Pulled Pork recipes please..... help

[SmokingHotMamma]

Hello group please forward me your best simple pulled pork recipes. . :)) thanks. Also include what part of the pork works best for you..

[Habanero Smoker]

I prefer to use the Boston butt cut, or as it is often called the butt. That cut can go by many names, such as blade roast, shoulder roast and several other names; depending on which area you live. The picnic shoulder is a fairly good substitute, but it is leaner, has less meat and connective tissue. If you come across a whole shoulder, that cut includes both the butt, and the picnic.

The below link has a few pulled pork recipes:
Pork Recipes

If you do a search on this forum, you will find many pulled pork recipes.

[tskeeter]

I use boneless pork shoulder.  It's what is easiest for me to get.


Trim excess fat from fat cap.  Leave about 1/8 inch of fat.  (I freeze the fat trimmings and use them when I make elk sausage or the like.)

Apply a heavy coating of Jan's Rub and let marinate at least 8 hours.  (See Our Time Tested and Proven Recipes at www.susanminor.org)

Allow meat to warm on counter for one hour while preheating smoker.

Hickory smoke for 4 hours in 225F smoker.

Continue cooking to an internal temperature of 195F.  Depending on how much time I have, I'll do the cooking phase in the smoker.  Or, if I want to speed things along a bit, in the oven.  Either way, it's at 225F.

Expect your total smoking and cooking time to run about 1 1/2 - 2 hours per pound for each piece of meat.  So, two 7 pound shoulders will take about 15 hours or so.  The second piece of meat will add an hour or so to the time.

When the pork reaches 195F or is fork tender, I'll FTC (foil, towel, cooler) for at least an hour and up to 4 or 5 hours.  Then I'll pull the pork, leaving all the bark on the meat.

If I'm freezing the meat, I'll cool, then vacuum pack in one pound portions for the two of us.

If I'm serving the next day, I'll cover and allow to cool.  To reheat, a 225F oven with a bit of apple cider in the bottom of the pan, which has been covered with foil.  Other folks will reheat in a crock pot.


My practice is to smoke two 7 - 8 pound shoulders at a time.  I do my rub before work Friday morning, then fire up the smoker when I get home Friday evening, and smoke over night.  If I get the meat in about 9 PM, it's ready for the FTC early Saturday afternoon, with a couple of hours to spare in case the shoulder came from a stubborn hog and cooking runs a little long.


Tips:

To help with heat recovery when a large amount of cold meat is put in the smoker, I'll put a couple of foil wrapped bricks in the bottom of the smoker when I start to preheat the smoker.  This provides additional hot thermal mass to help warm up the cold meat and to help stabilize cabinet temps when you have to open the smoker door to change water in the puck bowl.  (Always use nearly boiling water in your puck bowl.  If you use cold water, your smoker will have to heat the water in addition to heating the smoker cabinet and the meat.  And cold water will suck up a lot of Btu's that could have been going to heat the meat.)

I use a remote wireless thermometer to monitor the cabinet temperature and the internal temperature of the meat.  Allows me to watch what's happening while also watching the football game or puttering with other things around the house.  I've been happy with my Maverick ET732.  (Current, I believe longer range, version is the ET733.) 

[egunman]

So if I'm doing a 17# & a 18# shoulder at the same time, I should plan at least a 35 hour cook? Yes I'm feeding an army. Lol.

[TedEbear]

So if I'm doing a 17# & a 18# shoulder at the same time, I should plan at least a 35 hour cook? Yes I'm feeding an army. Lol.

The rule of thumb is 1.5-2 hours per lb but you don't add the total together if you're smoking several different meats.  You might try smoking them together and then finishing at least one of them in the oven after the initial 4 hours or so of smoking.  Always cook by internal temp and not time.  I start checking mine when the IT reaches 190*F.

[tskeeter]

Egun, I'm with TedEbear.  If I was smoking 35 pounds of meat, I'd smoke it in the smoker and finish cooking it in the oven.  What you are planning on is a lot of meat for the heating system in a Bradley to bring up to 195F internal temperature in a reasonable amount of time.

Another alternative, if you have enough time before you need the pulled pork, would be to plan a series of smokes.  That's what I did when I was preparing pulled pork for a neighborhood event.  Each weekend I'd smoke a couple of 7 - 8 pounds boneless shoulders, pull them, and freeze them.  Over three weekends I smoked as much meat as I needed.  Then, on hogfest day, I warmed the pork up to serving temperature and dressed it with a finishing sauce I like.

By the way, I have the dual element mod on my smoker.  And it runs on a dedicated electrical circuit.  So I have twice the heating capacity available as a stock Bradley.  More heat is handy when you're doing lots of meat.

[BBQ_Ben]

Question- I'm staring at a pair of 6-7lb butts.  I could do 12ish hours or I cut cut them in half and do it all tomorrow.  So, what are pros and cons of cutting the roasts in half? 

Seems like the pros are probably the shorter cooking time and more crust (the best part!). Everything comes at a price, though, so what are the cons? Is the time too short to get a proper crust? Is there some other trade-off I'm missing?


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[tskeeter]

Ben, I've cut shoulders in two to make more area to form bark.  I didn't notice any issues I would consider a con to doing this.  I still got nice bark.  The meat didn't seem to dry out due to the smaller size.  I see no reason not to cut your butts in half.