British BBQ Society Forums

I have tried this 3 times now, the first came out ok, the second perfect but yesterday the pork was not pullable, but needed to be sliced

The pork shoulders I'e used have been around 2-3kg and i've rubbed and fridged overnight, then cooked at around 225-250f with a lid guage using cherrywood chips.

I must admit that yesterday - i did open the lid a few times within the first hour to add more chips. The butt was on the grill for around 8hrs and rested for 80mins after. I could not pull the bone like my previous efforts. The bark could have been better.

I'm cooking on a large kingsford kettle

Am i missing something?

Thanks

With a pork butt, you just can't go strictly by time. The meat needs to get to a good 195F for it to be "pullable". So you need a thermometer that you can insert into the meat while it is cooking. A remote thermometer is a good thing to have.

If the pork was 3kg, that would equate to about 6 1/2 pounds (I'm a Yank, I can't think in kg ). It usually takes 1 1/2 hours per pound, so it wouldtake almost 10 hours for a pork butt of that size.

What Mike is saying is sound advice, you really want a thermometer to be sure you're getting it right. I can do it approximately by time then I can probe it with a skewer and tell when it's good by feeling but this is no where near as consistent as cooking to temperature.

There's just too many variables to consider as well, 4.5lbs to 6.5lbs is a significant weight difference and will affect time. The make up of your butt can do the same, if there's more collagen in there, the butt will stall for longer during cooking. Also you're Kettle will vary in temp throughout the cook.

Pick up a cheap remote probe thermometer, Ikea do one for less than a tenner, and give that a whirl I guarantee you'll get more consistent results.

thanks guys, looks like I'll be making another investment - can you recommend a decent probe/thermo?

Thanks

Hi Such,

I think the redicheck ET-73 is a great unit as one of the probes can be left in the meat throughout the cook but you tend to have to get them in from the US, Weber do a digital probe also but this is not dual.

Here is a link to some on Amazon which can be used for testing the meat temps http://www.amazon.co.uk/s/ref=nb_sb_ss_i_0_12?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=temperature+probe&x=0&y=0&sprefix=Temperature+

http://www.ikea.com/gb/en/catalog/products/20103016

I agree I would not know what was going on without a digital thermometer.

I went for the us thermometer mentioned earlier from an eBay seller. Took a little time to arrive and I got stung with customs but it is a very handy remote thermo. I was surprised at how far out the lid thermo was particularly at the higher temp.

Thanks for all your help. I'll look at sourcing a maverick from River Country across the pond. Bought my temp gauge from them and it only took 6 days to arrive via us postal service

anyone recommmend a maverick probe - I am looking at this:
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll? ... K:MEWAX:IT

Any good?

Thanks

I would go for the ET-73 based on VFM

http://www.maverickhousewares.com/et73.htm

I can use just one of these between two smokers or use the food probe and chamber probe in one. I appreciate it is a bit more expensive, but I'm certain you can find em cheaper. Mine cost me $27 each.