My wife Sarah is passionate about good food. Since I've met her she has exposed me to some of the most amazing foods I have ever eaten and I love her for it. North Carolina style pulled pork sandwiches are one of those foods, and it's almost laughable what I thought good barbeque was until we went on vacation and had barbeque on the east coast. Now if you favor Texas barbeque, don't get upset by this statement as I've yet to experience it. Everyone has eaten "Authentic Texas" barbeque from the local chain, but I won't claim to have had it until either I have a crusty old texan make it for me, or we visit the state and seek out where the locals tell us to go. Since I purchased the smoker, Sarah's ambition for it has been to drive me to make some pulled pork. I'm not going to attempt to mimic North Carolina pulled pork as far as cooking the butt goes, but we're going to eat it in that fashion as sandwiches. Meaning that we're going to put the coleslaw that she makes, which IS NC style on the sandwiches and use either a vinegar based hotsauce such as Texas Pete's or create a sweet and hot sauce to put on each sandwich. We'll probably have them both ways just because we can. I'll leave the sauce creation to her and post what she comes up with.
So after a little research and talking to my friends who know more than I do about these things, we ended up purchasing a pork shoulder from Costco. We got a 14 lb. shoulder and until we got home I was still a little confused about what we had purchased.
When I got home I put the whole package into a large collander and put it into the sink to cut it open and drain out the juices and blood that was in with it. I gave the whole thing a rinse and as I turned it over I found that it was actually two shoulders packaged together not just one. That turned out to be perfect because I didn't have the time necessary for a shoulder that large to smoke. We happen to have a foodsaver so I vacuum sealed the larger of the two shoulders and stuck it in the freezer for a later date. I grabbed some kitchen string and tied up the shoulder several times until I had it firm enough to be able to turn it end over end on the smoker when the time came.
Brine:
• 96 oz. water
• 2 - 12 oz. cans of Coors Lite
• 3/4 cup of salt
• 2/3 cup sugar
• 1 dried new mexico chile, crushed
• 1 tsp. powdered garlic
• 1 tsp. ground cloves
• 1 tsp. red chili flakes
• 1/4 cup of olive oil
• 1/4 cup of worcestershire
Place all ingredients in a large stock pot and bring to a slow boil. Chill in fridge until cool and then place the pork shoulder into the pot and the entire pot into the refrigerator overnight.
I created the brine above and brined the shoulder from 10pm Friday night until about 6am Sunday morning.
Rub:
• 1/8 cup raw sugar
• 1/8 cup kosher salt
• 1/8 cup paprika
• 1/2 tbsp. freshly ground black pepper
• 1/2 tbsp. granulated garlic
• 1/2 tbsp. onion powder
• 3/4 tsp. cayenne pepper
• 1/4 tsp. ground coriander
• 1/4 tsp. crushed fennel seed
Place all ingredients in a large bowl and mix together.
Sunday morning at about 7am I got out a bottle of French's mustard and lathered the entire butt with it and then applied the rub to all sides of it. At that point I started the smoker and let it get to temp while the meat continued to sit at room temp. Overall I think i let the butt rest at room temp for about 45 minutes. Once the smoker was to temp I put the butt on and shut the lid. I came back inside and began boiling the brine until I had a stout reduction. I tested the flavor and made a quart of apple juice and added about 1/4 cup of the brine reduction to the quart of juice for later spraying.
At the halfway point I went out and flipped the butt end for end and sprayed generously with my apple juice/brine mixture and closed it all up again.
So after a little research and talking to my friends who know more than I do about these things, we ended up purchasing a pork shoulder from Costco. We got a 14 lb. shoulder and until we got home I was still a little confused about what we had purchased.
When I got home I put the whole package into a large collander and put it into the sink to cut it open and drain out the juices and blood that was in with it. I gave the whole thing a rinse and as I turned it over I found that it was actually two shoulders packaged together not just one. That turned out to be perfect because I didn't have the time necessary for a shoulder that large to smoke. We happen to have a foodsaver so I vacuum sealed the larger of the two shoulders and stuck it in the freezer for a later date. I grabbed some kitchen string and tied up the shoulder several times until I had it firm enough to be able to turn it end over end on the smoker when the time came.
Brine:
• 96 oz. water
• 2 - 12 oz. cans of Coors Lite
• 3/4 cup of salt
• 2/3 cup sugar
• 1 dried new mexico chile, crushed
• 1 tsp. powdered garlic
• 1 tsp. ground cloves
• 1 tsp. red chili flakes
• 1/4 cup of olive oil
• 1/4 cup of worcestershire
Place all ingredients in a large stock pot and bring to a slow boil. Chill in fridge until cool and then place the pork shoulder into the pot and the entire pot into the refrigerator overnight.
I created the brine above and brined the shoulder from 10pm Friday night until about 6am Sunday morning.
Rub:
• 1/8 cup raw sugar
• 1/8 cup kosher salt
• 1/8 cup paprika
• 1/2 tbsp. freshly ground black pepper
• 1/2 tbsp. granulated garlic
• 1/2 tbsp. onion powder
• 3/4 tsp. cayenne pepper
• 1/4 tsp. ground coriander
• 1/4 tsp. crushed fennel seed
Place all ingredients in a large bowl and mix together.
Sunday morning at about 7am I got out a bottle of French's mustard and lathered the entire butt with it and then applied the rub to all sides of it. At that point I started the smoker and let it get to temp while the meat continued to sit at room temp. Overall I think i let the butt rest at room temp for about 45 minutes. Once the smoker was to temp I put the butt on and shut the lid. I came back inside and began boiling the brine until I had a stout reduction. I tested the flavor and made a quart of apple juice and added about 1/4 cup of the brine reduction to the quart of juice for later spraying.
At the halfway point I went out and flipped the butt end for end and sprayed generously with my apple juice/brine mixture and closed it all up again.
I divided the remaining time to cook in half and did the step above again when it was time. Continuing to divide the time in half until there was none left.
Somewhere about 3/4 of the way complete we had to run to the store for some ice and other ingredients for that nights dinner. I had a flat on the Toyota and had to change it in the driveway (not fun in the Arizona sun). Anyway after getting that resolved and then to the store and back, I lost my fire....doh! The temperature on the smoker had not declined a bunch, but was about 175 when I came back. After much fretting and working I managed to get things back online and going.
When the butt was at about 180 degrees I pulled it from the smoker and wrapped it in plastic wrap and then in foil and put it into an ice chest for transport to our friends' house for dinner.
After eating notes: Everyone said it was great, but I wasn't satisfied with the way it came out. I thought it was too salty and didn't like how it shredded.
Things to adjust:
Cooking time - allow more time for it to cook through done to tender and WAIT to pull it off until my temp readings are between 195 and 205. I think there was still too much unrendered fat in it. My initial guess was that it would take between 1 - 1.5 hours per lb. It was closer to 1.5 - 2 hours per lb. and I pulled it to early because of the time crunch...
Rub - Work on a more complex rub and skip the mustard coating(the outside was delicious, but could improve)
Brine - Too long this time, either shorten the time in, or shoot it up with a meat injector
Spray/Mop - use only applejuice, don't mix it with the salty brine.
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