First Long Cook

[BandyOrc]

I joined up a few weeks back and did my first cook at the weekend and thought I would post my experience here since it didnt all go well and some feedback would be useful. Some back ground first though, I have never attempted to do pulled pork on a BBQ before having only done it in a slow cooker previous so thought it would be a good first attempt since I know how good it can turn out cooked other ways. I bought myself a Webber One Touch Premium 57cm at Christmas and have been dying to try it out and thanks to the nice weather I finally got a chance.

To summerise the results it turned out OK for a first attempt but definite room for improvement. The pulled pork wasnt as tender as it has turned out in the past and didnt pull apart as easily as it has done either but it still tasted pretty damn good though not as smokey as I would have liked.

The details:

So the plan was to get up, fire up the BBQ early and get it on as soon as possible aiming for 9-9.30ish for getting started and being done about 3-4ish in the afternoon. The pork shoulder was provided by my local butcher and had a memphis rub applied that I have used for pulled pork done in the slow cooker.

However thanks to a run away dog and a 2 year old wanting her dad to give her breakfast I got held up and it didnt get it on till about 11ish so that was the first problem. The second was figuring out setting the temperature of the grill but I got the hang of that pretty quickly. I did notice though that the lid thermometer is out by quite a bit. I have a grill thermometer that I bought and it was a good 20-30 degree of difference between the 2 and when I did some testing with some boiling water and the lid one it looks like it is in fact out quite a bit. I'm not sure if it is worth either getting another one that will fit or modding the lid to add a different one. As I said it the end result tasted ok but I think it needed longer.

The next thing I think didnt go so well was the fuel being used. It was a last minute plan to take a first go with the new grill so I hadnt picked up a decent fuel instead I was stuck with webber stuff that was given away for free when I bought the grill so I had that horrible yellowish ash on the coal and when I decided (again last minute) to have a couple of friends round at night and do some burgers & stuff on the BBQ this fuel didnt do good things and coated alot of food with that horrible ash if fat dripped on it.

All in it was a good learning experience on my new grill but I still have a ways to go. I am looking forward to round 2

[some bloke]

Keep at it, learning is all part of the fun.

[BRUN]

how big was the shoulder ?

it sounds like you didn't give yourself enough time, ive got up at 5am a few times now to get something cooking, you can always have a nap once its on and temps have settled

even a 2kg shoulder could take around 6-8 hours so anything bigger you might even want to start It before going to bed as long as your confident in your fuel and how much the temp might drop overnight

I wont buy anymore of that weber stuff as I experienced the same as you, that yellow ash which happily floats up and onto your food

[slatts]

Hi

Agree that it wasnt on long enough, I like to Q my shoulders (2-3kg) for atleast 12hrs, rest for atleast 30-40mins wrapped in towels etc in a cool box and then pull. I look for an internal temp off 200f.

I use the Weber charcoal and never had a problem with the ash rising up on to the food.
I do have a very out of sync lid thermometer that is probably 30-40degrees out with my maverick. Has anyone got a lid thermometer that is actually accurate??

I love doing pulled pork and theres nothing like a fresh one off the smoker, I have frozen pulled pork in my freezer and will still Q another one.

Keep going and one day it'll all fall into place, if the food is edible then theres no harm practicing all the time.

[BandyOrc]

how big was the shoulder ?

I went for a small shoulder for my first go. Was under 1.5KG, I think it was around 1.3Kg-ish. You are right I definitely did not give myself enough time. Will give myself a bit more time on my next attempt which will hopefully be soon.

I am going to see if I can get a small bag of Big K to give it a go and see how I get on fuel wise. I was a really good learning experience and I still enjoyed the pulled pork and really look forward to doing the next one.