in Texas traditionally, I have not had a bunch of it. I can say that now I see why it has such ardent followers.
I pulled it using Bear Paws (those things are serious!) and put in a moderate amount of some Roxy's Mustard Vinegar sauce I made. Wow, so good. Having it on a sandwich is great, but I almost like just grabbing bites of the pork and eating it straight up. I do look forward to making different style sauces to see how it changes the experience.
All in all, this will be a regular part of my smoking rotation from here on out.
The WSM: I continue to love this thing! It's the 22" model, and I've had it for about 3 years now I guess. For this cook, I had a fully loaded ring of KBB with some nice peach wood chunks strategically placed. Lit about 15 KBB in the chimney and poured them into the pass-through coffee can in the middle, then pulled the can out. This version of the Minion method tends to work well for me. Wrapped the pan in foil and put in a foil-wrapped clay saucer. I started with all vents WFO, then when it hit 200 I closed the bottom vents to about 1/8" each. After I put the meat in, it ran at 280 with very little variation for the duration of the cook. I didn't have to adjust the vents, didn't have to work the coals. It just ran solid the whole time (280 is where mine tends to settle so I just go with that). What a treat! I started out Q'ing on an ECB that I modded as best I could, and anyone who has had one of those knows it requires almost constant fiddlin'. So when I moved up to the WSM it was a massive, massive upgrade.
It was just a great smoking experience!
Got to say it was extremely delicious! Since pulled pork is not real big here in Texas traditionally, I have not had a bunch of it. I can say that now I see why it has such ardent followers.
I pulled it using Bear Paws (those things are serious!) and put in a moderate amount of some Roxy's Mustard Vinegar sauce I made. Wow, so good. Having it on a sandwich is great, but I almost like just grabbing bites of the pork and eating it straight up. I do look forward to making different style sauces to see how it changes the experience.
All in all, this will be a regular part of my smoking rotation from here on out.
The WSM: I continue to love this thing! It's the 22" model, and I've had it for about 3 years now I guess. For this cook, I had a fully loaded ring of KBB with some nice peach wood chunks strategically placed. Lit about 15 KBB in the chimney and poured them into the pass-through coffee can in the middle, then pulled the can out. This version of the Minion method tends to work well for me. Wrapped the pan in foil and put in a foil-wrapped clay saucer. I started with all vents WFO, then when it hit 200 I closed the bottom vents to about 1/8" each. After I put the meat in, it ran at 280 with very little variation for the duration of the cook. I didn't have to adjust the vents, didn't have to work the coals. It just ran solid the whole time (280 is where mine tends to settle so I just go with that). What a treat! I started out Q'ing on an ECB that I modded as best I could, and anyone who has had one of those knows it requires almost constant fiddlin'. So when I moved up to the WSM it was a massive, massive upgrade.
It was just a great smoking experience!
