So here was the plan
My nephew is getting ready to leave for basic at Paris Island and my brother was going to have a party at their house in KY (beautiful horse farm) and they wanted to have pulled pork and a couple of fatties.
Sunday prior to party - Smoke 2 fatties, Chicken parmesan & Philly cheese steak, both 2-pounders on Sunday. I did not take pics but figured what the heck I’ll take pics of my pulled pork since I’ve never posted that on here. I have posted pics of my chicken parm on here before if interested they are in my profile still. The only difference was I used Deejay Debi’s recipe for Italian sausage rather than store bought – delicious. I could not find corn sugar anywhere to get it in time so I subbed regular sugar, seems like it worked to me.
DeejayDebi - Italian Sausages - http://www.smokingmeatforums.com/forum/thread/52344/please-help-me-with-an-italian-sausage-recipe
8 lbs of ground pork
4 tablespoons sea salt or kosher salt
3 tablespoons fennel seeds
2 tablespoons anise seeds
3 tbs garlic powder
2 teaspoons coriander seeds
3 tablespoons paprika
3 tablespoons red chili pepper ground
1-1/2 tablespoons corn sugar
1 cup powdered milk
1 cup cold water or red wine
Tuesday night prior to smoke on Thursday morning (hopefully to start @ 3:00 – Rub 5 shoulders, all between 8 & 10 lbs, with KC style rib rub. Although I left out the Brown sugar because I wanted to try using the same method with the brown sugar that I do with rib. Basically I wanted to set the shoulders out 30 minutes beforehand and pack them with brown sugar.
1/3 cup light brown sugar
1/3 cup sugar
1/4 cup paprika
6 tablespoons kosher salt
2 tablespoons onion powder
1 tablespoon garlic salt
1 tablespoon freshly ground black pepper
1 tablespoon chili powder
1 teaspoon mustard powder
1/2 teaspoon poultry seasoning
1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
1/4 teaspoon ground allspice
1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper
Wednesday night prior to smoke – My wife is at work and my mom is with our 3 kids as my father takes me to the emergency room with back pain, chest pain and shortness of breath. I spend until 1:00 AM there having every test imaginable only to find nothing wrong. At this point my getting up at 3:00 to smoke is out of the question, so I change plans.
Thursday morning - Thursday is my work from home day and the ER docs told me to take a few days off of work and rest. However, I have an already scheduled appt to have a cardiac MRI done at 9:00. So dad comes to the rescue again. He comes over helps me set everything up and gets the shoulders in the smoker in time for me to head to my appt. I leave specific instructions on what to do as he is a bit apprehensive, never smoked anything before. I tell him to check the temp on the door (yes my door thermo is within 5 degrees of my ET-73 and I didn’t have time to set it up before I left) and keep it between 225 & 240. I also say to check the chip box every hour and throw a handful of apple and hickory in if needed.
I finally get home around 11:00 and everything is moving along well. I rotate the shoulders, 5 shoulders on 5 shelves so I need to move them every once in awhile. I place my probes to check temps, a little on the cool side (100) but I figure since I didn’t pierce the outer ½ inch until 3 hours in I would be okay. I then sprayed with apple juice and then I remember what I was going to do with the brown sugar…. So I packed some brown sugar on top of each shoulder and to the sides the best I could. At the 5 hour mark the shoulders hit 140. I continued to spray and rotate every hour until they hit 160 then I foiled them.
Given that the smoker was so full I decided to move them out of the smoker as they hit 160 and finish them in the oven (225). I know, but before anyone cries foul it is now 7:00 PM and the oven is much easier to tend since it’s going to be getting dark soon. Besides they are foiled. By 10:00 all shoulders are off the smoker and foiled in the oven and the first ones are at 198 so I pull them and place them into the cooler. As I head to bed at 11:30 I still have two in the oven but my trusty ET-73 is set to go off once they hit 200. The 4[sup]th[/sup] one hits 200 at 1:30 and the last at 2:30. I turn off the oven and place the last one in the cooler with the other 4 and go to bed. Please note the times the first two went into the cooler - 10:00 PM
Friday morning – around 9:45 AM. Start to pull the pork. Of course the ones I pulled at 2:30 AM are on top and they are still rather warm at about 180. By the time I get to the ones that I placed into the cooler the night before they have been in the cooler in towels for 12 hours. Needless to say I was worried. My worries were unfounded as I check the temp before I started to pull and they were still above 150. I thought this is unbelievable 12 hours in a cooler and it’s still above 150…
The rest of the story goes. We made it to Kentucky on Saturday, heated up the pork and the fatties. Everyone dug in and there was barely enough PP left for one sandwich the next day. Unfortunately no pics were taken so I know “it didn’t really happen”, but I’m glad I was able to give my nephew one heck of a send off.
BTW the cardiac MRI results came back – no changes since my last one over two years ago…
Had to add one pic. My two Nephews, my brother and sis-n-law. He graduates @ Parris Island today. We could not make the graduation as my kids all started back to school this week and couldnt get away from that.
My nephew is getting ready to leave for basic at Paris Island and my brother was going to have a party at their house in KY (beautiful horse farm) and they wanted to have pulled pork and a couple of fatties.
Sunday prior to party - Smoke 2 fatties, Chicken parmesan & Philly cheese steak, both 2-pounders on Sunday. I did not take pics but figured what the heck I’ll take pics of my pulled pork since I’ve never posted that on here. I have posted pics of my chicken parm on here before if interested they are in my profile still. The only difference was I used Deejay Debi’s recipe for Italian sausage rather than store bought – delicious. I could not find corn sugar anywhere to get it in time so I subbed regular sugar, seems like it worked to me.
DeejayDebi - Italian Sausages - http://www.smokingmeatforums.com/forum/thread/52344/please-help-me-with-an-italian-sausage-recipe
8 lbs of ground pork
4 tablespoons sea salt or kosher salt
3 tablespoons fennel seeds
2 tablespoons anise seeds
3 tbs garlic powder
2 teaspoons coriander seeds
3 tablespoons paprika
3 tablespoons red chili pepper ground
1-1/2 tablespoons corn sugar
1 cup powdered milk
1 cup cold water or red wine
Tuesday night prior to smoke on Thursday morning (hopefully to start @ 3:00 – Rub 5 shoulders, all between 8 & 10 lbs, with KC style rib rub. Although I left out the Brown sugar because I wanted to try using the same method with the brown sugar that I do with rib. Basically I wanted to set the shoulders out 30 minutes beforehand and pack them with brown sugar.
1/3 cup light brown sugar
1/3 cup sugar
1/4 cup paprika
6 tablespoons kosher salt
2 tablespoons onion powder
1 tablespoon garlic salt
1 tablespoon freshly ground black pepper
1 tablespoon chili powder
1 teaspoon mustard powder
1/2 teaspoon poultry seasoning
1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
1/4 teaspoon ground allspice
1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper
Wednesday night prior to smoke – My wife is at work and my mom is with our 3 kids as my father takes me to the emergency room with back pain, chest pain and shortness of breath. I spend until 1:00 AM there having every test imaginable only to find nothing wrong. At this point my getting up at 3:00 to smoke is out of the question, so I change plans.
Thursday morning - Thursday is my work from home day and the ER docs told me to take a few days off of work and rest. However, I have an already scheduled appt to have a cardiac MRI done at 9:00. So dad comes to the rescue again. He comes over helps me set everything up and gets the shoulders in the smoker in time for me to head to my appt. I leave specific instructions on what to do as he is a bit apprehensive, never smoked anything before. I tell him to check the temp on the door (yes my door thermo is within 5 degrees of my ET-73 and I didn’t have time to set it up before I left) and keep it between 225 & 240. I also say to check the chip box every hour and throw a handful of apple and hickory in if needed.
I finally get home around 11:00 and everything is moving along well. I rotate the shoulders, 5 shoulders on 5 shelves so I need to move them every once in awhile. I place my probes to check temps, a little on the cool side (100) but I figure since I didn’t pierce the outer ½ inch until 3 hours in I would be okay. I then sprayed with apple juice and then I remember what I was going to do with the brown sugar…. So I packed some brown sugar on top of each shoulder and to the sides the best I could. At the 5 hour mark the shoulders hit 140. I continued to spray and rotate every hour until they hit 160 then I foiled them.
Given that the smoker was so full I decided to move them out of the smoker as they hit 160 and finish them in the oven (225). I know, but before anyone cries foul it is now 7:00 PM and the oven is much easier to tend since it’s going to be getting dark soon. Besides they are foiled. By 10:00 all shoulders are off the smoker and foiled in the oven and the first ones are at 198 so I pull them and place them into the cooler. As I head to bed at 11:30 I still have two in the oven but my trusty ET-73 is set to go off once they hit 200. The 4[sup]th[/sup] one hits 200 at 1:30 and the last at 2:30. I turn off the oven and place the last one in the cooler with the other 4 and go to bed. Please note the times the first two went into the cooler - 10:00 PM
Friday morning – around 9:45 AM. Start to pull the pork. Of course the ones I pulled at 2:30 AM are on top and they are still rather warm at about 180. By the time I get to the ones that I placed into the cooler the night before they have been in the cooler in towels for 12 hours. Needless to say I was worried. My worries were unfounded as I check the temp before I started to pull and they were still above 150. I thought this is unbelievable 12 hours in a cooler and it’s still above 150…
The rest of the story goes. We made it to Kentucky on Saturday, heated up the pork and the fatties. Everyone dug in and there was barely enough PP left for one sandwich the next day. Unfortunately no pics were taken so I know “it didn’t really happen”, but I’m glad I was able to give my nephew one heck of a send off.
BTW the cardiac MRI results came back – no changes since my last one over two years ago…
Had to add one pic. My two Nephews, my brother and sis-n-law. He graduates @ Parris Island today. We could not make the graduation as my kids all started back to school this week and couldnt get away from that.
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