This was my first attempt at pulled pork and thanks to everyone that gave advice to make this happen. I started with a 9.62 lb pound picnic roast. The original plan was to feed both shifts of employees as another option to the burgers and dogs the company provided. I ended up not having it ready in time and only 1 shift got the pork.
The Patient:
I started with the pork on Thursday. I made an injection marinade with Apple Juice, salt, etc ( I will put the recipes on recipe page - they are on my other computer). I injected it on just the meat side, leaving the fat cap untouched. I then made a rub that I found online that included kosher salt, brown sugar, cumin, cayenne and chili powder, etc.
The Rub...
The roast with the rub and marinade
After covering it, I had it sit in the oven until the morning. The plan was to have it to work at noon to pull it. I got up at 3:45am, fired up the TBE and let it get to temp. I had the meat sitting out for about 15 minutes. Due to the time of the day, I was not patient enough to let warm up some prior to putting it in the TBE. I set the meat in the cage and had it in at 4:15am. I did place some wood chips in the bottom and used the Tommy ring. However, I am not sure I did enough on the smoking and decided not to pursue it.
At 7am, I got back up and found the temp to be 148. There was a nice char on the outside and seemed doing going good, so I went back to bed. The kids would not let me get any more sleep so I was back up at 7:30. I decided to check the pork and was alarmed to see the temp at 180. Thinking back, it probably said 160 - but then again, I was tired!
The pork pulled out, getting ready to be wrapped up. The fat cap was well charred, but that seemed to be the only thing that was really burnt. The smell was pretty good though and my wife/ step mom wanted a taste right then. I wrapped the pork in 3 layers of foil, added about 1/4 cup of apple juice in prior to wrapping and placed it back in the TBE.
The patient back in to get it to 205.
At 11am, I found the temp to be 205 and pulled it out of the TBE. I did the FTC method and set it aside. I then used the Dr. Pepper BBQ sauce that Smoke posted in the recipe page, made a double batch (partially to make sure I had some at home) and set it aside to cool.
I got to work and pulled the pork prior to a training session at 1:15. I only had 15 minutes to do the pulling, but it turned out pretty good. The one thing I noticed was that the crust was really soft - most likely from the added apple juice as well as cooking it in the foil. I had flipped it so the fat cap was on the bottom. The outside of the cap was really dark, but the meat inside was really moist. I personally found that the meat was a little on the salty side. However, once I added some of the BBQ sauce, it really worked well.
The final product.
Overall, the 12 guys put away a lot of hamburgers and hot dogs. By the time we ate, the BBQ was cold and most people added the pork to both the burgers and dogs. The true tale of how the pork tasted ? Almost all of the 5lb of meat was gone. My 12 year old then stopped by and tasted it. She is extremely picky and yet she could not stop eating the meat! I also had one of the employees asked me .
I thought it was pretty good overall. In the future, I will be lowering the salt in the internal marinade and adding some additional heat to the BBQ sauce. I may also eliminate the Apple juice from the foiling as I want the crust a little more firm.
Recipes to be posted tomorrow...
