Pulled Pork - Where did I go wrong?

[holyfeld]

You might consider an AMNPS however as the chip tray on those requires a lot of attention 

I've been delaying getting my AMNPS. I don't mind feeding the chips, and it allows me to mix woods (like apple and hickory when smoking chicken). I've also been able to schedule start/end times so I can smoke while I'm awake. Until this Saturday night that is.

Need to have the brisket out 10 - 11 AM so it's ready by lunch around 1. Guess who gets to play "wake up and feed the chip tray"! I bet there's an AMNPS in my near future. 

 

[crashedice]

Well i manged to find myself a Maverick meat thermo up here for $15. Its not the dual probe like I know a lot of you use but it will do for now until I can find one around here or get one on-line.

Going to give this another go this weekend, I want to try ribs / chicken tomorrow if I have time in the afternoon / evening and the wife wants to give the pulled pork another try on Sunday, shes the boss :)

Stay tuned ;)

 

[JckDanls 07]

good deal... start out by calibrating your new therm in boiling water (212`) .. then do it with some slushy ice water (32`).. If all is well use it in the smoker to check chamber temps to start out with... compare the probe temp to the original therm temp and see what the difference is... now you'll know what to add or subtract from your smokers thermometer to get to the temps you want... after that you can put the probe in the meat to monitor that... Good Luck

 

[crashedice]

So tonight I decided to put the new thermometer to the test. Looks like I am few degrees short when cooking. Have a look.

http://s13.postimage.org/aafqr6ufb/IMAG0080.jpg

So we decided to get another pork butt tonight. Got the rub on it and its in the fridge for the night. Tomorrow we try again!

 

[crashedice]

So good news everyone!

We gave another pork butt a go yesterday. It wasnt the best cut of meat but we wanted to to more or less learn and hey, it was cheap so if it was a fail then who cares.

The best part is it came out really good, not perfect for sure but its something you can eat and tell it was smoked!

So some things that we did differently, this time we put the rub on it, let it sit overnight. We also learned that next time we will not user mustard or anything to make it stick because it caused to to be a bit slimy and some of the sugar in the rub ran off, causing us to have less of a bark on it, no biggie tho.

Next, I decided not to put any water in the water pan and let this thing cook within its own juices as I find the water pan just seems to make it more like a steam bath in there.

The best thing we did tho was find out how off the temps were in there and increased them by about 20 degrees to get us to the ideal 225 degrees. Plus on top of that the new meat thermo was great and we got the internal temps to a bit over 190 degrees. Would have liked to have it a bit higher and closer to 200 degrees but it was getting late and we were anxious to see the result before turning in for the night.

Pulled it out, had great bark and pulled apart with ease, tasted great with a light smokey taste. Its not the best meat out there by far but I am quite happy with it compared to the last run and am looking forward to another smoke of this with a better cut of meat. Maybe next Monday (holiday here in Canada).

I will post some pics tonight of the finished product once I get home.

Thx for all the great advice and I have to say, im hooked!

 

[s2k9k]

Congratulations!!! I'm glad it came out much better the second time! Now you know it will just keep getting better and better.

 

[wjordan52]

That's great to hear. Looking forward to seeing the pics.

 

[crashedice]

Curious what everyone's thoughts are on the removal of the water pan?

I was reading in some posts for Pulled Pork to fill the water pan with whatever liquid I wanted, but when I had that going in there it turned into more of a sauna than anything. So said what the hell and took it out.

I think this was a the reason I had no bark on my first one because it just gave it a steamy shower and all the rub ran off it.

So ... when should the water pan best be used?

 

[jefffro007]

In my opinion the pork butt is not difficult to do .. Key here and all smoking is maintaining temprature . You figure that out and you will find smooth sailing .

 

[deersmoker58]

Glad to hear it went well.

I quit used the water pan  It just created too much steam in the smoker.  I had water condensing on the door and running down to the bottom... so just stopped using it.

I also don't bother with mustard...the rub will stick without it. 

Read Jeff's article on how he does a pork butt.

Good luck!

 

[crashedice]

Yes thats what I noticed as well, how much condensation was in there. Just didnt seem right to me so I figured what the hell, I will take it out.

I have been watching a bunch of shows on TV and talking to some local people that have commercial smokers and they dont have any water pans, so I figured why should I? lol

 

[bossk4hire]

I have found with my smoker which is charcoal the water is important as it helps maintain the low temperature... when the water is gone a temp will spike. Awsome that your butt turned out great!!!

 

[costino1]

Im a few years late to the party but via a search for "smoking pulled pork" this thread pulled up

I'm still a rookie I believe since I only smoked about 7 meats in my smoker, but doing pulled pork for the first time Sunday and very excited.

Just a big thank you to all the opinions out there!

I hate getting up early since i  do it daily for work but I'll no qualms getting up at 4AM to smoke my picnic roast Sunday!