First smoke on the Traeger 720 (Pork Shoulder Adventure)

Finally fired up my Traeger Silverton 720 for its first smoke this weekend with a 3kg Pork Shoulder from Costco.

Did the priming process first, which was smooth, pellets fed through the auger nice and easy, ignition took less than 5 minutes, and once it was ignited that smell of the pecan wood chips filled the garden and had the cats interested.

The Prep

Trimmed off the big chunks of white fat to save for tallow (look at me being resourceful)

Used mustard as a binder, hit it with a mix of SPG and Angus & Oink Hot Chilli Rub. I like that rub since it’s solid across chicken, beef, and pork. I thought I might have gone overboard on seasoning, but now I know pork can take way more pepper than I expected to create more of a solid bark.  

The Cook

Shoulder went on at 14:00 at 225°F. Temperature held nice and steady and only crept up to around 235–240°F a couple of times.
I checked it around 19:00 and the bark still wasn’t there. Internal temp was sitting at about 140°F, so I let it ride another hour until it hit 165°F.

At that point, I pulled, wrapped it in foil with butter, honey, and apple cider. The plan was to let it roll… Sounded good in theory.

The Rookie Move

…then I fell asleep…
Raced out to the smoker in the dark and the rain at 02:00 and was greeted to a “LOW TEMP WARNING” flashing at me like the world’s saddest alarm clock.

Ran out of pellets mid-cook. What a noob. Thankfully, the meat wasn’t ruined, so I pulled it and chucked it in a switched off oven to rest.  Lesson learned: always load up that hopper with extra pellets before bedtime. I have a feeling that we stalled out way before 200°F as although the meat was delicious it did come out rather steak like and a little tougher than the melt in the mouth I was hoping for..

A few lessons learned; make sure to have plenty of fuel for longer cooks, add more seasoning to create a perfect bark and get an internal temperature probe!

I also need to setup the WireFire WiFi functionality as I would have been able to check temps regularly via the app so that is a must do before the next smoke.

Despite the hiccup, it actually turned out pretty good for a first go. The bark wasn’t perfect, but the flavor was spot on and I enjoyed re-frying it and adding some hot honey and then trying it with bbq sauce on some baps. Can’t wait to give it another go with some ribs or maybe some chicken next time on a shorter cook.