First Pulled pork planned for Saturday

[gunman]

I'm planning on my first attempt at pulled pork on Saturday. After looking on here it's just something I have to try. I have a small pork shoulder from Asda which is 1.7Kg. I reckon on about 6 hours at 250-275f. I'm going to try without foiling the pork if I can help it as I would like to see if the bark comes out OK.

I've just got a 15kg bag of Big K restaurant lumpwood today and will be smoking with hickory chips in a foil container. Any advice you can give me before hand would be much appreciated. Oh, and I'll be cooking on a weber one touch original 47cm. Only things I've smoked\roasted to date are chickens.

[RobinC]

Take it off when its probe tender and don't forget to rest it.

[gunman]

By probe tender do you mean when the probe goes in with little resistance?

Forgot to take the pork out of the freezer this morning so I got another bigger one on the way home. This time it's 2.5kg so I'll be lighting the bbq when I get up in the morning.

I know i need better thermometers as the 3 I used this evening read 250, 300 and 340 .

[RobinC]

Yes, probe can be inserted with little resustance

[Toby]

Make sure your charcoal is to the sides of the one touch, if you are worried about any coals being directly under the pork there is no harm in putting the pork in a shallow foil tray. try to ignore how long you think it will take by weight, barbecue is a funny thing and remember not to lift the lid!

If you have a thermometer you want the pork to hit about 195f, let if site (at this point mine is always in foil) for a min of 45 mins, then prepare for the pork to fall apart when you tease it with a couple of forks.

[gunman]

Thanks guys. I'm just up now and the joint is out of the fridge. I'll be lighting the BBQ in a short while. I made up a basic rub last night which is going now too.

I have the Coal dividers that come with the one touch so I'll be putting the coals to the side with a water tray directly under the meat. I have a meat thermometer that I got in the supermarket (salter). It was reading 340f when set in through the air vent last night while the gauge on the bbq lid was reading 300. I also had an oven thermometer in there which read 250, although even in our electric oven it seemed a bit out. Both the lid and meat thermometers have been tested in boiling water and they were both bang on at that temp. Could there be 40f difference between one side of the lid and the other, warmer at the air vent side?

I'd love a dual probe maverick but when I told my wife the price I was told "I don't pay that for a thermometer for the kids (and she's a childrens nurse), so you're not paying that for one for a BBQ!" She'll come round though one she tastes some pulled pork...I hope.

[gunman]

OK, the meat is on and smoking away now. I saw a pic on here of a chimney starter sitting on the gas ring in a kitchen, not sure if it was a joke or not but thought I'd give it a try on my old portable camping cooker and it worked better than I imagined:



This is how I'll be lighting all my coals from now on! Cant remember who posted the pic in the first place but all I can say is "thanks"!

BBQ is sitting now around 250f, lets hope it holds!

[gunman]

2 hours in, meat temp is 153f, bbq temp starting to drop to 225 with vents fully open, I think I'm going to have to add a few coals soon. Lid hasn't been off yet (I've been good, haven't I?).

[Toby]

Sounds fine, adding a few more bits of lump is fine, i notice that you have string around the joint, I would have removed this first, you will find any bark will be stuck to the string when you pull / cut it off.

You dont want the top vent open all the way, open the bottom one and leave the top one no more than half open. If you have everything open full you will burn hot and fast

[gunman]

The vents weren't fully open from the start, I opened them as the temp started to drop off but it didn't increase the temp any. I had the top full open and was adjusting by the bottom vent. I had thought you'd want an exhaust vent open which is why I left the top open all the way. I might close it of a bit to see if that helps.

I added a few more coals and got a temp spike as I expected, have it back down to 250 now. What I did notice was that the coals to one side (the side that had the foil smoker) had burn away while the other side was nowhere near as burnt. Not sure why this happened.