Food Major pork carnage going on at my place this weekend.

We are having a big chunk of my wife's family (that's not the pork carnage ) over for a cookout tomorrow. I'm doing a 10lb pork shoulder, which will be made into pulled pork, and 8 full racks of ribs.

The pork shoulder will go on sometime before midnight tonight, probably about 10pm. I estimate it will take about 15hrs. The ribs I do for 5-6hrs.

Here are the basics of what I do:

I make my own rub. I'll obviously need to double or triple this (or more) for that quantity of meat.
1/4 cup brown sugar
3 tbl paprika
2 tbl black pepper
1 tbl celery salt
1 tbl onion powder
2 tsp garlic powder
2 tsp mustard powder
1 tsp ground cumin
1 tsp chipolte pepper powder

You don't want to rub pork too early IMO, an hour or two before going on the smoker is plenty. Both the ribs and the shoulder take the same rub. Since the meat is a different consistency in each, it compliments them differently.

For the pork shoulder, I'll also inject it with a solution of about 2 cups apple juice, 2 tablespoons apple cider vinegar, and 3 tablespoons of the above rub just before I rub it. Then I'll apply a bit of olive oil to help the rub stick better and liberally apply the homemade rub.

For the smoker (I have a Big Green Egg, the best thing since sliced bread!) I use a mix of cherry wood and hardwood lump charcoal. I have a ceramic plate setter that keeps the heat indirect. Depending on your smoker you'll have to figure out the best way to keep the temp under control and the heat indirect. I put a pan of apple juice in to help with moisture and keep the heat between about 200* and 240* (aiming for about 215-220*). I have a digital thermometer that has dual probes, one for meat temp and one for ambient temp in the smoker. I'll put the pork shoulder in tonight planning on about 1 1/2 hours per lb, but leaving me enough time before tomorrow's dinner that I can go an extra couple hours if necessary as it's not perfectly predictable. What I aim for is somewhere around 195* internal temperature. At this point you should be able to grab the bone and turn it without too much resistance from the surrounding meat. That means all the colligans have broken down nicely and it'll be good and juicy. You want to be sure to leave the smoker closed as much as possible through this process, especially for the first several hours. I may lightly spray it with the injection mixture any time I do open the lid, and I usually flip the shoulder about 50-60% of the way through the cooking time. Optimally, I'll pull the pork about 90 minutes - 2 hours before dinner. I'll wrap it in foil and throw it in the oven, which I'll have preheated to 200* then turned off. I'll let it rest in the oven for about 45 minutes or so. After that, I'll use a couple of big salad forks to pull it apart. As I do that I make sure to mix in the outer bark with the rest of the meat, sprinkle in a very small amount of rub, and spray a small amount of the injection mixture on as I pull and mix the pork. You have to go easy on the rub and injection mixture, but a small amount will help the overall flavor and moisture. That is all best served (IMO) on some plain hamburger buns with a small amount of Sweet Baby Ray's BBQ sauce and a small portion of cole slaw lumped on top. If you want to spice it up, throw a thin slice of pepperjack on there too. But if you go too heavy on the sauce, cheese, or slaw, you lose the awesomeness of fresh pulled pork, so go easy!

For the ribs, I keep the wood and temp of the smoker exactly the same. In fact, for tomorrow's purposes, I'll throw the ribs on while the pork shoulder is still finishing. The ribs I plan for about 5 1/2 hours. I rub them 30-45 minutes before smoking, and you don't want to apply too much rub or the ribs taste a bit gritty when they are done. For the first three hours I keep the ribs on the smoker naked, flipping them once about 90 minutes in. After that, I pull them off and as quickly as possible wrap them in foil and throw them back on. After another 90 minutes or so of them being on the smoker in foil, I pull them a second time. This time I apply some Sweet Baby Rays BBQ to each side, rewrap them in foil, and put them back on for another 30-45 minutes. Finally, at the very end I pull them a third time and crank up the fire to 350-400*. I finish them with about 3-5 minutes on each side at this higher temp to complete the process. Let them rest for 8-10 minutes, and they are ready to serve.

All of this goes down starting tonight, so I'll try to add pics as possible late tonight and/or tomorrow.

 

I said yes. But the wife said she doesn't want some creepy guy from the internet crashing her family party.

 

Correction - She said any creepy guys who pay the mortgage are welcome.

 

Almost 40lbs of porcine goodness!

 

The shoulder has been rubbed and injected. We're going out for dinner and a few glasses of wine at a local wine bar. When I get home I'll fire up the BGE and throw it on.

 

And then there was fire.



Home from the wine bar. Don't ask about the tab.

Prepping the smoker now. Should have it in shape to throw the pork shoulder on within 30-ish minutes.

 

I threw the shoulder on about 11pm last night. I have a dual zone digital thermometer with an alarm on it. I set for it to go off when the pork shoulder gets to 193* (to give me time to prep before taking it off at around 195-198*), or if the temp in the smoker varies outside of the 195-245* range. It was about 225* when I went to bed last night. The alarm just went off at 5am when it got down to 195*. I've definitely got it to hold temps longer before, but I was tired and didn't want to spend too much time last night fine tuning it so I just counted on the alarm to help me if needed. My goal now is to keep it between 200-215* for the next 7-8 hours.

 

9AM and 28lbs of pork rib goodness:



I'm pretty sure this is about all I can fit on there (the pork shoulder is now in the very back):





You can see vertical racks peeking through in spots, so there is some space between the racks of ribs to get smoke in there. In about 90 minutes I'll move them around and rotate which ones are more on the outside.