So anyways, onto what I can piece together about the pulled pork that made its way to the tailgate a couple weeks ago...The Rub: The rub is the key seasoning to any good BBQ. My rub consisted of equally large quantites (by volume) of brown sugar and spanish paprika. I would say probably a cup to two cups of each. The other major ingredient was Kosher Salt, probably a quarter to half a cup of it. That is the base flavor of the rub. The rest is up to how much you like certain flavors but I added a few tablespoons of ground cayenne, a few tablespoons of ground mustard, a few tablespoons of garlic powder. I probably added a quarter cup of crushed red pepper, some freshly ground pepper to taste as well.
The meat: 2 full, bone-in, Boston Butts. Ideally they will be the same size, but I didn't get so lucky for my cook that day. The total weight was about 14 pounds, with one of them about 8, the other at 6. I recommend Bellville's in BG, great meat there. If you're shopping at a grocery store make sure you're not getting "enhanced" meat. It has been brined with a solution of salt/sugar water that will throw off your seasoning...you're also paying by weight for something that will contain a certain % of water.
The process: This process started on Thursday before the tailgate party. I purchased the meat from Bellville's, then mixed up my rub. At this point you CAN trim off the large fat caps if you wish, I know many people do. For this cook I left them intact. I cook them fat side up and they help to baste the meat, although there is plenty of fat inside the shoulder, so you'd be fine to cut the fat off if you prefer. Then I slathered them with regular yellow mustard (I buy it by the Gallon at GFS...I like mustard
). The mustard contributes very little flavor to the end product but works wonderfully to help the rub stick to the meat. Then I generously applied the rub to the meat. The mustard & rub will create a thick paste, but that's okay. That will help form the "bark" that makes BBQ so yummy I then put the butts in the fridge to sit for about 24 hours.The cook: I came home directly from work and got the smoker ready for cooking. I used what's known as the "minion method" for the smoke. Essentially, you put a large pile of unlit charcoal & smoke wood in the bottom of the smoker, then put just a few lit briquets to the top. I like to use Royal Oak briquets, and for this smoke I used apple wood chips (that I purchased in a bag). Definitely use a fruit wood for pork...that's where it's at. Lump charcoal can be substituted, but has a tendency to burn hotter & quicker than the briquets, so you cannot last as long without tending the fire. The new Kingsford briquets (the ones touting quicker lighting, longer cooking), are pretty crappy compared to the old ones...they don't cook as well as the Royal Oak for this low'n'slow type cook.
So after filling the bottom of the smoker with unlit charcoal I put about 15 briquets in my chimney to light. My method is to put the chimney on the deep fryer burner to get the coals lit...maybe not safe, but it works for me, and beats using lighter fluid or paper
. After those coals were ashed over, I put them on top of my unlit pile in the smoker, assembled the smoker, and put the meat on immediately...you don't want to open it to put the meat on once it gets up to heat. I inserted a probe thermometer into the meat that reads both external temp, and internal meat temp. Use the air vents of the smoker to regulate temperature between 225*-250* The key is low 'n' slow! I set my alarm on my phone to get up every 90 minutes or so to check the temp of the meat & the cooker to make sure I didn't need more coals, I adjusted the air vents accordingly to keep the temp right. The joy of the minion method, and a good smoker is that I really didn't need to do too much...or so I thought. At about 6:00 I was awake when I checked it, not in some groggy sleep walking state like all my other checkups. At this time I noticed that the meat temperature was only about 125*, and there was no way it would be ready for a 10:00 tailgate, that couldn't be right I said. The cooker was running out of fuel so I lit another 20-30 briquets on the fryer and put them in the cooker. I then ran to Kroger to buy a cheapo-old fashioned thermometer, obviously my fancy digital probe was not working. I stuck it in and sure enough it was showing about 155*, but the meat was still not likely to be done. So now, I went into drastic measures and broke the rule of some BBQ purists. Normally I would've just kept the cooker plugging along, and eaten later in the day, but that was not feasible with a 3:00 kickoff. So I put my oven at 290*, and wrapped the 2 butts in foil. I placed them in the oven to finish. Foiling BBQ speeds up the process exponentially. You can still leave them in the smoker, the foil speeds it up on its own, but I didn't have a reliable thermometer to tell me cooker temp, so I went with the oven. After about 2 hours the smaller butt was up to the desired 195*, the larger one took an additional 45 minutes or so. I left both butts wrapped in foil and put them in the crockpot.
In the lot I fired up the crockpot, removed the foil and proceeded to pull the meat. For starters I grabbed the bones, which slid right out...a good sign that you did a good job on the cook. I then just used tongs to shred the meat...and that's all there is to good pulled pork. Sure the cook time is in the 15 hour range, but it is well worth it in the end
and you are very right about cooking being an art, not a science. it takes talent to cook something just the right way.
