A woeful tale of Pulled Pork

Before we get started on this tale of woe, let me share the simple secret to perfect pulled pork: Time. That’s it—have lots of time. Pork shoulders are like the training wheels of BBQ. It’s cheap, pretty forgiving, and tastes amazing. You can also use almost any flavor profile you can imagine, which makes it great for trying new things.

Alright, so for the method. Start with a bone-in pork shoulder; this means shopping at Sam’s Club, not Costco. Costco only sells boneless pork shoulders, which will do in a pinch, but I prefer bone-in; you'll see why in a bit. Trim off any loose flaps of meat and fat. Trim the fat cap down to about ¼”, and then score the fat cap in a crosshatch pattern. The reason to crosshatch the fat cap is to create more surface area—yep, that thing from geometry class you didn’t think you’d ever care about—which provides more places for the rub to stick. More rub equals more flavor. So now, with the crosshatch, you have a choice: you can grab a binder to help your rub stick, or you can skip it totally—your call. If this is your first rodeo, I’d use just a little yellow mustard. It won’t add any flavor but makes applying the rub a little easier.

Once you’ve rubbed or not rubbed your binder all over the pork, pick your favorite rub and liberally, like a 5-year-old with sprinkles on ice cream, apply the rub to your pork shoulder. Now, if you haven’t already, fire up your smoker to cook at 225°F. The pork shoulder can just chill on the counter while the grill warms up; there’s another story there that I’ll tell you another day. Once the smoker is revved up, stick your leave-in thermometer in your pork shoulder and put your pork shoulder on the smoker. Now, settle in for a long wait. This is where the time comes in to play.

Since you have some time let me tell you the story of Woe that started all of this… It’s down the page a little more where it says "STORY" in big bold letters. 

If you’re like us and don’t want to scroll through that crap, here’s the rest of the method.

Once your probe is telling you that the pork is at 200°F, it’s time to take an instant-read thermometer out and, well, probe. In BBQ, 203°F is a magical temperature, but every cut of meat is different, so we probe. You’re looking for the resistance of warm melted butter as you poke around with your thermometer. If you hit 205°F, you’re definitely there; the more you cook, the more you’ll recognize the texture of perfect meat. Take the pork shoulder and wrap it in plastic wrap or foil for at least 30 min. It will stay plenty hot if you also wrap it in a towel and put it in a cooler for several hours.

About 15 minutes before you’re ready to eat, in a small tub or large pan, unwrap your shoulder, saving all those delicious drippings. Now, using a paper towel if it’s too hot to touch, pull the bone out. If you did this right, it will pull out of the pork shoulder with little to no resistance and will be clean. This is the ultimate test of your cooking process. You should now be able to literally grab the pork shoulder and shred it by hand. Cotton work gloves under nitrile gloves is a great tip to deal with the heat of the meat. You can also use bear claws if you’re a little more civilized. But that’s it; you now have the best-pulled pork you’ll ever eat. You can hit it with some extra rub or sauce if you like. Put it on a bun for a sandwich or in a burrito with some eggs for your new favorite breakfast meal. However you choose to eat it, enjoy and be sure to share some with your neighbor. They just had to smell that deliciousness cooking for the last 12+ hours.

STORY

For our readers that are in a relationship, do you remember the early days, specifically when you were still working to make a good impression on your partner's family? Things were probably going fine, but you still wanted to “win” them over and close out any doubts in their mind that, as in my case, their sister and daughter hadn’t made a huge mistake by marrying a dummy? Well, it's in that time our story takes place. My wife and I had been married for a couple of years and lived about an hour and a half north of her family. We regularly made the trip down for family events and Sunday dinners, but we really wanted to host the family at our new house. We’d been in our first house for about a month. Memorial Day was coming up, and we wanted to have a BBQ at our new place.

Since I was little, I’ve been obsessed with cooking outside. It started with a gas grill and then grew to Dutch ovens. My mom had always made a point of involving me in the kitchen when I was a kid, so I felt pretty confident cooking and really loved good food. As I had gotten older, true BBQ had always been on my mind. My dad had always talked about learning to make perfect pork ribs, and now that I had my own place, I wanted to start smoking meat. I proceeded to read all sorts of forums and blogs on BBQ. One, in particular, really got my attention: AmazingRibs.com. You should check it out if you haven’t already. I credit Meathead, yes, the name he goes by, for my foundational BBQ knowledge.

Landing on pulled pork as a starting place, I was ready to embark on what has now become a lifelong passion. Being newly married and having just bought a house, my wallet was a little thin as I walked into Home Depot to look at smokers. All the blogs at the time were full of guys who ran Weber Smokey Mountain charcoal smokers, and man did they look cool. But for $200 at the time, it seemed like a steep price. However, there was a modest Brinkman Smoker for $40. It was the same general shape as the WSM and had all the same features, so it should do more or less the same things as a WSM, right? Wrong. Oh, was I wrong, but I am also cheap; still, to this day, I have to remind myself of the number of times I’ve been burned by going too cheap when I go to the store. So, I naively loaded this smoker into the back of the car and headed home on Saturday night. Yes, that’s right, I waited until the Saturday before Memorial Day to buy my smoker and was planning my first cook as this big meal for my wife’s five siblings, parents, in-laws, and several nephews. Can everyone see where this is going yet?

Early in the morning, about 3 am, I got up after spending almost 2 hours the night before trimming my first pork shoulder (this takes about 10 min now) and started a chimney of briquettes to start my cook. Using nothing more than the dial thermometer on the side of the smoker, I fought

 for the next 10 hours to try and keep the temp in the blue “Smoke” zone, blue on the dial, not blue smoke which is a bad thing. I was tired, grumpy, and very frustrated when the mean said it was at 195. Family had already arrived and was clearly starting to get hungry. I had 8 more degrees to go and was making no progress. In desperation, I pulled the pork shoulder out and took it inside to try and shred it. I think I’ve had beef jerky that was more tender than this pork shoulder. After bending 3 stainless steel forks, I gave up and started to chop the meat. The meal was incredibly fine, which was about 10 levels below what I had been willing to settle for. Our family was very gracious, and while I’m sure some of them hit McDonald’s on the way home, no one said anything about the meal being late and below par. They even still talk to me today!

I did so many things wrong on this cook! I bought cheap equipment, used it for the first time ever, let alone made the meal for the first time on an important day, and I started way after I should have. After about 3 more runs with the Brinkman, I threw it away. Costco had a Traeger road show, and I bought a 22” Traeger Jr that I still have today more than 10 years later. Today I start pork shoulders 16 hrs before I want to eat and never pull it before 200 F. There is magic that happens in those last 5 F degrees, I swear. While this experience was not my brightest moment, it really was the start of something amazing. I’ve cooked close to 1,000 lbs of pork shoulders at this point and love the opportunities it's provided me to learn, learn about myself, and gather with great people. As Mike and I kick off this new chapter in Fat Guys with Smokers, I hope you’ll come along with us and be a part of that journey.