Did my first pulled pork. Looking for some advise, part of it came out dry. Full cook below, trying to see where I went wrong so I can fix it for next time.
5lb boneless butt from Adli. Pulled it out, cut the net off, dried it off, and covered in rub. On the grill about 7am at 225.
Sprayed with apple juice every hour until about noon. Traeger started loosing temp. Put to 275, well that lit the grill on fire….
Pulled the butt off. Wrapped in butcher paper. Sat in the toasty sun for about 30 min while I got the fire out, cleaned the traeger and got it back together.
Tossed it back on on the grill at 250 at 12:45ish. Wrapped it paper and had sprayed in apple juice one last time. Only lost 5 degrees while sitting down, 147 down from 152.
Left like that until 5:30, turned the grill up to 275 as I was only at 170.
Pulled off at 7:30pm at 206, tossed on a pan and set in microwave where it sat cooling until 8:40pm.
The smaller loose end was perfect. Juicy, soft, amazing. The larger chunk of meat side was good but a bit dry and tough.
My guess is that it didn’t get as hot as the smaller loose end or the juice didn’t pool up on that larger end.
What are yalls thoughts? Used a pro22 with signature blend.
Thanks!
by There_Bike
13 Comments
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Cook it to 160 internal temp wrap in foil and soak in an apple juice boat til it reaches 205. Last 4-5 hours should be wrapped with the juice inside to keep it moist. Retain the juice for when you pull the pork and soak it in the juice.* follow the recipe on the traeger website. Also I always do bone in and cook at 250.
Advice
Here’s what I do
1: don’t use boneless shoulder for pulled pork. The bone holds it together and also distributes heat inside as it cooks.
2: low and slow until you hit the stall. I usually do 225 with a smoke bar and spritzing it with an apple cider l/bourbon mixture 3:1 or apple cider/peach juice 1:1 every hour to keep it MOIST lol
3: when you hit the stall (around 165-170) wrap it in foil tight to lock in the moisture and to help push it through the stall. Insert thermometer in it until it reaches 206.
That does not mean it’s done tho when it reaches that temp. The bone should pull freely from the shoulder. Allow to rest for a bit and shred. If usually cut off a hunk and then shred it and cover the rest until I need to shred more as it’ll dry out quickly unless you’re adding BBQ sauce to the whole thing shredded and you’re serving a lot of people. I don’t shred and add bbq sauce to the whole thing because I use leftovers for different things like fried rice etc and I don’t want that sweetness. Your choice tho
If you must use boneless ask your butcher to net it up or you can just truss it up at home to keep it held together. You don’t use boneless because your meat is cooking to fall apart and you don’t want that to happen on grill grates.
Best of luck on the next one and just binge some YouTube videos and keep trying different methods until you find one that works for you.
Happy smokin’!
What temperature probe did you use? I recently did my first 10 lb bone in and started probing at 200*. The thickest piece wasn’t like butter until it hit 204*. I’m wondering if the tough portion didn’t actually get to temp. I have a thermoworks thermapen one. It’s worth every penny. Like others mention, I had super juicy pulled pork I attribute to putting it in a foil container at 175* with some apple juice.
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If you lookin you ain’t cooking…season it smoke it at °250 until °165, put it in a pan with broth/beer/Dr. Pepper whatever liquid and wrap tight with foil. Pull when probe tender(around °205). Rest for until you can handle it, shred and smash that shit. I have done 50+ pork butts/picnic roasts with this method. You can do this ahead of time then vacuum seal and sou vide to reheat. Just don’t keep opening up the smoker because you will extend the cooking time exponentially. Just trust the process and you will reap the rewards.
Mistake was Aldi. Tried one from them last weekend. Trash meat.
Mannnnn bro. I haven’t read the comments but you’ve studied wayyyyy too much into smoking pork. 275° until wrap. Then pull at about 200-203°. Take it easy and relax. Bbq is fun man
Perhaps that would mean something if I respected you or your opinion. Best of luck to you.
Try to keep the temp below the boiling point of water.
I think you’re thinking too much. Put it on the smoker and have a couple beers. If you don’t drink then do something else for a while. Spray every now and then. Wrap around 160-170. Pull off the grill above 200. Let it sit in a cooler until you’re ready to eat and shred.
If you don’t have a membership to Costco or Sam’s Club, find someone with one and borrow it for big cuts of meat like this. I’ve had significantly better results with the 8+ LB variety at my Sam’s club than the smaller ones from Aldi or Publix. Pro tip that works for me, wrap in foil and pour in some apple juice into the meat package (people call it a boat), that will guarantee a moist result plus you get to dump all that tasty liquid right back into the meat after it’s pulled. Delicious.
Edit to say go for Bone-in every time. Someone who understands chemistry and food science can explain why it’s better, I’ve tried both and bone-in delivers every time.