Pork Shoulder/Boston Butt

[zammo25]

Did my first smoke ever on the weekend, loads of chicken. Decided(well the mrs decided for me) that I'd do a pork shoulder on Thursday or Friday for a party we're going to on Saturday afternoon. I've been in loads of butchers asking for Boston Butt and no one knew what I was on about....obviously. Eventually found one in a market in town that knew roughly what it was, so he went out back and brought half a pig with him and proceeded to cut me a Butt. Guy seemed fairly interested in what I wanted it for and was keen to hear the results so that was nice. Also said any other cuts I need to give him a shout.

Anyway, 5 minutes later I'm on my way home with a bone in Butt, weighing in at 5.5KG!!! Now, here's where I need advice from you guys....does this sound a bit too big to you? Recipes I've seen call for something in the region of 5-8lbs, which would be a lot less than what I have. My only real concern I guess is that it's going to take forever to cook. I don't mind really, as long as I'm prepared for it I suppose and have plenty of fuel on hand.

Here's a picture of the beast with a 10p coin thrown in for scale......

[RobinC]

Taking the rind off and trimming the fat will reduce the weight a fair bit.

[stretchie_]

I did a pork shoulder last weekend, 4.3kg no bone in it, put it on for 18 hours in total, it got wrapped in foil after 5 hours and I left it in the foil for the rest of the time.

It seemed to evaporate I would pull some and put it in a bowl but the bowl took a while to fill up, sneaky vultures I call mates were skimming off the top

Still, it means they liked it, had a little left on Sunday evening but that went on the electric griddle, poured a little water on it then covered with a pan lid then put some cheese on after a couple of seconds and recovered until the cheese was nicely melted it went on buns with some thick homemade BBQ sauce and maybe a splash of Franks hot sauce NOM.

So yeah, it will take a fair amount of time

[keith157]

Just out of interest Zammo how much did it cost, you can type it quietly so the wife doesn't hear if you like

[zammo25]

Just out of interest Zammo how much did it cost, you can type it quietly so the wife doesn't hear if you like

it was £²³ not sure if that's good or not really.

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[Mj2k]

Just out of interest Zammo how much did it cost, you can type it quietly so the wife doesn't hear if you like

it was £²³ not sure if that's good or not really.

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Much better than my butcher, mine was £20 for something half the size & failed to notice it also still had some sort if rib bones attached.

Costco boneless last weekend was £8 for 2kg pretty well trimmed, which I was really impressed with. Ditto on their ribs - if only the queues weren't as bad.

Matt

[slatts]

Got to love Watford Costco and their queues plus the ignorant people that leave the trolley in the middle of the aisle, we went there just before xmas and I nearly lost it, never ever again at xmas.

Nice lump of pork though, I get the double pack from costco and do them together but wouldnt mind finding one like the one above.

[zammo25]

Thanks for the replies guys, trimmed the pig and it's been on the smoker since 8 this morning.

May sound like a stupid question, but how do I know when to throw some more fuel on??

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[kwazulu]

I think you got to put more fuel on when you start losing temp inside the chamber (happy to be corrected if I am wrong). I may have missed it earlier on in your post, but what smoker you using (just out of interest)? As I am still new to all this as well, can you give me an idea of how much fuel you started off with? half a bag? whole bag? I was watching this guy the other day and he was weighing his charcoal at the start and then again at the end... am very keen to hear about your finished product

Gian

[zammo25]

I'm using a proq excel. Loaded it this morning with a full bag(7kg) of heat beads. Took about 5 pieces out and loaded them into my weber chimney starter along with about half a starter full of part used heat beads from the other day. Lit that and chucked the lit on top of the unlit. At 8 this morning I chucked the pig on and the excel has been between 215 and 250 ever since.......mostly been between 225 and 235. Currently the meat is at 162 and the grill temp is 243.

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