Hello!
I reckon I'll post a "disappointed" thread every time I try something new, can't seem to nail it first time
I bought a lump of pork shoulder from Tesco's on Friday, it was about 2.1KG (4.5lbs or so). I know it's not the best quality but I thought I'll try it for my first foray into pulled pork. I trimmed the fat cap off of it last night, left a good spread of fat still! I made my rub, applied it using french's mustard and left it in clingfilm over night!
So the day went;
8am - Setup snake method on Weber 57cm using Aussie heat beads, cherry wood chips in smoke box in place. Snake lit!
8.30am - Temp up to 275f, pork went in
Between 1.30pm-2pm - noticed the internal temperature was stuck at 151f, not moving. I wrapped it in foil, and plonked it back in, magic!
3.30pm the internal temp was 183f - I thought great, I'll un-foil it and let it crisps the bark. Well the internal temp DROPPED from 183 to 171 in the space of an hour! Not sure what was going on here, I checked it with my more trusted Thermopop instant read thermo and it confirmed internal temp was in the 170s - found it very odd that this would happen.
4.45pm - wrapped in foil again in anger, added some more beads of heat and the temperature started to pick up.
6.15pm - heard the ring of joy, the magic number of 195f was hit! Time to pull it off right? Well I put my Thermopop in to double check and it read 205f! Grrr, didn't feel particularly soft either! At this point I was in two minds to let it rest, or pull it. I chose to rest it for 30mins as opposed to an hour.
6.45pm - Pork pulled and it was in my opinion, dry!
Should the pulled pork be soft and juicy? That's what I was expecting. Perhaps the cut was cheap? or I overcooked it? Expectations too high?!
I would welcome any criticism, tips or suggestions to the steps I outlined above! thanks for you time.