Help with smoking pulled pork!!

[davidsmommy]

Can someone please advise on the best way to get TENDER pulled pork using a smoker? We have tried and tried and tried, to no avail. Every single time it comes out tough and we end up having to toss it. The only way we can find to make tender pulled pork is by making it in the crock pot, but we want to use the smoker! We have done it several ways, brining, rubs, injecting the meat, and finishing in a crock pot full of liquid. Any help/tips/advice would be much appreciated! Thank you!

 

[SmokinAl]

Your not smoking it long enough.

Get a reliable meat thermometer, and smoke it until the internal meat temp is 205 degrees.

It will be moist & tender.

Al

 

[lemans]

Listen to Al... when the bone slips out it done if you have to tog on it .. leave it on the smoker. Ever Butt is different but I find that 205( like for Briskek) is the magic number!!

 

[rambo1964]

Yes, listen to Al, don't even think about trying to go by time. I cooked two butts yesterday, one took 16 hours before it reached the magic number of 205.

 

[jokensmoken]

Absolutely what the guys said.
If your butt is tough you didn't cook it long enough. A minimum internal meat temperature is 195°-198°F with alot of us going to 205°F (some even higher).
You must have a reliable meat thermometer and a reliable pit (cook chamber) thermometer...
Don't trust the dial thermometer that might have come installed in your smoker...I've purchased five new smokers of different types and brands over the years and none have ever come with an accurate thermometer.
Good luck and give it another try making sure your IT get to at least 195°F.

 

[rickhdz36]

Same as stated above!

What temp are you smoking at? I did mine at 225-265.

Also I smoked the pork till the Internal Temp (IT) got to 160 and then wrapped it in foil till it hit 205 IT.

I believe it also stalls around 160, so if you are not going to wrap it dont get worried if they temp doesnt rise as fast during that mark. Itll pass and then the IT will start rising again.

Good luck and let us know how it turned out.

 

[noboundaries]

OP's story reminds me of advice I received LONG ago.  I could never get pot roasts or pork roasts to come out juicy and tender.  My wife and I went to a church meal and the pot roast was tender and juicy.  We asked the elderly lady what her secret was.  She looked at us and said, "Honey, you just cook the snot out of it!" 

It was then I learned that undercooked pork roasts, chuck roasts, and briskets will taste dry and tough.  Much later I learned they get their juiciness from melted collagen, not water in the meat.  The only way to melt that collagen (aka connective tissue) is to cook it to a high enough internal temperature that the collagen melts.  When that happens, the meat just falls apart and is filled with juicy, melted collagen. 

Follow the internal temperatures above, and it doesn't matter if you smoke, braise, crockpot, roast, or grill a pork butt, it will be juicy.  Sous vide is a different animal, but the same process happens: melted collagen.

 

[cough2]

Mmmmmm, melted collagen. (Use Homer Simpson voice)

 

[noboundaries]

Mmmmmm, melted collagen. (Use Homer Simpson voice)

Cracked me up!

 

[GaryHibbert]

Yep. Definitely listen to all this advise. If your pulled pork is tough it's UNDERCOOKED. 205 degrees internal temp is always my finished temp.

Gary

 

[cough2]

Cracked me up!

Excellent

 

[jokensmoken]

Me too...lol

 

[remsr]

205 magic number for tender butts, as Al says.

Randy,

 

[sauced]

205 magic number for tender butts, as Al says.

Randy,

Yes....minimum internal temp is 205.

 

[rickhdz36]

am i the only one who wants an update lol

 

[remsr]

No I would like to know if you finally turned out a tender butt.
Butts are real forgiving hunks of meat that if you cook them to 195 to 208 they will be tender I have gone both ways 195 for chopped and 208 for pulled but 205 is where I go for pulled or chopped, because it works. Not that it is necessary I inject my butts and put them in a aluminum throw away pan when they reach 160 or 170 inturnsl temp, I then prob them and cover them with foil and continue cooking to 205. Because I like mixing those juices back into the piled or chopped pork after separating the fat from the juices by refrigerating in a jar. I also wrap my butts in stretch wrap and foil when finished and put them in a cooler packed to the top with towels for several hours, I have even rested them over night and they were still hot in the morning.
I do the same with my briskets only I smoke them at 200 and go to 195 internal temp and I prob the flat because it cooks faster than the point. I smoke the butts between 225 and 250. My briskests come out tender and juicy from flat to point every time, plus adding the pan juices after slicing doesn't hurt or you can serve them and use them as a dipping sauce. It really doesn't need it but what the heck, why not,

Randy,