On Sunday I whipped up some more pulled pork. Maybe “whipped up” isn’t the right way to say it since it isn’t exactly the quickest meal to make. Let me re-phrase that… Last Sunday I waited and waited while the glorious combination of wood-smoke, spices, pork and Rodenbach Grand Cru washed over me bringing intense hunger and anticipation. Yeah, thats better.
The pork went in the smoker just before breakfast. Instead of cooking at the normal 95-110°C (roughly 200-225°F) I set the smoker up around 125°C (257°F) because I didn’t want to still be cooking the next morning. The WSM did a beautiful job holding right between 122-128°C without any further assistance from me. After 5 hours in the smoke I started to mop the pork every 2-3 hours with a mixture of Rodenbach Grand Cru and some of the rub.
After 8-9 hours the meat hit the plateau at 75°C (internal meat temp) and stayed there for almost 4 hours. I ended up ramping up the smoker temp to 150°c (300°F) for the last 3 hours of the cook until I reached an internal temp of 88-90°C (190-194°F). In total the cook time was almost 14.5 hours, which for a piece this large isn’t so long. It was also nice that I didn’t have to add any more fuel during the cook. The resulting Rodenbach infused pork was fantastically tasty, succulent and pulled apart with ease! The freezer is now happily stuffed with this treat. The stash should last me a while and allow for some experimentation. One thing I need to try out are Noskos’s Pulled Pork egg-rolls!
Pork Rub:
- ½ cup brown sugar
- ½ cup paprika
- 1/3 cup coarse sea salt
- 1 tbsp fresh ground black pepper (I may up this a touch next time)
- 4 tsp. dry mustard powder
- 3 tsp garlic powder
- 1 ½ tsp cayenne pepper
mix together and rub half on the picnic. Refrigerate pork over night and rub again in the morning. Save some rub for the mop and the sauce.
RodenMop:
- 1 33cl. bottle Rodenbach Grand Cru
- 1 tbsp rub
heat on the stove and use warm
RodenQue Sauce:
- 1 33cl. bottle Rodenbach Grand Cru
- 2-3 tbs brown sugar (I like 2 but Mrs. Smokey likes 3)
- 1/2 cup Ketchup
- 1/2 cup tomato puree (not concentrate)
- 1-2 tbs of whatever rub you are using
- 1/4 tsp onion powder (optional)
Simply combine all the ingredients in a pot and reduce on a medium fire (about 35-45 minutes). Pour the finished sauce back into a cleaned Rodenbach bottle and pop in a cork or stopper.
Yes, yes … it was lovely (especially liked your sauce … that was a tasty addition to the meal)!
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Do you ever wet marinate your pork? I wonder what soaking the whole thing in some rodenbach would taste like? You got me wondering because soaking a pork shoulder in coke before bbq/smoking always provides wonderful caramelization (probably from the fructose) but the taste is always amazing
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Yeah, I marinate smaller pieces of meat. My feeling is that on a large cut you don’t get much penetration when marinating and the caramelizing will happen anyway with your mop (as long as it has some sugar of course). Sometimes I will inject large pieces. I have marinated pork loins in Rodenbach with a spoonful of honey and that works great!
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So, while Ive done a lot of grilling I havent done much bbq’ing (low and slow)
I have a charcoal grill I built into an outdoor island, It has an adjustable charcoal tray so I can adjust the heat level a bit. Basically the point in all this rambling is can you offer some basic tips for cooking something like your shoulder nice and slow with this type of equipment?
I dont plan on going as large as you did, but maybe in the ballpark of 4-6#
Basically I know that I should build up the charcoal on the otherside of the grill
Cook the meat indirectly for several hours
But how easy is it to maintain temps? Or augment the charcoal if its necessary? For charcoal I will probably use a bunch of normal briquettes along with some pecan and mesquite wood I have
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ryane,
Mike over at Another Pint Please ( http://www.anotherpintplease.com/ ) once put up a “pulled pork on a weber kettle grill” post on Instructables ( http://www.instructables.com/id/Pulled-pork-on-a-Weber-kettle-grill/?ALLSTEPS ). That may be a good place to start. I would say that you want your charcoal tray on the lowest setting if it is height adjustable. Using briquettes rather than lump charcoal will help keep the temp down a bit and the fire will burn longer. Build a small fire on one side of the grill. To further help you could make a sort of shield with a sheet of tinfoil hanging from the cooking grate to separate the hot and cold sides to prevent scorching your meat on one side. Some people use firebricks (not normal bricks because they can explode!)
If you can’t keep the temp down low enough, don’t sweat it. A lot of people are now trying their pork shoulders at higher temps.
if you don’t already have a probe thermometer I would suggest getting one. Preferably one that you can leave in the meat. I have a Maverick ET-73 that I love. My Oregon Scientific AW129 is also good. Or you can get a non-wireless one from IKEA for $8. I have that one too but it is not as accurate, I think.
other interesting things to look at:
http://tvwbb.com/eve/forums/a/tpc/f/5980069052/m/6671071906
http://tvwbb.com/eve/forums/a/tpc/f/9040039023/m/9181059216
http://tvwbb.com/eve/forums/a/tpc/f/9040039023/m/243101076
http://badgerandblade.com/vb/showthread.php/143842-Weber-kettle-conversion-to-LOW-and-SLOW-smoker-PICS
good luck and let me know how it goes. Maybe “Ryan Brews” needs to be turned into “Ryan Brews and Ques!”
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