Challenging Pork Shoulder.....

[T Rex]

Well, FireMonkey or the Doc......... not yet, er not even close! I decided to do a Pork shoulder, we call them Butts but the shoulder blade portion is removed and it is really a "Picnic"... which weighed approximately 11 lbs.

I fired up the KK at around 7:00 pm however, I believe the following things I did had a HUGE effect on the difficultly I had with this piece. I started by making the KK sparkling clean and filled the basket 3/4 full of Royal Oak Charcoal. I proceeded to light the center of the basket and then after a couple of minutes had second thoughts about just how long this might take sooooo, I sprinkled a bunch more charcoal over the ones that had already been lit. I also placed a nice dry piece of Apple wood about 3" in diameter by 10" long running from the center to the outside of the basket. I did all of the usual stuff to get the KK to 250F and left it there until 8:15 pm when I put the shoulder on. Now I should tell you that I had also hooked up the Guru as this was going to be an all nighter....

For some reason, the temperature took off on me and went straight to 300F before resting and it stayed between 265F and 308F for the next 8 hours until I took the meat off at 195F at 4.15 am this morning! When I saw what the temps were doing I set the pit monitor at 235F and had the alarm going off several times during the night because the 50F buffer was being exceeded. Needless to say, I never got much sleep last night and I doubt the neighbors did as well...... I could sit here and guess at what I did stupid however it would be just that so I will solicit advice from our Forum members.

Here is the product in the nude

After slathering it with mustard (as per Johnnyboy) and the rub in Chris Lilly's book. It was also injected with the marinate he recommends

Everything is on and ready for a nice quiet night

This is what I saw when I opened her up at 4:30 am because the meat probe was reading 195F

I foiled the pork, wrapped it in towels and placed it in a cooler. This is what it looked like around 10:00 am this morning

Because I left too much fat on the shoulder and I think perhaps because of the heat challenges I was having, a lot of the nice bark just slid or melted away into the drip pan.....

Bottom line is that we are still very, very pleased with the end result which could never have been done on our "gasser".....

Soooooo, now that I have a bunch of pulled pork to vacuum seal, the weather here is supposed to be outstanding for a few days and I will finally get to do some of these.....

T Rex

[mguerra]

no problem

First, although you did not hold a steady temp it does not matter because the temp range you had gives a perfect result. You pulled the shoulder off at a proper finish temp as well so you should have an excellent result there.

For your Guru to hold a steady temp you need the following: a full basket of charcoal that has at least some air spaces and is not tightly packed, both bottom doors/ dampers fully closed, your Guru fan nozzle open about 1/4, and your top damper barely cracked open such that some smoke can escape when the fan is not running, and good smoke flow when the fan is running. Your pit temp probe should be a little inboard of the outside diameter of the heat deflector. You don't want the pit probe directly above open fire/ coals so therefore not way out at the edge of the grill. If your Guru is not defective, it will hold the temp dead steady.

Having said all that, good pulled pork can be cooked at any temp between 225 to 300ish.

Your bark comes off with the skin and fat and only sticks to meat. There was a lot of skin on that pre-op photo.

[Tucker]

Results are Results

No matter the temps, your results look great, and wt counts is if they taste great!

Good job.

[T Rex]

Hi Doc, I took all of the skin off however, I believe I left too much fat on. Glad you made reference to the Guru, I just realized that I had the Guru set wide open, did everything else you suggested so I will make sure to close it to 1/4 next time.

Pork shoulders, cryovacced (spelling) on sale for .98 a pound........ Whoo Hoo... I think I still have room for three more in one of my two fish freezers.

T Rex

[mguerra]

98 cents/lb.

See "Humane Pork" in the Komodo Owners Only section. I would never fault anyone for buying supermarket pork, it is not easy to chase down humane, takes a lot of legwork. But if you can...

[Firemonkey]

I dont have a guru, but from others comments in past discussions, the apple "log" likely contributed to your temp swings too. Those big chunks of wood flare up quickly when they the fan fires up.

But as you have tasted, shoulders are forgiving, and your temps were not very far out of line anyway.

BTW, no need to clean the basket out before your long cook, just pour more on top and go for it. That basket is plenty big to cook for days.

[Loquitur]

T Rex - I feel your pain!! I had to get up to take the last pork shoulder I did off the KK at a similar ungodly hour. The problem is that once the coals get too hot for whatever reason, it takes a long time for temps to drop. What I have been doing lately which has helped alot is to put an old Maverick temp probe (with the wire cut off) in the meat and clip my pit probe to it two inches away from the meat. Then I set my Stoker to 25 deg less than I want it to be. Also, I wrap my wood chunks in foil with holes poked in it. As the grill gets heat soaked, I adjust my Stoker temp. With this technique I had no problem keeping my Easter ham at 235 "pit temp in the meat" and there wasn't much difference between what the Stoker was reading and what the Tru Tel was reading. I'm no expert for sure and hope anybody will jump in if I'm giving you any bad advice.

[cruzmisl]

Well a few tips I have used and been very successful. Never place lump on top of lit charcoal. The temps will spike and will be a bear to bring down. I usually bury wood chunks in the lump because you want some heat in the cooker before they start to burn. I find the hotter the fire the cleaner the wood burns but that may be just me. Huge plumes of billowing white smoke isn't as good to my tastebuds.

Cleaning out the cooker isn't necessary unless it's stuffed full of ash. Some ash is actually better since it can minimize airflow somewhat. Use a torch to light the very center of the lump then set your guru wide open with everything else except the top damper closed. Top damper about 1/4 turn. Temp on guru, 200f. Once it gets to 200f close the fan down to about 25% (of wide open) and reset the pit temp to 250f. Then wait at least an hour for the cooker to stabilize. This heat soak is important. Once its stable at 250 toss your food on and go to bed.

The KEY to the guru is this; lets assume without the airflow of the guru fan the temp of the cooker would only be 200f. You want the fan to have to constantly be puffing air into the cooker to maintain the desired temp of 250F. So you need the cooker closed tighter than you would if you had no guru. I have slept 9hrs straight with no issues several times and I have to say its really nice.

FWIW, I like to trim the majority of the fat off my butts too. More surface area for rub which means more bark and correspondinly less fat on me

[T Rex]

Thanks for all the tips, I am already looking forward to my next "Butt"... I don't know if I am blowing my brains out but I have been cleaning the KK after every use and I actually take the charcoal basket out, lay it aside and blow it with a little cordless leaf blower to get all the ash out.... works like a darn but now I am wondering if it is necessary.....

Sunny, sunny, sunny here today, Rib-eyes for supper tonight!

T Rex

[cruzmisl]

I don't know if I am blowing my brains out but I have been cleaning the KK after every use and I actually take the charcoal basket out, lay it aside and blow it with a little cordless leaf blower to get all the ash out.... works like a darn but now I am wondering if it is necessary.....

DEFINITELY NOT necessary. Enjoy your cooker

[LarryR]

Agree and another tip

I dont have a guru' date=' but from others comments in past discussions, the apple "log" likely contributed to your temp swings too. Those big chunks of wood flare up quickly when they the fan fires up.[/quote']

Couldn't agree with this observation more. I always have problems with temp control on my Stoker when I'm too lazy to cut my wood chunk into smaller pieces. Next time cut-up the chunk of wood and bury the pieces in your fuel.

Another tip would be to put your meat on when you're building your fire and let your Guru bring her up to temp with the meat on. This eliminates the need to open your KK once she's at temp and introduce additional oxygen and thus stoking your fire and creating an overshoot that you've got to recover from.

[Firemonkey]

I don't know if I am blowing my brains out but I have been cleaning the KK after every use and I actually take the charcoal basket out, lay it aside and blow it with a little cordless leaf blower to get all the ash out.... works like a darn but now I am wondering if it is necessary.....

DEFINITELY NOT necessary. Enjoy your cooker

Nope. you are definitely making work for yourself. My KK currently has the ash from at least 100 pounds of charcoal in the bottom of it. I only clean it out when it is full - that is, when it impedes airflow too much.

Every now and then I lift the basket out, and push the ashes out around the edges, since it makes a pile in the middle. When there is no more room to move the pile out under the charcoal ring, and the bottom is filled as well, then I just put the shop vac in there and suck it all out. But really, that is like 3 times a year and I use it A LOT!

[Porkchop]

Never place lump on top of lit charcoal. The temps will spike and will be a bear to bring down.

this was the #1 contributing factor to your "wildfire" in the cooker. slow cooks; load it up all the way, light a few hunks of charcoal on the top, and let it burn down into the pile. hiding your smokewood in there is a very good idea, but, imho, i don't think throwing a little log of smokewood on top would have let your fire get away, IF you had set your fire as above.

you lucked out on that shoulder. next one will be crazy good, i predict. try this; cut the skin away from most of the shoulder, but leave a "hinge" attached to the roast. then, apply the rub to the exposed meat and cover it back up with the skin. i've had good results with this. with a good slow fire, the rub stays where it's supposed to and melts right into the fat and bastes all the muscle covered by that flap of skin. basically, if i'm paying for that skin, i want to find a way to use it to my advantage rather than just "throwing it away".

you don't need a guru if you BE the guru...

[T Rex]

Hey 'chops, I hear you. I will be doing another one this week.... and will post results using all the advice.

I did a couple Rib-eyes that turned out very well yesterday, sear marks and all...... I haven't posted pics of them as Mrs. T Rex has an aversion to fat so during the trimming process, I was left with some funny looking pieces of meat after flipping them a couple of times.........

T Rex