First time Pulled Pork advice

[TwistedSanity]

Hello Everyone,

I am making my first attempt at doing pulled pork this weekend and I am looking for some advice.

I have acquired a 9lb pork shoulder and have spent some weeks looking through the internet for rubs and processes that I like. I have settled on the following process.
-Inject the shoulder with a marinade I got of the internet, rub shoulder with molasses, apply a rub (also borrowed from the internet).
-Start smoker and set to 225-250. I use a PID and will probably set it for 235. (shovel snow off steps so I can start the smoker) and let it warm up for 1 hour while the pork shoulder rest.
-Place shoulder in fat cap up and apply cherry smoke
-Let run like this until the shoulder hits 195
-pull, wrap in foil, and then a blanket and set it in a small cooler until I am ready to pull and serve (min 1 hour)

I am looking for pulled pork that is tender and moist with good bark

What I need some help with is approximating a time to start cooking. how long would you more experienced people expect this to take to reach the IT of 195?

Also welcome any other helpful hints you have.

This will be shredded and served on small slider buns with options to add cheese/ pickles/ and a homemade root beer BBQ sauce. Side will be mashed potatoes and coleslaw.

Committing to this and 20lb of snack sticks has turned my weekend off into and very fulfilling weekend off  ;D

[TMB]

Most folks go for an IT of 195 but I find for me 205 then 2 hrs of rest works better.   

As for a good bark, I use mustard then rub with my rub , cook til 180 then I turn the heat up to try and finish the bark but even 225 to 235 you will get good bark

Now, if you are a real bark lover like my wife then I finish my butts in my infrared cooker (known as an SRG) after the IT reaches aroun 160 to 165.  Butt normaly I use the SRG's for the full cook only because I can cook a 10 butt in 4 to 4.5 hrs that way   

[watchdog56]

When I do butts it is usually 4 at a time. I start them around 10pm and get up during the night to change water out of pan. I use a 9x13 pan and fill with half water and a couple of cups of apple juice. I smoke for 4 hours at 225. I pull when IT is 195-200 and FTC it for at least 2 hours ( have gone up to 4 hours and still plenty warm). It usually take about 20 hours to get the last one out.

My guess on one butt would probably be 8 hours?

[Roget]

When I do a butt in the Bradley, (I typically only do one at a time) I do it 225° & it usually takes about 15-18 hours.
I use four hours of smoke.
I take mine to 195-200 and always get a moist tender meat with good black bark.
PS The butts I cook are always in the 7.5 - 8.5 lb range.
Good luck.

[TwistedSanity]

Thanks for all the great advice.   A couple more questions

for Watchdog

I start them around 10pm and get up during the night to change water out of pan. I use a 9x13 pan and fill with half water and a couple of cups of apple juice.

do you mean you replace the little round water try with a large one? or is this a second drip tray in one of the racks.  Do you keep the water /apple juice mixture in the try throughout the whole smoke?

do you guys trim the fat cap off or leave it on during the cooking?

[watchdog56]

After the 4 hours of smoke I will replace the bowl with a  9x13 pan with the water and juice in it. When you check the butt in a few hours make sure the drip hole on the v-tray is not plugged or you could get a fire going in there. Also when I check on the butts I rotate them from rack to rack and also turn the rack so the back now becomes the front and visa versa.

[TwistedSanity]

Thanks Watch dog,

I will let you all know how it turns out

[Habanero Smoker]

I trim the fat cap down to about 1/8"; though when I get them from Sam's or BJs, I find they are already well trimmed. I find leaving more on you end up discarding a lot of bark when you get ready to pull it.

[TwistedSanity]

Thanks Habs,

I was planning on doing the same

[TwistedSanity]

The pork turned out great.  Was enjoyed by all.  I owe it on all the great advice here.

Made a few mistakes but I overcame them.  The worst mistake was tipping the pan of drippings over on my table.  I when I say over I mean completely upside down.

Its ok though  the wife didn't like those towels anyway.  ;)