Hogtied Pork - soon to be Pulled

[fishrman]

Started the pulled pork for the Houseboat trip.  Got a two-pack at Smart and Final for a total weight of 15 lbs.  Maybe not the best decision as they were nicely, tightly cryopacked, hiding the fact that one cut was about 6 lbs. and the second was about 9 lbs, not the best combo for even timing, no?  The other hidden fact was that they were both really leggy, not close to a solid hunk of pork.  Ended up having to hogtie both of them with butcher's twine to hold them together.  Probably had to trim off 2 lbs. of fat cap as well.  Next time, I think I'll perhaps pay a bit more and go for single packed ones that, perhaps, I can get a better look at.   

OK, on with business.  Using the http://www.susanminor.org/forums/showthread.php?86-Pulled-Pork-and-Sauce recipe this time around.  Got home late last night (midnight) and by 1 am had the trimmed, trussed, and rubbed:





Into 2-gallon ziplock bags an into the fridge for an overnight rest.  Up at 6am, pulled 'em out, added rub and massaged well to work it into the many cracks.  Let it rest for 90 minutes and got the BDS warmed up to 250F.  Poked the Maverick probe into the smaller one, and the Guru probe into the larger.  Intermixed apple and maple for a total of 4 hours of smoke and popped 'em into the smoker, turning the set temp down to 220F.  Now to fill the neighborhood with that sweet smelling smoke . . .

[mikecorn.1]

Alright! Those are gonna be good.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[ghost9mm]

We will be watchin for the money shot....

[fishrman]

So I started these in the smoker at 8 am and, as one would expect, they took their sweet time.  I put the smaller roast on the top rack and the larger one on the second from the bottom hoping that would even out the cooking times a bit.  At about 3 pm switched them around as the IT of the larger roast was 5F higher than the smaller one.  Let this go on for another 3 hours then pulled them from the smoker and popped them in a preheated 220F oven to finish off as I went bowling with my daughter and son-in-law.  Got back about 9pm and the IT was at about 160 for both, so figured I had a few hours left and at 10pm headed on to bed.  Got up at midnight to check on them and still in the 170's, but at 2am they had hit 185.  Turned off the oven and opened the door as I wrapped each roast in heavy duty foil then in towels, then popped them back into the oven to rest.  Here's what they looked like before the swaddling:





I sent myself back to bed for a few more hours of sleep.  At 6:30, back downstairs, pulled 'em out and unwrapped the jewels and here was the sight I got to see:





Got out the forks and started pulling.  Man, that meat was tender and the bark, well it had some bite as I had liberally added the chipotle powder to it.:






Got them both shredded and vacuum packed and into the freezer to await the houseboat trip. 

During this whole process I also got the salmon (10 lbs) I'm smoking for the trip underway.  Turns out the 2am finish time for the pork was perfect as I had to flip the curing salmon at the same time.  As we speak, the salmon is drying on the countertop awaiting the magic pellicle formation.  Will smoke that fish this evening!

Happy smokin', all!

[OldHickory]

Looks really good.  Smoked salmon and pork sammies, should be a good trip.

[MrRaven]

oh wow - look at that meat!!!

[ghost9mm]

Partner that is some serious bark you have on them butts, well done my friend...

[Shasta bob]

Did someone say House boat? when do we leave the dock. i to am a house boat person we rent from Holiday harbor at Lake Shasta, Ca.

[fishrman]

Hey Shasta bob, I know Holiday Harbor well.  That's where we go out of as well!  Been doing it for years.

Kinda had a brain fart on the Salmon smoking.  Looks like I'll be having another middle of the night session tonight.  Glad I love this so much.  Or maybe that's just the addiction talking . . . ;)