Working From Home (Pulled Pork)

[Brick Pig 501]

I haven't posted a cook in an pretty long while. Seems like I don't ever remember to take pictures until I'm finished cooking or, more often, finished eating. But yesterday I managed to think ahead and document my pork butt cook.

 

It's kind of inconvenient to do my job from home, but boys howdy is it nice to be working about 20 yards away from the Big Joe!

 

9.7 lb. picnic, rubbed the night before, bagged and refrigerated overnight

 

Into the smoke at 8:50 am; KJ lump with 2 chunks of cherry

 

I was aiming for 300º, but it settled in just under 320º

 

Around 1:15pm I was measuring ITs from 155º - 170º in different spots. Placed it in a pan & covered it in foil.

 

By 3:00pm my dome temp had crept up to 350º (direct hot sunlight), but the meat probed like butter

 

After resting in a cooler with towels, I shredded it at 5:00pm

 

 

Served at 6:00 with some roasted veggies and store-brand mac & cheese

[adauria 27]

Looks awesome! I did a couple of butts this weekend and have a question for you. This weekend was the first time I foil-wrapped my butts. I found it softened or destroyed a lot of bark (though it was amazingly juicy, tender, and tasty). I wonder if I had used a pan with a foil top, would it work better at preserving the bark while also helping keep the moisture and speeding the cooking process.

 

So the question is - how was your bark situation cooking this way? 

 

-Andrew

[Brick Pig 501]

I get a better bark with the pan than I used to get when I just wrapped in foil. It's been a pretty long time since I cooked a butt without wrapping at all, but I would venture to say that the pan gives me pretty close to the same bark as completely  unwrapped. The main reason I went to using the pan, though, is because I read someone here who mentioned that they shred the pork in the juices that are collected in the pan. That's why I tried it, and I've been doing it that way ever since.

[len440 428]

Adauria when you wrap or place in pan with foil you greate a steam type atmospere around the butt hence you lose the dry bark the same for ribs but most people put them back on grill to kind of dry out the outer layer. Each way makes for good eating. Brickpig is right about the juice collecting I use it when reheating a butt. .