Long smoker day

Sunday was smoke day for one of the two 7 pound pork shoulders. Here's how it went.

I took out the rubbed meat around 7:30 and preheated the grill. I had first removed the smoke and water pans. I put hickory in the smoke box and water in the water pan and put them back. Then I put the remote thermometer in then the shoulder and stuck in the thermometer, careful to avoid the bone.

I made sure the temperature was set properly then set off for the day's chores. I monitored the smoker and the meat temperature and watched it rise slowly through the day.

We headed out for some errands and lost track of time. By the time I got back to add more wood it was after 10AM, almost 2 hours later. Strangely the wood I added did not seem to burn off as well.

Around 4PM the temperature finally reached 190F so I removed the meat, basted it in apple juice then wrapped it in foil and put it back in the smoker. I watched the temperature slowly rise above 190 while I dropped the temperature in the smoker. It was clear that the meat was continuing to cook as the temperature in the meat continued to rise as the smoker temperature dropped. I turned off the smoker after 5PM and removed the meat. It was outstanding - tender and fell apart easily.

We chomped what we pulled off for dinner. I compared the two East Carolina sauces I had made. After dinner I pulled the rest and ended up with four bags of between 12 and 15 ounces by weight of pulled pork (now frozen.)

The new EC sauce I had simmered (true confession: boiled - ooops!) but deemed it too sharply spicey. I have to attribute that to the cayenne. But I like the base, particulary the use of the turbinado sugar and cider vinegar. I think switching to crushed red pepper instead of the cayenne will make a great sauce. I will try this next time.

Lessons learned: it will be time soon to clean the bottom of the smoker. That will not be a pleasant task. I need to learn to use tin foil to cover the top of the smoke box and line the water pan to ease cleanup. Maybe even craft a foil liner for the bottom.

Also, one of the legs is dripping grease, so the bolt must be loose. Left a puddle so I have to tend to that - maybe when I try to clean the bottom? errrr

On another note I ate another chunk of the ribs I smoked. Defrosted and heated in the microwave and it was tender and delicious, though only slightly dry. A little of Famous Dave's sauce and I was STILL impressed with it. Can't wait to cook the other batch in the freezer. Perhaps sometime in August?

One final note regarding the meat thermometer. The Oregon Scientific model I use has preset temperatures for different types of meats. So the top end I could find was 180F. But bringing the meat to 190F means I have to stop the alarm after it reaches and as it rises above 180F. Quite the pain and I will have to consider writing a review on Amazon to note this.