Cooking pulled pork

[Altissimus]

Hey,

So I recently tried to cook some pulled pork. It was very nice, but not quite the result I wanted. It was cooked and tender but not to the point it could be pulled.

I intend to have another go, probably next weekend. I'm only cooking a small-ish shoulder (there's only 4 of us) so it'll probably be about 1kg.

It would be great to know a temperature-to-cooking time-to-weight ratio for pulled pork - if there is such a science! My weber OTP's thermometer pretty much always tells me the heat gets to about 200-220 degrees C with my "usual" setup (two charcoal holders double-layered on one side; drip pan on the other) - but I have no idea if that's at the grill, at the indirect heat point, or simply in the roof of the lid.

So, I don't know how hot my weber is, I don't know how long to cook a 1kg shoulder for to get it to the point it can be pulled, I don't know whether cooking it at 120 (say) for five hours is the same as 150 (say) for four....

In short, some help would be welcome!

Cheers,
A.

[YetiDave]

If it can't be pulled it could be for a couple of reasons - a small cut like that might be a more lean part of the shoulder which could make it harder to pull. Either that or it wasn't cooked to a high enough internal temp. Give this website a look - it's not foolproof, but it should help with times and temps http://meatsmokingcalculator.com

Thermometers in a domed lid are often a bit far off the mark, my Pro Q was showing 300F on the dome thermometer yesterday, but at grate level it was at 230F. I'd work on the assumption that your lid therm is going to show hotter than it actually is. It may be worthwhile investing in a cheapo oven thermometer to sit on your grate just to give you an idea of grate level temp vs dome temp

[Altissimus]

Thanks Yeti.

I tried that link you suggested and it started talking about foil, resting and safe zones. Wot?

I didn't know you had to cook pulled pork in foil. I also didn't know you had to let it stand for hours.

Is this a necessary part of the process?

Cheers,
A

[YetiDave]

Is foil necessary? No, but it will speed up the cook. Although there's a trade off as it'll give a softer bark. Ignore the safe zones bit, it won't really be relevant. As for resting, I usually wrap it in foil, then in a towel and leave it somewhere to sit for an hour. You can keep it hot for hours if you wrap in foil, in towels then throw it in a coolbox

[Altissimus]

Thanks

What difference does resting make?

[YetiDave]

It supposedly (I'm half and half whether it actually makes a difference) allows muscle fibres to relax and redistribute some of the juices

[Matsuya]

Additionally, the pork should keep cooking for a bit (the more insulation the longer) and make it even more tender.

This is a less controversial point than that made above - I'm also a bit dubious as to the water movement theory!

[YetiDave]

Yeah you're spot on there!

[RobinC]

You don't have to let pulled pork rest for hours but I've always found that it is better if you do.

[MyLeakyBucket]

A.

I don't have a lot of experience in this area, but I've had the same problem a few times with pork being tender but not able to be pulled.

I think my main problem was too much relience on cooking time, not enough on internal temperature of the pork. For a good result I've found that I need to aim for an internal temperature of at least 195F and probably a bit higher ideally. The cooking time has varied too much between different cuts to be a reliable indicator of when it's ready.

As I understand it, you'll find the temperature of the meat stalls around 150-170 for a good few hours and the foil can help speed up the cooking. I haven't treid this though.