Cookie's Pork Shoulder 101

[Cookie]

A few of my friends have purchased KK's. Without fail, I get hit up for a "how to" guide on pork shoulders. The guide below is taken from my emails. It is lengthy, but is intended for guys that just uncrated their KK and have zero experience, not only with the KK, but with lump, KK extruded, etc. I know seasoned (no pun intended) KK vets have their own outstanding tried and true methods, but my newbies have all had success with this, so maybe I'll get motivated and turn it into a video at some point.

Meat / Preparation

1. I usually order a 3-4KG Pork Shoulder (bone-in) from the butcher in Chip Bee Gardens (Holland Village). He is expensive, but only guy I have found for that understands exactly what I need for this cook. I use cheaper guys for other cooks. It will shrink a fair bit during the cook, but will be enough for a dinner party and some leftovers to help nurse a hangover.

2. If your butcher hasn't already, use a sharp knife to score the layer of fat on the top side of the pork shoulder. This will keep it from tightening up during the cook. I always ask the butcher to do this for me, and he knows what to do.

3. Use 1/2 - 3/4 cup of a dry rub to coat the outside of the pork shoulder. Use your fingers, massage it in. I think the rub described in this link is identical to what I use out of one of my cookbooks:

http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/food ... index.html

Komodo Kamado Setup

I always start with a full beer close at hand.

1. Fill your charcoal basket full, but loosely (you need room for air to flow). If you are going to use a smoking wood, place a chunk in the bottom, a chunk in the middle, and reserve a chunk for the very top, to be added after you have established a good light. You do not want to have to restock during the middle of your cook (it is a pain), and more importantly, it is important to have a full basket for airflow purposes. Air coming in through the bottom vent follows the path of least resistance, and if you don't have a full basket, you may lose your light early in the cook -- has happend to me a couple of times when I was skimping on charcoal in the basket.

2. Open the bottom vent all the way and the top vent 4 full rotations.

3. Light about a tennis ball size patch of charcoal dead center on the top of the charcoal pile. Make sure it is good and lit / glowing if you can get it there with whatever you are using to light your charcoal. I use a propane torch. Another option is to use a charcoal chimey to light a tennis ball size and then dump it in the center on top. I always burn top down, not bottom up. Another option if in a pinch is to use a side burner on a gas BBQ (if you have one) and hold the charcoal with tongs (that are insulated in the handle) to get it lit. You get the idea.

4. Place the small stone heat deflector that came with your KK, centered, directly on the handles of the charcoal basket (I wrap mine in foil for easy cleanup after it has been dripped on). Close the lid, keeping the vents open as described in #2 above for 10 - 15 minutes. This establishes a good light and airflow pattern. You may want to set a timer because you don't want to go any longer than 10-15 minutes. If you overshoot on temperature, it takes forever to come back down.

5. After 10-15 minutes, close the bottom vent to just a hair more than credit card thickness. Close the top vent completely, and then re-open to 1/4 turn. This may seem crazy, but I promise you, that is all the airflow that you need to achieve your target temperature of 220F-225F.

6. Take the one wood chunk you've reserved for the beginning of the cook and place it directly on the hot spot of your lit charcoal. Put the bottom and main racks in, keep the elevated top rack out for now.

7. Close the lid and and the wood chunk you just placed on top is going to start smoking with a thick white smoke -- which is not good smoke for your food. While this "acric" smoke is burning off, the KK is also getting heat soaked, which you want it to do before adding the meet.

8. Let the KK come up to the desired temp of 220F - 225F. This will take 45 mins - 1 hour. If it takes much longer, you may not be lit, in which case you need to go back to step 3.

9. Once at temp, place the upper rack in the KK and place the pork shoulder, fat side on top, on the upper rack. With the fat on top, the pork self bastes with its own juices.

10. Place a drip pan directly under the pork shoulder with about an inch of water in it -- there is much debate amongst KK owners about whether or not this is required. I always do it.

11. Close the lid, crack open another beer. If your temperature is slightly off now, don't worry, you had the lid open while you put in the pork and drip pan, it will sort itself out in about 20 mins...don't touch the vents thinking you need to fix the situation.

12. If you have a 3 KG Pork Shoulder, you will want to start checking the internal temperature 7 hours into the cook. Typically it will be done in 8-10 hours, but you don't want to miss your target desired internal meat temp of 195F. Actually, you want 197F, but the meat continues to cook once out of the cooker.

13. Remove meat once it hits 195F. Wrap it in foil first, then wrap it in a towel. Let it sit for 30 minutes. Pull off and discard visable fat, meat will pull easily with a fork. Serve it up with your favorite sauce and sides.

The hardest part is getting it lit properly (your propane torch is your best friend here, don't be shy with it in the beginning, I spend a good 5 minutes just lighting that tennis ball portion of charcoal in step 3). Once it is lit, it will maintain temperature at 225F on one full basket of charcoal for days!!!

[MadMedik]

Re: Cookie's Pork Shoulder 101

Very good advice for a beginner. Good rub too. I have never 'scored' the layer of fat and I usually put them fat side down. I will give this a try.

MadMedik

[mguerra]

Re: Cookie's Pork Shoulder 101

A perfect tutorial, Cookie. There is a real debate on 9 and 10 but that's unimportant for this instruction. Follow as Cookie has described and you get perfect results.