16 lbs. of Pulled Pork

[waycoolcat]

We had a bunch of friends over for a BBQ party yesterday so I smoked two 8 lb. pork butts. First I trimmed a lot of the outer fat off of the meat.

Then I rubbed them with CYM (cheap yellow mustard), you really can't taste the mustard when its done it just helps the rub stick.

Then I used Jan's Rub, recipe available at the recipe site.

Wrapped in plastic wrap and refrigerated for several hours.

I took it out of the refrigerator one hour before smoking to warm up a bit. Meanwhile I warmed the smoker and bisquette burner to 210 degrees. I smoked the meat for four hours using a combination of apple and maple and then let it cook at 210 degrees (more or less, I don't have a PID controller). It took 23 hours to get to an internal temperature of 185. I started smoking 24 hours before my expected serving time so it worked out great. I just left it in the smoker with it turned off and the door cracked open until serving.

Usually I trim the bark off, chop it up, shred the pork and mix it back in. Last night the crowd seemed hungry so I just did a quick shred with my bear claws. I hope this helps someone who has wanted to try pulled pork but hasn't yet. There are many ways to get great results. This isn't even "my way", its just the way I did it this time. You can use olive oil instead of mustard, you can inject the meat with flavor, finish it a day ahead and shred it and rewarm it with some chicken stock, finish it several hours early and FTC (foil, towel, cooler), not to mention all of the different rubs and sauces.

[Quarlow]

Very nice. I have only done it twice but that is exactly how I did it other than leaving it in the smoker which work out just right for ya. I did mine and then packaged for the freezer. That is what was left after pulling it and having lunch and all the fingers who wanted to HELP with this, you know....pull this piece, eat this piece, pull this piece, eat these two pieces and so on. LOL

[OldHickory]

That is a good looking cook.  The CYM is well known to help the rub adhere and to produce a wonderful bark, which you obviously achieved.  I am sure your party was a huge success.

[pensrock]

Very nice looking butts! I'm sure everyone had lots of great food.  :)

[WoodlawnSmoker]

Looks great!  What was the preferred method of serving, on buns with sauce?

[waycoolcat]

Yes I served it with kaiser rolls and two sauces; Tangy and Sweet BBQ sauce from America's Test Kitchen and Carolina-style BBQ sauce from Ruhlman's "Charcuterie".
Also, I made Corky's Cole Slaw and Alton Brown's "Once and Future Baked Beans", which used my own maple smoked bacon.

[stuper01]

24 hours????   that's the only thing here that shocked me...  I had no idea it would take that long..... want to duplicate this exactly this weekend.

[watchdog56]

Looks like a job well done to me

[Quarlow]

I think the record was around 36 hrs.

[pondee]

24 hours????   that's the only thing here that shocked me...  I had no idea it would take that long..... want to duplicate this exactly this weekend.

Low and Slow= A long time

[Spliner]

This is close to my usual method for pulled pork, almost exactly.  There really seems to be no wrong way, in the Bradley it turns out good no matter what you do.  It's seriously that easy, so if anyone here is new and hasn't tried pulled pork.. do it.  Just do it.  The only thing you need to watch is the water pan, don't let it go dry, and make sure it doesn't end up with too much grease or you could have a fire.  Check it every 4 hours or so to make sure and add boiling water as necessary and empty out the spent pucks.

I have one of the new OBS (non-digital) 4-racks and I generally do 2 butts at once, each from 7-9lbs, so about the same amount of meat as this.  I either use molasses or mustard to coat, then rub (I prefer molasses).  Usually though, I'll just trim them, rub them, wrap them, refrigerate overnight, then put the molasses on right before the cook over the existing rub.  Seems to help my bark be that much more tasty.  I pre-heat my bradley on full until it hits 225-235 which seems to be about the max (in hot weather it can get to 250).  Then after letting the butts sit out for about an hour I pop them in and smoke for 6 hours with apple or hickory.  I generally finish in the oven which I pre-heat to 225.  2 butts in the non-digital 4-rack seems to require full-on heat for me.  No real adjustment for temps.  I use 2 foil covered bricks in the bottom of my smoker to help with temp recovery, and sometimes will give extra pre-heat time of up to 1.5 hours just to make sure those bricks have absorbed all they can.  Even after letting the butts sit out for an hour the temps can drop pretty low once they first go in, but recovery doesn't take as long.

Doing two butts like this I always give myself 24 hours, never had it take longer.  It can, it's just rare.  One time I had 1 8lb butt take a total of 10 hours.  No clue why, but it happened.  It finished completely in the Bradley and hit 190ish in 10 stinkin hours. iGrill woke me up in the middle of the night to let me know lol.  Generally finishing in the oven, total cook time to 190-200F IT takes me about 18 hours total for 2 butts.  I'll then FTC until close to dinner time, or for at least an hour to help the moisture distribute back into the butt.  Then it's shred and eat.  I used to let them go overnight in the Bradley after checking the water pan right before going to bed, but sometimes I'd wake up around 9ish Saturday morning and they had overcooked.  You just never know with a butt.  You cook them until they are done.  Period.  Can be 10 hours, can be 24.

I've probably done 25 or more butts in my Bradley this way in the last two years, always turns out perfect.  It doesn't seem to matter if I finish in the Bradley or the oven, but with the oven it seems to take about 2 hours less time.  Honestly though, finishing in the Bradley seems to give a better bark and a better flavor, so if I have time to babysit I'll do that, but if I'm going to bed, in the oven they go.

Another tip, I've found that the oven can sometimes dry out the pork a bit more than the Bradley will when finishing.  To combat this, you can finish by using foil over the butts or you can put in a pan of water to keep the humidity up in the oven.  So the last 5-6 hours (or in the morning when I get up) I'll baste and cover in foil and let them finish to 195ish.

I also use a couple of deeper sheet pans under the butts in the oven (they are like 2" deep) (not the old ones in the pic below).  The Bradley racks fit right in them.  I take the two racks I did not use and flip them upside down, then when I put in the butts from the Bradley I sit them in the Bradley racks they were smoked in right on top of the flipped over racks.  This gives plenty of room for the butts to drip in the pan but it won't boil them by sitting in their own juices.  You can use the juice from the butts to baste, or mix in a little apple juice with some of the juice in the pans to baste before putting foil over top in the morning.

So my routine is:

Day before:  Rub, wrap in plastic wrap, and put in the fridge overnight
Day of:  Around 2pm (usually on a Saturday for me) pre-heat the Bradley for up to 1 hour
Around 2:30pm:  Pull the butts, unwrap and coat with molasses
Around 3:30ish pop them in the smoker and set with about 6 hours of pucks
Around 9:30pm:  Pre-heat oven to 225
Around 10pm or so:  Once the smoke stops, pull the butts, and put them in a pre-heated oven at 225.
About 8am the next morning, baste with their own juices and cover with foil.
Pull them when they hit 195 and FTC.  (This usually happens in the late afternoon depending on the butts, i've had it happen mid-morning though)

This method always nets me a good 10-12ish pounds of pulled pork for a Sunday get-together at dinner time.  Works every time.  In the afternoon while I'm waiting for the butts to finish (after I have foiled them) I make my sauces.  I always serve my sauces hot with the pork, nobody has ever complained.  To me cold sauce is gross on pulled pork.  I'll also make my slaw that afternoon in preparation.

In the event I work on Friday, and we want to have a BBQ on Saturday, I have the wife pre-heat the Bradley about 3pm on Friday before I get home, and I have her pull the butts out of the fridge at 4pm.  That way when I get home at 5 I can pop them in the Bradley and go.

Wife whined at first about "knowing nothing about my BBQ stuff" but when I showed her all she had to do was plug it in, and turn the dial on full and flip a switch she didn't have an issue with it.  ;P

The moral of the story.. with 2 butts around 8-10lbs each, expect 24 hours and be happy if they finish early.  You can always FTC them until ready to shred or keep the shredded pork hot in a slow cooker until ready to serve.

I also use an iGrill.  It doesn't get easier.

Edit:  Here's what they look like when done with the molasses.. http://forum.bradleysmoker.com/index.php?topic=32423

Spliner

[Tenpoint5]

Looks like some really good pulled pork

[beefmann]

man that  looks  fantastic

[Old Dog]

Great write up waycoolcat, and Spliner  well written post. You folks give me confidence in using my new Bradley 611.  This is a fun place to be, forsure.

                                            Old Dog

[mywifeishot]

I did everything as outlined above for a 7lb pork shoulder and kept Bradley between 200 and 230 degrees.  Put in Friday at 6:30pm and kept in Bradley until the maverick thermometer got to 190..... but that wasn't till Sunday morning. (My goal was 195-200 degrees)
It took 40 hours to get to 190 degrees.  The meat was mushy... doesn't that mean it's over cooked... but how can it be over cooked if it didn't even hit past 190?  I verified temp with another thermometer.
I felt stupid waiting that long but I wanted to be patient and trust the process I had researched here for days.
Any idea what happened?