Coffee Rubbed Pulled Pork?

[peyton23]

Hi Everyone, I've been on the site for awhile, but this is my first post.  My family was invited to a neighbors for the Big Game this weekend ( He's a Steeler's Fan ) and they wanted me to make pulled pork, which I've made three times since I got my DBS 4 rack this past father's day. ( I'm sorry, no pictures - I did take them, but just didn't post them ).   Anyway, my friend wants me to use this espresso rub that he saw last week on some cooking show.  On the show, they smoked a pork belly using a coffee rub.  My neighbor wants me to use this rub instead of my traditional rub, just to try something different.  My original plan was to do the blackberry injection that I recently saw on the site.  My question is whether or not the coffee mixed with the smoke ( I usually mix two woods between apple, pecan and hickory ) would make the smoky taste too strong, due to mixing a strong coffee along with the smoke.  If anyone has any thoughts, please let me know.  If it makes a difference, the pork shoulder is 8lbs.  Thanks!!

[muebe]

Welcome to the forum. I just recently did steaks seasoned with Starbuck's VIA micro ground coffee, white pepper, and hickory smoked salt. They turned out really good and they had a slight coffee and smoke flavor. They were grilled and not smoked. It sounds good to me and I think you should try it. The coffee flavor does reduce while cooking. Good luck and don't forget to post your results and pics please ;D

[peyton23]

Thanks muebe for the reply.  My friends and I have been doing coffee crusted steaks on the grill for a few months since we went to a cooking class that had that as the main course.  The problem has been that we couldn't find anyone that has done coffee with pulled pork.  If we do it, I'll definitely post pictures this time. 

[peyton23]

Just wanted to show how the coffee rubbed pulled pork turned out.  The 8# was smoked for 4 hours with hickory and pecan at temps between 210 and 230, as it was between 20- 30 degrees during the cook.  After 18 hours, and FTCed for about 5-6 hours, the food was awesome. Everyone thought that it was great!  In the group picture, I'm 3rd from the left.  My friend Mike ( 4th from the left, helped alot with getting the food prepared and finished-thanks Mike!!)   I didn't take pictures of the sandwiches, due to them being served during the super bowl, but I have pictures of before and after.  Thanks again muebe for the vote of confidence.    

[kinyo]

Congrats Peyton, your pulled pork looks really good & the bark is really nice too!

Fell free to share your coffee rub recipe.

Where your able to taste coffee in the end?

Kinyo

[peyton23]

Thanks Kinyo!  I basically injected the pork with apple juice and 1/2 cup of Jim Beam (1st time with Jim Beam), and I used the Alton Brown rub, adding a 1/2 cup of Espresso to that.  There was a light coffee taste or bite as someone said, but in no way was it strong or overwhelming to the taste of the pork, it complimented the taste and it was awesome and is definitely a keeper.  I mentioned earlier about previous cooks in the past 6 months and how I never posted pictures before.  I was a little nervous about how things would turn out, but so far everyone's loved my cooking.  Including pulled pork, ribs, pastrami and abt's.  From now on, I'll post more of my creations.  Thanks!!

[TestRocket]

Nice bark on that butt and a good group PIC too! Congrats!    ;D