How do you pull yours? I haven't found an easy way short or eating my way through it.Originally Posted by Tahyo
Do you just chop it up with a cleaver (whatever) or do you pull it?
How do you pull yours? I haven't found an easy way short or eating my way through it.
Do you just chop it up with a cleaver (whatever) or do you pull it?
Tracks Across the High Plains...Death on the Bombay Line...A Touch of Death and Mayhem...Dead Rock...The Griswald Mine Boys...All On Amazon Books.
Rick, When you cook pork butts/shoulders to an internal temp of 185 - 190, it will almost fall apart. The first thing I do is get the bone out, then try to get any fat out that didn't render. After that, when I use two forks, mainly cause the meat is still hot, and get it out in chunks. When time to chop some for sandwiches I use a 10" Chef's knife. You can use a meat cleaver and I have a really nice Chinese cleaver that will shave whiskers, but I use the Chef's knife. I'll take a couple pictures later today when I start tearing it up.
After 15.5 hours over night, this is what I woke up to this morning. I got up about 4 times last night just to make sure my temp. stayed where I wanted it and it stayed right at 220 degrees almost all night with hardly any adjustment.
Rick, look in the bottom of that drip pan. That's what rendered out of the meat.
(yes, that's a "test piece" missing out of that left one. The dog and I shared that)
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"The very existence of flame-throwers proves that some time, somewhere, someone said to themselves, You know, I want to set those people over there on fire, but I'm just not close enough to get the job done."
Man! Those things look great. Nice job.
I've used the two fork method in the past but didn't chop 'em up. I'll try that on the next one I smoke.
I may just remove the water pan and drop an aluminum drip pan in it's place. I can set it on the lower rack. The way my smoker is design my smoker the renderings drip into the water pan, which can be a mess to clean up.
Tracks Across the High Plains...Death on the Bombay Line...A Touch of Death and Mayhem...Dead Rock...The Griswald Mine Boys...All On Amazon Books.
Rick, just be careful with the drip pan. If it's too close to the coals and the rendered fat gets to bubbling/smoldering, then your meat is going to take on a taste you don't want. If that's the case, and you can't stop it, then stick with the water in that pan.
"The very existence of flame-throwers proves that some time, somewhere, someone said to themselves, You know, I want to set those people over there on fire, but I'm just not close enough to get the job done."
Pulled into chunks. After I took this picture, I poured that pot of vinegar sauce all over it. Later on I'll "as needed" and chop up for sandwiches. I'll give some of this to my oldest son, send 2 sandwiches down the street to my one neighbor who called me last night when he smelled what was going on and then the rest of it I'll separate into bags and vacuum seal to toss in the freezer. Unless I have company, the wife and I will eat off of this for quite a while. I tend to pig out on the stuff the day I make it, but eat it every once in a while after that. I love pork too much but at this age it won't love me back.
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"The very existence of flame-throwers proves that some time, somewhere, someone said to themselves, You know, I want to set those people over there on fire, but I'm just not close enough to get the job done."
Bragg, if I'm reading your post right, you are pulling the pork off at lower temperatures than I am? If so, you are slicing it up?
"The very existence of flame-throwers proves that some time, somewhere, someone said to themselves, You know, I want to set those people over there on fire, but I'm just not close enough to get the job done."
I just got out of bed, left the meat in the Egg all night and had every critter for twenty miles coming around. Could here the coyots yapping and driving my dogs nuts. I was too lazy to go to the barn at 3 am to bring the meat into the house. I waiting for a neighbor this morning to help me load a steer into the trailer, shipping him off for a week to a local 4H club to do training. When I get back I'll pull this meat and take pics.
Tahyo - I know you'll find this very hard to believe but I was logged on about 3:00 a.m. and I also smelled the meat cooking. No, really I did. It was really really strong, too. So you'll need to send 4 sandwiches my way.......along with some of the sauce, please.
Tracks Across the High Plains...Death on the Bombay Line...A Touch of Death and Mayhem...Dead Rock...The Griswald Mine Boys...All On Amazon Books.
That would keep me up all night just smelling that cooking. Just looking at the pics is making my mouth water.
"The ability for a person to prevail in a survival situation is based on three factors: survival knowledge, equipment, and will to survive. All are important, but the most important is the will to survive." -Greg Davenport
In a post about crusty bread a few weeks ago, Crashdive said he waits an hour for the bread to cool before eating. My response was, "how can you wait an hour and not go crazy?". This would be much more difficult!
Great pics, guys, thanks for sharing.
Not all who wander are lost - Tolkien
Tahyo - Back on post 37 you said
What's the "other sauce"?That's when I'll chop it up in smaller pieces and pour either my cider vinegar, brown sugar, butter and red pepper flake sauce on or I'll put on a sandwich and use the other sauce that I think is great on pork sandwiches and baby back ribs.
Tracks Across the High Plains...Death on the Bombay Line...A Touch of Death and Mayhem...Dead Rock...The Griswald Mine Boys...All On Amazon Books.
The other sauce is a tangy catsup based sauce I found years ago. It's great on pork, but louzy on beef things. Here's the recipe for both. It's not a secret or anything and I've been using it for about 30 years.
Single Recipe
1 cup of catsup
1/2 cup +1 TBSP of Cider Vinegar
1/4 cup of Worchestire sauce
1/3 cup of dark brown sugar
1 heaping TBSP of cornstarch (sometimes I don't put much cornstarch if I don't want it thick)
2 tsp of steak sauce
Cayenne and Black pepper and salt to taste.
Put it all in a pot and slow simmer very low heat for 45 minutes stirring often to make sure it does not scorch. I always mix the cornstarch with the vinegar while it's cold so it disolves and then pour in the pot. I triple this recipe up and put in an empty clean plastic catsup bottle. Real nice to squirt out and it'll keep a long time in the ice box. If you do double or triple the recipe, leave the cornstarch at the same amount as above. After you make it a few times you'll know the consistency you want and can adjust it. I use a metal wisk to stir this so it smoothes out any lumps.
I usually multiply this recipe and make batches to put in mason jars for the summer.
Pulled pork finishing sauce
INGREDIENTS:
* 1 cup cider vinegar
* 2 tablespoons salt
* 1 tablespoon brown sugar
* 1 teaspoon cayenne (more or less to taste)
* 1 teaspoon red pepper flakes (or more to taste)
* 2 tablespoons of real butter
PREPARATION:
Mix all ingredients together. simmer real low till butter melts, then just let it sit for a while with the fire off. Re-heat just a little bit before using.
"The very existence of flame-throwers proves that some time, somewhere, someone said to themselves, You know, I want to set those people over there on fire, but I'm just not close enough to get the job done."
Thanks!! Sounds great.
Tracks Across the High Plains...Death on the Bombay Line...A Touch of Death and Mayhem...Dead Rock...The Griswald Mine Boys...All On Amazon Books.
I shut the tampers off at at a lower temp and let it rest in the Egg until the next day at 1:30 when I got home from hauling steers. All in all it was in the Egg for 18 hours. I washed up and pulled pork for 3.5 hours. I ate so much when pulling I didnt eat supper that night. Fed 18 people last night with pulled pork on a homemade buns with homemade BBQ sauce. Side dishes were black pork and beans with noodle and raisin salad.
Sorry Tahyo, I was so busy Sunday with the cows, kids, company, wife getting back and rushing to prep this food for all the people, I didnt take pics!
Whats next?
That's o.k. on the pictures. After eating all that pork yesterday I need a break from it for a while. I made a pot of pinto beans with hamhocks, and cole slaw for sides. The left overs I vacuum sealed and froze but not before almost hurting myself eating all that stuff. I'm my own worst enemy when it comes to bbq.
Not sure what I'm doing next. I'm watching Sam's Club to see if either baby back ribs or maybe even some beef ribs go on sale. If I get either of those, I'll do on my barrel pit. Takes about 2 hours give or take on the baby backs, maybe about the same on the beef ribs. I like doing the beef ribs with a good bark on them.
I tried to get in a 2 mile walk today but managed 1 mile before it started raining.
"The very existence of flame-throwers proves that some time, somewhere, someone said to themselves, You know, I want to set those people over there on fire, but I'm just not close enough to get the job done."
Bragg - that wasn't a coyote driving your dogs crazy......it was me
Tahyo - What kind of a rub do you have on the pork in post #25?
Tracks Across the High Plains...Death on the Bombay Line...A Touch of Death and Mayhem...Dead Rock...The Griswald Mine Boys...All On Amazon Books.
I went really really light this time on the rub. I mixed up a little kosher salt, fresh ground black pepper, white pepper, a little cayenne pepper, sweet paprika, brown sugar and some ground cumin. If you look at my very first post with the links, you'll see just how sparse I put the rub on. I wanted to taste the meat this time with barely a hint of the rub. Sometimes I think "caking" on the rub distracts from the flavor of the meat, especially pork.
One other thing... If you are going to slow smoke baby back ribs and are going to put a rub on those, you can first rub down the ribs with good old yellow mustard before you put the rub on. It will make it stick better and in the end you will never taste the mustard. Just make sure that you are slow cooking them if you do use it.
"The very existence of flame-throwers proves that some time, somewhere, someone said to themselves, You know, I want to set those people over there on fire, but I'm just not close enough to get the job done."
Do you just use in amounts to your taste or do you have a recipe?
I'm going to put on a pork shoulder next week-end and thought I'd try your rub.
Tracks Across the High Plains...Death on the Bombay Line...A Touch of Death and Mayhem...Dead Rock...The Griswald Mine Boys...All On Amazon Books.
Sorry took so long to reply, was outside.
Are you only doing one pork shoulder? And is it a "shoulder" you are doing or a "butt"?
At least 8 hours before, 12 or 14 hours would be better. This is for a light rub. Just double or triple for however much you need.
For one butt/shoulder, in a bowl mix: 1 TBSP Kosher or Sea Salt, 1 TBSP of fresh ground black pepper, 1 TBSP of white pepper, 1 TBSP of Sweet Paprika, 2 TBSP of brown sugar (or turbino sugar), 1 tsp of ground cumin, 1 tsp of cayenne pepper.
Either with your fingers or with a fork, mix that up really good. Make sure you wash your hands after mixing it cause if you touch your eyes or nose, you'll know it.
Lay down some plastic wrap and set the pork on it. If you have a heavy fat cap, score it like you see in Me and Bragg's pictures. It will render out better.
If the pork is really damp, pat it dry with some paper towels or your rub will turn into little bb's. Then just rub the pork down all over with that rub (sounds sexy don't it). Then tightly wrap up the pork with that plastic wrap and put in the refrige till 2 hours before you are going to put the meat on the smoker. Make sure you set it down on a plate or something cause that salt is going to draw some moisture out and it will probably leak out the plastic wrap somewhere.
Two hours before you are going to put the meat on the smoker, take the meat out, unwrap it and set somewhere on a table to knock the chill off as well as let the outside dry. I usually put a little fan on low to help dry the moisture off. You'll get a way better smoke flavor if you let get that chill off as well as let the moisture dry.
(If your dog is in the house, he'll be looking for that meat)
When it comes time to put the meat on the smoker, make sure, if you are using hickory or some other wood to smoke, that it's actually smoking when you put the meat on and keep it smoking for the first 3 to 5 hours. After that just keep the temperature where you want it. Meat will only absorb smoke the first 3 hours or so. You don't have to have thick smoke either, just something smoldering is good enough.
The brown or turbino sugar is going to give that meat a nice bark later on.
Not sure how well you can control the temperature on your smoker, but if you can, shoot for 225 (give or take 5 degrees) for a good 16 hours or till the internal temperature reaches about 185 or 190. Less than that and the meat will be tough and won't fall apart. Take multiple readings in different places of the meat so you make sure you don't have cold spots.
When I say 16 hours, I'm assuming you are using a full size shoulder/butt.
Holler at me if you have any questions Rick.
Last edited by Tahyo; 05-04-2008 at 04:01 PM.
"The very existence of flame-throwers proves that some time, somewhere, someone said to themselves, You know, I want to set those people over there on fire, but I'm just not close enough to get the job done."
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