(Reporting as it happens...)
And we're off! Once again... going for pulled pork. 8.5 lb pork butt on the 18.5" WSM. This time, I decided not to inject or wet brine, but I did a dry brine the night before. I washed off the salt and patted it dry before putting on some Pork Barrel rub.
I also decided not to cut the butt in half as I normally do. I did a minion method for my Kingsford charcoal and waited until the coals stabilized before putting the butt on the grate, fat side up. I also did not cut off the fat cap this time, just to see how it will turn out.
Now I sit and wait until the wrap (I will put it in an aluminum pan and cover it with foil around the stall), but I will spritz it with Apple Cider every hour. Monitoring remotely with a ThermoWork Smoke.
From the suggestion of one of the members of the "Fans of the Weber Smokey Mountain" Facebook group, I decided I needed to raise the pit temperature to finish this cook before having to leave to go to work this evening. So I added some Kingsford Competition charcoal which typically burns hotter. If the pork's internal temperature does not rise significantly as we approach 6 hours into the cook, I might need to take the meat out and finish the cook in the oven.
Above: 4-1/2 hours into the cook... the pit temp has never broken 240 degrees. Internal temp is currently at 127 degrees.
Above: 6 hours into the cook. Looks the same as the last photo! Pit temp averaging around 235 degrees. Internal temp is at 146 degrees. I've decided to cook this one very long and slow. Since I'm going to be headed to work later, I won't have an opportunity to pull this off the smoker until 10 PM tonight. That would mean it's going to be sitting in there for about 14.5 hours! Let's see where this goes!
_________________________________
OK... now I know why my pit temp could not get higher than 240 degrees today! I had accidentally closed off the bottom vents of two of the vents! Whereas I had thought I had them wide open, they were totally closed! That left only one vent open. The two vents furthest from me are hard to see with my other two smokers in the way. Well, I'm going to have to keep the temp now at 240 or less since I'm going to leave the smoker unattended. I guess that's the problem with having three smokers! Some get in the way of adjusting vents!
_________________________________
Well, I don't know what to tell you! I went off to work around 3:30 PM. At 7:40 PM (a little over 12 hours into the cook), I texted my wife to ask what the temps were. She said the pit was at 188 degrees and the meat was at 153 degrees. I don't know if that means it hit the stall, went over 197 degrees internal and was now dropping... or that it just never got there in the first place! My guess is that it never got there because when I took it off the smoker grate at 9:15 PM, it still felt tough with a two prong fork. I decided to put it in the oven at 375 degrees and it's now at 148 degrees internal (it had dropped more by the time I got home). This is going to be interesting if it finally does go to 197 degrees or higher and pulls well. I'll report back later after it's done cooking! Here's what it looks like right after I took it off the smoker. Looks great though!
I decided I needed to finish this cook faster, so I decided to increase the oven heat to 425 degrees. At 10:45 PM, the internal temperature is now at 194 degrees! We are close. I'll let it go until it hits 202 degrees, just to be sure it will pull nicely. Then, I'll let it rest for 1/2 hour and pull it.
_________________________________________
Well, the cook is finally done! I let it go until the internal temp hit 202 degrees. It finished at 11:00 PM. The cook started at 7:20 AM... so that makes it a total of 15 hours, 40 minutes! The butt spent 13 hours, 40 minutes in the smoker and then another 1 hour 45 minutes in the oven.
_________________________________________
The final product! Even with all the time it spent in the smoker and then the oven, the pork pulled easily! And, it tastes incredible! I am surprised at how far off you can be in your cook and still have the end result come out just fine. So, it proves to me that wrapping isn't really necessary although it does help power through the stall and helps finish the cook faster. The bark on this thing was amazing, but because it was really burned quite a bit, it wasn't really edible to me. The bone pulled out without any problems at all as you can see in the photo above.
I will most likely wrap again in the future to speed things up, but it was still a fun learning experience that lasted 15 hours and 40 minutes! Smoke on!
________________________________________
The next day, it seems the pork has dried out. It was much juicier when it was first pulled, but it's drier now. I think if I had some of the drippings to pour back in, the meat would have been better. So going forward, I will most likely wrap it and collect the juices rather than cook it unwrapped and let the juices drip away. And yes, I always try to skim off the fat from the drippings first before pouring it back in! Still, it is amazing that the meat could do well even when you are cooking it wrong.
From the suggestion of one of the members of the "Fans of the Weber Smokey Mountain" Facebook group, I decided I needed to raise the pit temperature to finish this cook before having to leave to go to work this evening. So I added some Kingsford Competition charcoal which typically burns hotter. If the pork's internal temperature does not rise significantly as we approach 6 hours into the cook, I might need to take the meat out and finish the cook in the oven.
Above: 4-1/2 hours into the cook... the pit temp has never broken 240 degrees. Internal temp is currently at 127 degrees.
Above: 6 hours into the cook. Looks the same as the last photo! Pit temp averaging around 235 degrees. Internal temp is at 146 degrees. I've decided to cook this one very long and slow. Since I'm going to be headed to work later, I won't have an opportunity to pull this off the smoker until 10 PM tonight. That would mean it's going to be sitting in there for about 14.5 hours! Let's see where this goes!
_________________________________
OK... now I know why my pit temp could not get higher than 240 degrees today! I had accidentally closed off the bottom vents of two of the vents! Whereas I had thought I had them wide open, they were totally closed! That left only one vent open. The two vents furthest from me are hard to see with my other two smokers in the way. Well, I'm going to have to keep the temp now at 240 or less since I'm going to leave the smoker unattended. I guess that's the problem with having three smokers! Some get in the way of adjusting vents!
_________________________________
Well, I don't know what to tell you! I went off to work around 3:30 PM. At 7:40 PM (a little over 12 hours into the cook), I texted my wife to ask what the temps were. She said the pit was at 188 degrees and the meat was at 153 degrees. I don't know if that means it hit the stall, went over 197 degrees internal and was now dropping... or that it just never got there in the first place! My guess is that it never got there because when I took it off the smoker grate at 9:15 PM, it still felt tough with a two prong fork. I decided to put it in the oven at 375 degrees and it's now at 148 degrees internal (it had dropped more by the time I got home). This is going to be interesting if it finally does go to 197 degrees or higher and pulls well. I'll report back later after it's done cooking! Here's what it looks like right after I took it off the smoker. Looks great though!
I decided I needed to finish this cook faster, so I decided to increase the oven heat to 425 degrees. At 10:45 PM, the internal temperature is now at 194 degrees! We are close. I'll let it go until it hits 202 degrees, just to be sure it will pull nicely. Then, I'll let it rest for 1/2 hour and pull it.
_________________________________________
Well, the cook is finally done! I let it go until the internal temp hit 202 degrees. It finished at 11:00 PM. The cook started at 7:20 AM... so that makes it a total of 15 hours, 40 minutes! The butt spent 13 hours, 40 minutes in the smoker and then another 1 hour 45 minutes in the oven.
_________________________________________
The final product! Even with all the time it spent in the smoker and then the oven, the pork pulled easily! And, it tastes incredible! I am surprised at how far off you can be in your cook and still have the end result come out just fine. So, it proves to me that wrapping isn't really necessary although it does help power through the stall and helps finish the cook faster. The bark on this thing was amazing, but because it was really burned quite a bit, it wasn't really edible to me. The bone pulled out without any problems at all as you can see in the photo above.
I will most likely wrap again in the future to speed things up, but it was still a fun learning experience that lasted 15 hours and 40 minutes! Smoke on!
________________________________________
The next day, it seems the pork has dried out. It was much juicier when it was first pulled, but it's drier now. I think if I had some of the drippings to pour back in, the meat would have been better. So going forward, I will most likely wrap it and collect the juices rather than cook it unwrapped and let the juices drip away. And yes, I always try to skim off the fat from the drippings first before pouring it back in! Still, it is amazing that the meat could do well even when you are cooking it wrong.
No comments:
Post a Comment