1st Pork Shoulder - Lots of Pics

[och29]

Hi everyone,
Hopefully you might have come here after reading my Hello from Fulham (with pic) or my ProQ Trailblazer Mods with Pics post. The second one has loads of pictures which if you're anything like me are far more interesting than words!

Anyway here's my writeup of my first proper low 'n' slow cook: Pulled Pork! I'll try to keep it photo heavy and take you through everything I did:

I'm really lucky that I have an award winning butcher in the area who has managed to get me everything I have ever asked for. If you're in Central/West/SW London then they are really worth a visit. I want in an asked for a Boston Butt which resulted in but luckily iPhone to the rescue and I ended up with this:

(this is not actually what I got, this is taken after I put the rub on it)

Next step was to create a rub, it was loosely based on things I'd seen before but with an added ingredient - crystalline citric acid.
Yes, it's not something that most people will have around the house but I do! Here's my rational for using it:
Warning Science Ahead

• Citric acid will add a sour note to the flavour which is something missing in almost all dry rubs
• The Maillard Reaction (non-enzyme mediated browning) occurs between proteins and sugars.
• It works better under alkaline conditions - try adding a dash of bicarb to onions if you are browning them (a lot of that is not due to the Maillard Rn but it's an important part)
• Acid should slow down the Maillard Reaction but since it only really happens at temperatures around 154 °C (309 °F) I'm not going to be getting a huge amount of it anyway.
• I might try making another rub that is alkaline to see if it makes a difference but that's for another day

Here's what I started with:

before grinding some spices

and adding them in:

and giving it a good mix

Most went away for another day, in a jar labelled with my best impression of a 5 year old's writing:

but some went on the meat!


Most people say that soaking chips is a waste of time. I wanted to see if I could improve on the process. I mixed some hickory and apple chips with salt and sugar in a jar before topping up with water and sealing under vacuum. The idea of the sugar and salt was to help draw water in by osmosis.

Left over night:


With the retrospectrometer I wish I had weighed the chips before and after to see how much water they had taken up but that can be for next time.
I let the meat sit overnight with the rub on before taking it out of the fridge at 0700 the next morning as a went to light the charcoal. I used the last few good bits from a bag from B&Q and charcoal from the Surrey Hills(bought as a trial - it's too expensive to justify) and some Weber briquettes (never again - too much yellow ash) to act as long burning fuel:

Water pan was placed at the entrance to the main grill and filled with water and grape juice. I had used it for some ribs the other day so there was a bit of residue left.
I set up the grill area so that the main coal tray was at its highest position next to the firebox and lower at the other end. This was so that it would act as a deflector for the heat and smoke:

Not the right setup but give you an idea. It should be high on the right and low on the left

Coals and wood mixed in the firebox:

Hot coals on top:

Pork on:


The cook was ok, I was very busy working during the day but tried to check on the fire every 30 mins. I got quite a lot of smoke to start of with but found that I was burning through the wood very quickly and wasn't getting very high temperatures as read on the grill thermometer.
I was hovering just below 100°C for most of the cook but thought that wasn't too much to worry about. Before I put the chimney extension and rope seals in I was able to get it to sit around 110°C with the firebox vent fully closed. During this cook I didn't manage to get above 100 even with the vents fully open. I suspect it's probably the fuel but since it's only happened since I made the mods it could be due to one of them. Ideas please?

Anyway I was able to cook it for about 11hours. Not as long as I would have like but as I said before I'm very busy at the moment so I couldn't afford to start cooking any earlier. Here's what I got at the end:
Skin Side:

Other Side:


In to the oven (not on) to rest


45mins later I removed the skin and fat:


Made and apple 'slaw:


'Pulled' it and served it up with the 'slaw and a dash of bone suckin' sauce!



Here's the smoke ring:



Hope it was worth the read, if so I'd like some advice please

Any idea about the temperatures? (See the bit in red)

I don't know if I'm expected to have wood chips burning the entire time and if so am I going through them really quickly or am I just being stingy?
I tried the foil packet of chips idea:

...but that burnt through the bottom and all the chips were gone within 30mins before I got back. Am I mean to put it near the fire rather than on it , I guess so Maybe I should get some wood chunks?

I took the pork off and the thermometer said it was about 60-something inside (can't remember the exact number maybe it was 63.4°C). I probably could have cooked it longer but if I had done it might have been over cooked and my temperature seemed quite low? The reason for the doubt is that it didn't pull that easily, I was able to do it but maybe my expectations are a little high... it didn't just fall off the bone.


Thanks for reading,
och29

[KamadoSimon]

Can't comment on the smoker temperature (haven't used one) except to say:

- Lumpwood charcoal does burn hotter than briquettes - so if you are struggling on temperature then I would go for this as my fuel rather than using a mix
- Are you sure your thermometer is accurate? If you haven't already take it off & test in boiling water.

In terms of your temperature for the shoulder, it seems it was too low. The common internal meat temperature people shoot for is between 195F (90C) to 215F (102C).

Again, a common piece of advice on using smoking woods is to only do it for the first two hours or so. After this you may get more of a bitter taste from it. Have to say I haven't tried doing it longer to prove this advice - didn't feel like spoiling any meat! In addition, I get good smokey flavour from much shorter use of wood. But you look like you've done the right thing from your pictures in terms of spreading the chips amounts the coals so different bits will smoke at different times. Try a double foiling to stop the burning through & also I would place on the edge of the coals, not on top - you're looking to get a smolder going rather than a full-on burn, if that makes sense.

Hope that helps.

Cheers,

Simon

[crphillips]

Nice post.

Apparently meat doesn't take on any more smoke after hitting 54°C so smoke is only really needed for first half of the cook or so.

Did the pork pull ok? I've never rally had much success with pulled pork. Every time I do it some of it pull and some of it doesn't. What kind of internal temps do people take pulled pork to? Or are internal temps meaningless and you just cook it until it pulls?

[keith157]

Try slightly bigger bits of wood but only for the first couple of hours. Soaking CHIPS is a good idea it's CHUNKS that don't absorb water, if you put dry chips on it's just extra fuel and gone in minutes Foil packs work well with flavoured charcoals, but I always put lots of holes in the packs.As to citric acid I tend towards lemon-pepper, a light citrus bite, noticable as I don't add hot chilli powder, US or UK.

[och29]

Did the pork pull ok?

Parts did, others not so well. I think it would have been worth cooking for at least another 3 hours. The bits that were a problem were those right in the recesses of the bone. I'm guessing that this is because of the connective tissue they have around them (to attach them to the bone) rather than a temperature problem. They were definitely covered in lots of gelatin rather than the 'dry' texture that I expected.
As for the temperature, I've just looked up the recipe in Modernist Cuisine and they say you should smoke it at 65C(60%RH) for 7hours and then cook in a water bath at 65C for 72hrs. So I guess 65C (149F) is a good guide but you want to hold it at that temperature for a very long time!

Thanks for the advice. Do you actually get a sourness from the lemon-pepper? If it's anything like lemon-salt which has just the rind, there's little to no acid in there, it's just the lemon flavour (the juice conversely has little to no lemon flavour and tonnes of acidity). If so it would be a great alternative for people who don't have citrate.

[KamadoSimon]

Did the pork pull ok?

As for the temperature, I've just looked up the recipe in Modernist Cuisine and they say you should smoke it at 65C(60%RH) for 7hours and then cook in a water bath at 65C for 72hrs. So I guess 65C (149F) is a good guide but you want to hold it at that temperature for a very long time!

I would say this is your problem - if you are just doing this on the smoker / BBQ (and not using a sous vide / water bath), this is too low a temperature to get a decent pull from the pork. Try taking it towards the higher ones quoted above.

[Steve]

At the temperature you hit there it wouldn't have even gone through its plateau.

It's not even reached safe pork eating temp (160F-165F) although it probably rose 10 degrees while resting.

The idea with what you've seen in the modernist book is to get it to the point where the connective tissues start to break down and then hold it there for a very long time. When BBQing you can't do this, so you take it higher. Pork will stall around 160F internal for as much as several hours. You just have to cook through it.

[och29]

I agree that 65C is too low unless you plan on cooking for at least 79hours, it was a bit tongue in cheek!

It's not even reached safe pork eating temp (160F-165F) although it probably rose 10 degrees while resting.

The method MC are quoting won't actually cause a temperature rise, because it's never been cooked above 65C it can never get higher than that... it's the idea behind sous vide cooking. Either way, safe temperatures for food actually depends on the time you cook it for. 71C/160F is the USDA guide for the internal temperature of the meat which once it has reached it is safe i.e. it doesn't need to be held for any length of time at 160F. The lower the internal temperature you want to stop at, the longer you have to keep it at that temperature so for pork:

• 54C/130F - 30 mins (US code of Federal Regulations - Pork) or 112 mins (FDA 2009 Food Code - not specific to pork)
• 60C/140F - 1 minute or 12mins (as above)

I digress,

As for a temperature I had another look and one of the other volumes had a 'Best Bets for Tough Cuts' and Pork Shoulder had the following:

Firm, steak like - 54C/129F
Tender, yielding - 60C/140F
Tender, flaky - 65C/149F
Very flaky - 84C/183F

Their team prefer 'tender, flaky' but I think that 'very flaky' sounds more like what we should aim for to get pulled pork. Of course if we want to get a 84C/183F final internal temperature then allowing for a 10 degree rise (as @Steve pointed out) then I'm going to aim for a 'remove' temperature of 78.3C/173F. Hope that helps @crphillips

[Steve]

I would still say that if you shoot for 173 you will not yield a good pulled product unless you cook it for a long time. I get perfect pulling texture by cooking at 250F for about 12 hours. I don't foil until after the pork beats its stall because that is the key part of the cook and my final internal temperature will typically be around 200F.

However I would never shoot for an internal temperature, I always go by feel. I record the final temperature as doing this has allowed me to build up the experience to know when I need to start physically checking it.

[crphillips]

Cheers guys. Ive usually taken pulled pork to around 200°f. It's pulled well in places by then not in others.

If this is the case do I need to take the temp higher to get it to pull or just hold it at approx 200° for longer? The way i'm understanding it from what you guys are saying is say I take it to 200 and it's a bit tough still.....if I can keep it at 200 for a further hour or two is this likely to improve the pull-a-bility? Or should I be looking to take the internal temp higher? I'm assuming not the latter as we'd end up exceeding 100°c and it would be dry as a nuns c........