Grilling and smoking thread

[BigVMan23]

Anyone ever turbo smoked a picnic shoulder? I thought the wife bought a ham for dinner tonight, I was going to smoke it slow for about 5 hours, putting in on around noon. When I pulled it out of the fridge it was NOT a ham hah. Turns out it's a 10.5lb picnic shoulder. I got it on around noon and and debating whether to crank the temp up on it to try and get it done around 7 or bite the bullet and pull it off before bed and eat it tomorrow.

 

How did it turn out? Last shoulder I did took 15 hours to get to the proper temp for pulled pork, it was just stubborn and did not want to get to temp. If you aren't pulling it you don't have to get the temp as high.

[JDEaston]

How did it turn out? Last shoulder I did took 15 hours to get to the proper temp for pulled pork, it was just stubborn and did not want to get to temp. If you aren't pulling it you don't have to get the temp as high.

 

It actually turned out great and was still super tender. It hit an internal temp of 205 in about 6 1/2 hours, I let it rest for about an hour and pulled it. It cruised right through the stall without wrapping it at all and had a great bark all around and skin on the top side that was just like cracklin's that you get from a whole pig cook.

 

The only thing that was odd about the cook is that the meat was red nearly all the way through kinda like a corned beef. Due to the short time of the cook when I started pulling it apart I was thinking "oh no, it's not done" so I checked it with a different thermometer and it was still at 195 after an hour of rest, still steaming and would burn your fingers. Throw in the fact that it pulled so easy and I knew it was done. I haven't exactly figured out what the red color is from because the smoke profile was normal, not bitter or too smokey but I think it is due to me injecting it with Angry Orchard Apple beer about 30-45 minutes after I put it on. The smoke ring that you usually get is caused from a chemical reaction, my guess is the cold beer intensified the reaction and turned the meat that color all the way to the bone.

[BigVMan23]

How hot did you smoke it? Must have been pretty hot to get it 200 deg internal in 6 1/2 hours.

[JDEaston]

How hot did you smoke it? Must have been pretty hot to get it 200 deg internal in 6 1/2 hours.

 

The first 2-2.5 hours I ran it around 250 so it would have an opportunity to take some smoke. Then I gradually let the grill run up in temp until it hit about 350 and locked it in there. I was still surprised at how quick it cooked, but they all cook different so maybe there was a little luck involved as well.

 

 

[BigVMan23]

Last 2 shoulders I did one took 12 hours and the other 15, same size same cook temp. The second one just didn't want to come up to temp to pull it.

[JDEaston]

Last 2 shoulders I did one took 12 hours and the other 15, same size same cook temp. The second one just didn't want to come up to temp to pull it.

 

Typically at 225-250 throughout the cook 12 or so hours is about when mine finish. This is the first hot and fast cook I've done with a shoulder and was really surprised with the results. Just as tender as a low and slow but the skin came out like cracklin's, you cant see that from the pictures because I turned the shoulder over when I let it rest, the skin is actually on the bottom. Any large chunk of meat is pretty much done when it's done though, there really is no time frame to go by, you just go by the internal temp and check to see that it's probe tender as well. For whatever reason they all cook somewhat differently. I would never try what I did with this picnic shoulder with a brisket but pork shoulders are pretty forgiving and can handle higher temps so I figured what the hell. After this one I'll try it again but don't necessarily expect the same results.

 

One other thing is that this is the first picnic shoulder I've ever done, typically I get the traditional upper portion of the shoulder, but I didn't purchase this myself, this piece was actually the lower portion of the shoulder. That could have a little to do with it cooking so fast, but I wouldn't swear to it.

[BigVMan23]

Smoking this past weekend (4/29). Smoked 2 smallish pork sirloin roasts (never even heard of that until I bought these) then pulled them. Smoked some chicken quarters that turned out just beautiful. The pulled pork might have had the best bark on it I ever tasted.

 

[BigVMan23]

Also made a Carolina style vinegar bbq sauce this weekend. If you like tangy sweet and peppery, this is for you.

 

2 cups apple cider vinegar

2 cups white vinegar

4 cups water

1 small can plain tomato paste

 

On stove bring to a hard simmer, add, to taste:

 

2/3 cups + a little more white sugar

kosher salt

black pepper

onion powder

garlic powder

dry mustard powder

sriracha sauce

honey

lemon juice

 

This is a very tangy sauce that you can crank up the heat level on depending how much sriracha sauce (or favorite hot sauce) you use in it. Very very good on pulled pork.

 

This recipe made 5 condiment squeeze bottles worth. That's quite a bit of sauce. You can half the recipe and get a couple of bottles out of it. Add spices and taste as you go to get it to the level you want. If you like a Carolina style sauce I think you will like this recipe.

[JDEaston]

That's some excellent looking pork @BigVMan23. A few of us went up to our lake camper this weekend and decided to switch things up a bit and grill seafood over an open campfire. We had salmon filets, shrimp and mussels. Loaded baked potatoes as the side but we did those on the charcoal grill to save some time. I don't have a picture of the final product (there was a bit of drinking going on) but here is the salmon and some "test shrimp" to snack on while waiting on the salmon and potatoes to finish. I'll definitely be doing salmon a lot more often in the future.

 

[Pete W]

Made some pulled pork on my Akorn on rainy Oaks Day. Got a 2-pack of pork shoulders from Sam's Club combined 17.5 lbs. used old Pork Barrel rub from Sam's.

Cooked hot and fast at around 290-325 degrees, temp varied due to wind and rain.

Total cook time was 6.5 hours for smaller, 7 hours for larger shoulder.

Came out very tender and juicy, here is one of them pulled

Monitored with my igrill2

Still have about 7 lbs of leftovers for Derby

[JDEaston]

Great looking pork! This is the second website I've seen that pork on today hah.

[BigVMan23]

I smoked 8 chicken quarters and a rack of ribs last night. Took a picture but was too big to upload and could not figure out how to resize on my phone. Turned out just extremely delicious. Did something a little different with the ribs... I added a teaspoon of horseradish to the mustard before I rubbed it on the ribs and then placed my dry rub. Oh man was it good.

[Pete W]

Took a picture but was too big to upload and could not figure out how to resize on my phone.

I had the same issue, I just emailed them to my self and when it asked what quality to send picked a lower quality smaller files

[BigVMan23]

I had the same issue, I just emailed them to my self and when it asked what quality to send picked a lower quality smaller files

 

That's what I normally do but I didn't have access to my computer at the time.

 

By the way, what brand of temp gage are you using? And I am assuming you can leave that in as it's cooking? I am in the market for something like that.

[BigVMan23]

Ok, finally got picture from Saturday night resized. man was this some good eating. Unfortunately didn't get a pic of the ribs.