With the arrival of our second son, we needed (greatly wanted) reinforcements this December, so my mom was here for a couple of weeks and my Dad joined her for Christmas. I've been doing most of the cooking lately and decided that it'd be fun to do smoked pork shoulder Christmas Eve. I hadn't done one this year, so of course it's getting written up too.
This is one example where I don't use amazingribs.com ('Meathead') as a starting point. There's no reason to stray from Steve's Own Pulled Pork, a recipe from Green Mountain Grills (the brand of my pellet smoker) that's never let me down. As they suggest I also did two roasts simultaneously for considerably higher yield without much more work. Both were about 10 pounds pre-cook, which includes the shoulder blade bone and a lot of fat.
Needed:
Pork shoulder/butt roast (8-10lb)
Salt
Rub (see below)
Apple juice
Worchestershire sauce
Heavy duty tin foil
Temperature probe/meat thermometer
Quick version (for ~6pm dinner):
1. Prep - open, rinse, salt, rub
2. In morning (~7am), start smoker at set to 380
3. 30 minutes on each side
4. Turn down to 215
5. Cook for 6 hours, periodically spritz with apple juice/Worchestershire sauce mix
6. (~2pm) Wrap tightly with tin foil, leave ~1/2 cup of juice mix inside
7. Pull off when lowest internal temp reaches 193
8. Rest for a while (~an hour) then pull and serve
You don't have to do it this way but I prepped the meat hunks the night before. Cut open the packaging and rinse off the roast(s). Sprinkle salt all over. It's always crazy to me how salt just gets absorbed into meat due to the high percentage of water. Generously apply your rub of choice. As with all things pork (like ribs) I do use Meathead's Memphis Dust. I shouldn't have made the whole batch, sometimes my spatial reasoning is off, and now have a ton left over. Half would've been more than enough. Put the pork into the fridge overnight.
In the morning, early, start the grill. I got up about 630am and had the roasts on a little after 7am. This is the reason for prepping the night before. The first hour is at high heat, 380 degrees, and you want to do 30 minutes per side to get a nice bark all around. Afterward the outside will already look crispy and delicious but it's far from done. The GMG recipe says to lower the temp to 215 and take the meat off the grill. I just kept the grill open to help the temperature fall quickly, which worked out fine. Then it cooks there another six hours. For this section, you want a simple apple juice (I used cider this time) and Worchestershire sauce mixture. 50/50 works, though I prefer heavier on the apple. Every hour or so spray (or gently sprinkle with a kitchen brush) the roast(s) all over. It's not required any more frequently than that. Don't use the juice all up at this stage.
After those six hours pull the roast(s) off the grill and wrap them in heavy duty tin foil, leaving about half a cup of the juice mixture inside. From past experience I've learned to double or triple wrap the bottom to prevent losing all the liquid (it's easy to puncture the foil when transferring). Once ready, put the roast(s) back on the grill still set to 215. Insert a temperature probe into the thickest part of the meat. My grill has one built-in for remote temperature monitoring. This is nice, though if you don't have that you can always stick the roasts manually. From here until the end you'll need to keep an eye on the temp. The total cook time of these can vary a bit and only now do you get the first real estimate of completion time. This instance the first reading was nearly 170 degrees (at just after 2pm), so I knew they'd be done well before our 6pm dinner.
You're looking for 193 degrees at the lowest through the entire roast. It's at this temp you can easily 'pull' or shred the meat. Nearing the end, I re-inserted the probe a few places and found a slightly lower temperature, and also double checked (with a second thermometer) immediately before taking them off the grill to ensure accuracy. When hitting 193 (actually 195) wherever I checked, they were done. It's fine, maybe even preferable, to go over a couple degrees to ensure the desired temp throughout. It was only 4pm. Like I said, these roasts can vary and I've had this last section take considerably longer in the past, so I always want to start earlier rather than later. It can rest quite a while and still stay hot and juicy. In total, the cook this time was only about 9 hours (7am-4pm). With rest, 10-11 hours.
The roasts then sat on our countertop until I opened the foil and shredded some for dinner. Much of the pork should be red, some brownish, and some whiter. It should come apart easily for the most part. I have some cool Wolverine-like claws to do this, but two forks work just fine. I try to get rid of most of the fat, though some will always make it through the pulling process. We had way more meat then the five of us would consume that night, as it was the intent for the majority to go into the freezer.
The meal was delicious, especially with some spicy BBQ sauce. This is another item I've done enough that my confidence is extremely high and it always seems to work out. The downside is I prefer my own to just about any restaurant. It was raining all day on Christmas Eve and I wasn't sure how that'd affect everything. Besides the grill having to work a little harder (the temp would drop considerably whenever I opened the lid, and it devoured pellets), everything went fine and exactly on the envisioned schedule. Now I have 10 food saver bags, at 10oz a piece, ready for another day. Mmmmmmm. (Btw, the best way to reheat is to thaw the meat then microwave covered by a soaking wet paper towel.)
Now that I think of it, this year I've made and written up all my BBQ staples. Next year will require thinking outside the box if I'm going to continue with these, which'll be a fun challenge. Adios for today.
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