Let's Talk BBQ
FORUM SPONSORS => Pit Barrel Cooker Co. => Topic started by: Smokefood on July 01, 2014, 09:43:17 AM
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Does anyone have any advice on getting a nice bark on their pork shoulder in the PBC?
I followed the instructions in the video - rub with olive oil, rub. Once I took it off the hooks to wrap in tin foil the color was beautiful and there were a few crisp spots. The final product had great color and a nice smoke ring but was missing that bit of crispness that comes from the bark.
Any advice? Planning on firing up another one for the 4th.
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Not specific to the PBC, but add more rub and use some sugar in your rub.
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I do on a pellet smoker but should work for you too, I use molasses and my favorite rub. If you wrap you will get a softer bark, if you want crisp bark do not wrap. Don
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The use white table sugar in your rub, it helps. Also the longer you leave it unwrapped, the more bark you get. Also you dont have to wrap it at all. It just helps to cook it faster for the most part.
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IF I do wrap in foil, always take it out bout an hour before ready to pull (or eat--that's up to you) and it goes back on the grill with a fairly hot fire. Ain't perfect, but it does get a pretty good bark on it. Needs to be turned so all surfaces get the direct heat.
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I do on a pellet smoker but should work for you too, I use molasses and my favorite rub. If you wrap you will get a softer bark, if you want crisp bark do not wrap. Don
Molasses produces an excellent bark! Any sugar based rub will work.
No foiling equals better bark. And the longer the cook the better the bark I get ;)
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If I have plenty of time, I just skip the foil and let it ride.....lotsa smokey bark that way :P :P
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If I have plenty of time, I just skip the foil and let it ride.....lotsa smokey bark that way :P :P
Yep, smoke is right, let it ride without foil
All I do is cheap mustard and rub, but I never-never wrap till is time to FTC. I always end up with good bark
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Agree with the comments about not wrapping in foil, but sometimes do not have time to go all the way nekkid! Almost always do go that route, but there are times....!
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What the others have said, no foil better bark. ;)
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If you don't want to use molasses, CYM (cheap yellow mustard) also helps the rub adhere and gives some help on the bark.
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I'm a crispy bark man so no foil. I do take the time to carefully cut it off and chop it up by its self then mix back it.
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Thanks for all the advice, interesting on the no foil recommendation.
Last shoulder I did took 3.5 hours to reach 165 then another 2 hours to reach 200. It pulled perfectly but as we discussed, no bark.
What does the timing look like if I want perfect pulling pork but don't foil it? How long should it go on the hangers and should I pull it off the hangers and put it on the grate at some point?
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Is it possible to do the second phase, off the hook, without foil on the PBC? Not sure, how that would work... By the way, I read that some people extend the hanging phase until the meat has reached 180 and get better bark that way.
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I could see a purk butt cook without foiling on the PBC working if the meat were placed on a tray like this filled with water and placed on the grate instead of the wrapped butt. Otherwise the butt would burn if no foil was used because there is nothing that shields the meat from the direct heat of the fire.
(http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7217/7164571223_4cafd293bf_h.jpg)
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I don't believe the butt would burn if on the PBC rack. That is high enough from the coals. And with the lid on there should not be any flare-ups normally.
The tray is a good idea however if you want to catch the juices.
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If you like foiling and a crispier bark, give this a try:
First, if foiling, definitely use either molasses or a rub that has some sugar in it like the others have suggested. The sugars help the bark develop a little quicker. I like brown sugar which has molasses in it.
Then, after you take it out if the foil, put it back on the PBC rack with plenty of heat for a while and that bark will crisp right back up.
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I don't believe the butt would burn if on the PBC rack. That is high enough from the coals. And with the lid on there should not be any flare-ups normally.
The tray is a good idea however if you want to catch the juices.
Ok, fair enough, but wouldn't you then not at least have to flip the meat to ensure even cooking?
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I don't believe the butt would burn if on the PBC rack. That is high enough from the coals. And with the lid on there should not be any flare-ups normally.
The tray is a good idea however if you want to catch the juices.
Ok, fair enough, but wouldn't you then not at least have to flip the meat to ensure even cooking?
If you were cooking over direct heat then yes. But in reality in the PBC your technically cooking in a large oven fairly indirect due to the rack being far enough above the charcoal. Then the drippings from the shoulder will fall down onto the charcoal. This will cool the charcoal directly below the butt some and make a nice grease fog. This fog is one key to the great flavor you get from the PBC. And the high humidity is what helps keep everything so moist and prevents flare ups.
You could flip it to help with bark creation but the closer you get to a IT of 200F the more of a chance it may start falling apart when you flip it. If going for a sliced pork then 160F is a better target. The nice thing is the rack can be lifted out when the shoulder is done however you might need to put on some heavy duty heat resistant gloves before attempting this ;)
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If you were cooking over direct heat then yes. But in reality in the PBC your technically cooking in a large oven fairly indirect due to the rack being far enough above the charcoal. Then the drippings from the shoulder will fall down onto the charcoal. This will cool the charcoal directly below the butt some and make a nice grease fog. This fog is one key to the great flavor you get from the PBC. And the high humidity is what helps keep everything so moist and prevents flare ups.
You could flip it to help with bark creation but the closer you get to a IT of 200F the more of a chance it may start falling apart when you flip it. If going for a sliced pork then 160F is a better target. The nice thing is the rack can be lifted out when the shoulder is done however you might need to put on some heavy duty heat resistant gloves before attempting this ;)
Ok, I might give that a try this weekend as I am planning to do a pork butt.
The old school bbq joints in Lockhart, TX that are shown on TV documentaries every now and then do it just the way you described. They put the coals right under the meat with no shielding but I though there is a guy walking around flipping the briskets and ribs from time to time as described in this article (http://blogg.uit.no/psv000/2012/11/12/lockhart-capital-of-barbecue/).
Large slabs of meat are laid out on long smoking racks and regularly flipped for hours and hours until ready.
That is why I though you could get away with no flipping by using a tray.
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If the coals are right under the meat then flipping would be a must but the PBC has a large distance between the coals and the rack.
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Would there really be much of a difference between leaving it hung for the entire cook or putting it on the rack unfoiled at the stall?
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In Lockhart, I don't think that they cook over coals. There are no coals in the pit under the meat. All the fire is outside the pit and the heat and resulting smoke is sucked into the pit through an opening in the side of the pit and drafted down the pit (about 10 to 12 feet) to the chimney at the other end. This creates different temp zones for either hard smoking (close to the fire)or just keeping warm (at the opposite end of the pit). The only time I have seen them flip briskets is when they move them to a different spot in the pit for temp control. The closest the meat ever comes to the fire and the burning coals is probably about 3 or 4 feet. It's hard to explain so I'll search for a vid.
http://youtu.be/LPA5YlpCpoc
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Would there really be much of a difference between leaving it hung for the entire cook or putting it on the rack unfoiled at the stall?
I would think that it might not stay on the hooks if taken to a pull-able temperature.
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It's hard to explain so I'll search for a vid.
Ah ok, I got that confused with this type of cooker.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QkKYcRVeLuU
By the way, I definitely want to go to Lockhart one day.
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Would there really be much of a difference between leaving it hung for the entire cook or putting it on the rack unfoiled at the stall?
I would think that it might not stay on the hooks if taken to a pull-able temperature.
Yeah, I suppose that's a possibility. Anecdotally though, it hasn't happened to me yet.
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It's hard to explain so I'll search for a vid.
Ah ok, I got that confused with this type of cooker.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QkKYcRVeLuU
By the way, I definitely want to go to Lockhart one day.
It is o.k....Myron "THE MOUTH" Mixon" confuses all of us. He is a great BBQ guy - but his attitude and personality are as unpleasant as that manure exit located just below the horse's tail..... :D :D :D
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Would there really be much of a difference between leaving it hung for the entire cook or putting it on the rack unfoiled at the stall?
I would think that it might not stay on the hooks if taken to a pull-able temperature.
Yeah, I suppose that's a possibility. Anecdotally though, it hasn't happened to me yet.
I had a couple whole chickens drop into the coals. My fault for improperly hooking them and they got so tender the meat just gave way.
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Okay, so I got it... here is the way to bark up a pork shoulder nice on the PBC.
1. Rinse and then dry the shoulder really, really well
2. Brush with black strap molasses
3. Rub with your rub, I use Meathead's memphis dust, modified with Ancho and Chipotle pepper
4. Hang in the PBC and cook to 175
5. Wrap in foil, don't use too much beer, 1/4 of a cup will and take it to 200
6. Once it is at about 190 you can open the foil up a bit to dry the outside a bit
It was perfect.
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Okay, so I got it... here is the way to bark up a pork shoulder nice on the PBC.
1. Rinse and then dry the shoulder really, really well
2. Brush with black strap molasses
3. Rub with your rub, I use Meathead's memphis dust, modified with Ancho and Chipotle pepper
4. Hang in the PBC and cook to 175
5. Wrap in foil, don't use too much beer, 1/4 of a cup will and take it to 200
6. Once it is at about 190 you can open the foil up a bit to dry the outside a bit
It was perfect.
Nice! Great post.
In regards to bark optimization:
When I did flank steak on the PBC the other day, which I hung til around 180°F and then pulled it (this flank steak had the best bark I ever tasted - it was dark and crunchy), I got the idea to do the same with pork neck. What I will try next week is to cut a 5 lb pork neck into 4 pieces of a bit more than 1 lb, heavily rub them with one coat of brown sugar which should form a nice crust and one coat of magic dust enhanced with red chipotle for the taste and hang them in the PBC til 180°F then pull and slice. I hope that I will get a similarly awesome bark this way. I know that I wont be able to do pulled pork that way but I will get a nice bark and the slices will be fine for sandwiches, too.
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Would there really be much of a difference between leaving it hung for the entire cook or putting it on the rack unfoiled at the stall?
I would think that it might not stay on the hooks if taken to a pull-able temperature.
What about using butcher twine to tie it beforehand? I am doing my first shoulder tomorrow and want to just let it hang the entire cook.
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Last week on my family vacation trip, I had some pulled pork from a stick burner. I must say that the taste was really good. So when I got back, I tried to figure out how to get that pure wood smoke taste from the PBC (without the drippings hitting the fire) and still get a great bark.
What I finally decided to do was to put the pork neck in a tray to catch the drippings. I had to use some butter fat to get an initial grease cover of the tray to prevent small pieces or juices that come off the pork meat from burning when they first hit the hot tray. These can quickly turn into a black crust that smells unbelievably awful (had it happen to me on my Kamado during one of the first cooks). I used a teaspoon to baste the piece of meat with the drippings inside the tray. I should have done it more often because one side got a bit dry on the outside. I added two pouches of apple wood chips to the fire. Next time I will add even more.
The taste and the bark both were outstanding (sorry for the missing image of the actual pulling of the meat).
[attachment deleted by admin]
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Looks like you ended up getting some great bark on that butt!
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Looks really good!