Last minute help please.. cooking Pulled Pork - UPDATE 5/5 in OP

In a PREVIOUS THREAD I got a LOT of great information from everyone and I really appreciate the education I got.. I have my inlaws/family coming here on Friday and the pulled pork is for supper around 6pm..

I want to go low and slow (under 250 degrees and cook until the meat hits close to 190) and with the number of ppl we are having I am going to cook an 8 lb boston butt - which should take 12 to 16 hrs to cook (based on 1.5 to 2 lbs per hour rule of thumb) and then needs to rest before we pull and eat it -

BUT I dont want to plan on 12 and have it take 16.. with other things needing to be cooked I do need to do this on the grill outside..

I have read on several places about pulling the pork after 2 to 3 hrs and then putting it in a pan with water/apple juice, and covering it with aluminum foil and cook it for another 2 to 3 hrs until done- Texas Crutch describes it.. Anyone use this method? Recommended? Do you have a better way of doing a similar thing?


My questions are:

1) Should I just cook this on Thursday instead of Friday and to it for the full 12 to 16 hrs - or until it gets to temperature

2) OR should i do the 'texas crutch' and cook it on friday?

thanks

Brian
====================

UPDATE - 5/5

I made a few mistakes but it turned out excellent yesterday.. My butt was 8.6 lbs, so i started it on Thursday night around 1030 and the grill stayed about 225 degrees all night and most of the next day.. My two biggest mistake were a) after checking it about 1 or 2 pm and when it was about 160 degrees (i need a BBQ thermometer) and then we kept opening the grill and checking it every 1/2 hr or so waiting for it to head on up to 190ish, AND/OR b) I was pouring a cup of vinegar mix over it every time we opened it (which i thought was to help keep it moist) but now i think it kept it cooled down some

Either one or both of my mistakes really slowed down the internal temperatures rise - about 5pm (19 hrs later when it should have been done after 17 hrs @ 2 hrs /pound) it finally hit 180 degrees and I pulled it off.. Let it rest and then pulled it.. BUT it was still very moist and delicious..

I didnt get any pics because we were pushing right up to when we wanted to eat..

Thanks for ALL the advice and for sharing your expertise with me, I really appreciate it.. It was HUGE hit with my inlaws and my parents


Brian

I would purchase two 4 lbs. butts and smoke for 6 hours, let rest for an hour then pull pork. I'm certain others will chime in with better advice. Good luck and enjoy your dinner!

Do the big one. But that may not be enough if they are big eaters. There is some waste if you toss all the gross stuff when you are pulling it.

Put it on the grill before you go to bed. Get up early and pull it.

You can check it and turn it over in the middle of the night if you wake up and are curious.

This is not rocket science. That's why we do it.

There's lots of room for error.

It is better to overcook a bit (cook for too long––-but keep the temperature low) than under cook it.

It should just come apart. If you have to wrestle with it to come apart it is not done.

Disclaimer- I do pulled pork in a crockpot because you can get fantastic results with a good Sauce and its incredibly easy.

That being said I try to err on the side of caution when it comes to cook time. Every time I try to push it it ends up taking longer than I expected.

For rubs, I've experimented quite a bit and found that they don't make enough difference to justify it if you are adding barbecue sauce.

As for putting it in water/apple juice, I can't tell you. When I do mine I put apple cider vinegar and beer in the crock pot with the meat and it gives it a lot of really good flavor.

Again, I don't have experience with smoking, but I have a very hard time believing that an 8lbs boston butt will be done in 4-6 hours using your alternate method.

Yes, I realize this probably doesn't help you much

ETA: The above advice is good IMO. At that low temperature overcooking it a bit isn't a big deal- pull it a bit early and keep it warm- but if its not done cooking you're fucked.

I usually do whole hogs but the bottom line is it's hard to overcook pulled pork, especially if you're serving it with some sort of sauce. I would start it plenty early and then plan on reheating it on low in the oven if necessary.

If you are worried about time, cook it the day before and reheat in a crock pot.

There is an excellent finishing sauce that you can use for the reheat.

1 Cup Cider Vinegar
2 Tablespoons Brown Sugar
1 Teaspoon Tony Chachere's Cajun Seasoning
1 Teaspoon Course Black Pepper
1 Teaspoon Red Pepper Flakes

Warm the Vinegar up enough so that it dissolves the Sugar well. Then add the remaining ingredients.



I don't think you are going to be able to "pull" the pork after only 2 to 3 hours. Time and temp are needed to break down the meat.
I cook butts to 170 when I want sliced pork, 195 or so for pulled.

Start it early enough so that even if it takes the full sixteen, you still have some time to rest it. The last time I made it, it was done 3 hours earlier than needed. I wrapped it in foil, wrapped it in a towel, and rested it in a cooler until dinner time. It was still hot 3 hours later. Also, if you get down to crunch time, you can increase the heat to speed things up. I set my electric smoker to 225 with a goal of 200 internal. If I'm a few degrees short and I'm getting close, I'll turn the heat up to speed it up a bit. Always comes out fine.

Start earlier than needed, rest longer to fill any gap.

You can bring it up over 250 at times (not the whole time) and its not going to hurt that meat. It is very forgiving with all the fat and stuff in it.

Make SURE to go at least over 190 though, even 200 is OK.

ETA: and the post above me is good advice too

Option C. Throw it in the trash and buy a brisket.

Why trade for more expensive, touchier to cook and inferior meat?

Pork butt is THE perfect meat for smoking. Brisket is good, but if you put properly cooked examples of each next to each other, I guarantee the pork butt wins.

I cheat. I have a thermostat controlled pit. I fill it with wood, light it, and turn the thermostat on. Then I get the meat. Usually by the time I put the meat on, the temp is stable and I can go back to bed. So far I have never needed over 12 hrs for my pork though, so I usually put it on about 10-11pm for lunch the next day.

fwiw, my pit will hold temp for over 16hrs without messing with it. For one holiday, I did burgers for lunch, then after lunch threw on some chickens for dinner. When I pulled the chickens, I turned off the pit. 11pm came and I went to relight it, but there were still some residual coals - so I just reset the thermostat for the pulled pork. Still had a bit of wood left over after lunch the next day. I think I got close to a 24hr burn, with over 16 at temp.

We cook ours in a large covered pot in the oven.
The last hour or so it goes on the smoker.

We use 2 beers or 2 sodas.
2 spoons of brown sugar.
1 can of chipotle peppers in adobo sauce.
cover in your rub of choice.
We use dillo dust.

Making pulled pork in a crockpot is fairly idiot proof. I can testify to that personally. Just the other day I accidentally made pulled pork out of some pork chops I let sit too long in my electric crockpot. They were so tender they fell apart. So, I drained the pot, added BBQ sauce and let simmer for another 15 mins.

The impromptu menu change got rave reviews from the peanut gallery.

Here's what I did last weekend:

Took an 8lb blade cut (not the whole shoulder) and:

1. took a mixture of brown sugar and mustard and glopped it all over the meat (normally I'm a dry rub kind of guy, but I was feeling peckish... don't worry, it won't be gloppy when cooked)
2. liberally dust the now goopy shoulder with dry rub
3. wrap the whole mess tightly in saran wrap and refrigerate overnight
4. take shoulder out of 'fridge, allow to reach room temp (or thereabouts)
5. smoke over mesquite/pecan (temp about 230) until internal temp reaches 195. Pull bone. If it pulls right out and/or the meat just kind of falls apart, it's done.
6 wrap shoulder in foil, wrap the whole mess in a towel, and stick in an ice chest for a couple of hours
7. unwrap the package... any juice retained by the foil should have fat skimmed off. reserve the remaining juice
8. shred meat, add reserved juice to the meat

THEN:

1. lightly fry corn tortillas, make into semi-crispy taco shape (if you like pre-fab taco-chip style "taco shells" go choke yourself), drain well
2. fill tacos with meat
3. top with finely diced fresh sweet onions, chopped cilantro, sweet-pickled jalapenos (chopped), and ripe avocado slices (ETA: plus a squeeze of lime)

FINALLY:

pig out like there is no tomorrow, enjoy with beer

The meat was moist and delicious. Pulled pork tacos are the king grandaddy of all tacos.

I rub, then smoke at about 250 degrees for 6 hours. I wrap it in foil, tightly, then another 4 or so hours in a roasting pan at the same temp. Shred it, chop it, and serve with sauce on the side.

What kind of pit do you have? Is it a custom build, or can you provide a link?

that is similar to the sauce recipe a friend of the family uses that we LOVE and I already have mixed up..

1 cup of salt
1 cup of sugar
1 teaspoon of black pepper
1 teaspoon of red peppre flakes..

remove qtr of the apple cidar vinegar.. bring it to a rolling boil and dissolve all the ingredients in it.. then mix that back into the rest of the bottle..

thanks

b

Try the other way around next time (smoker for a couple hours, then oven to finish) and see if it isn't better on the smoke flavor (that is the generally accepted method).

I never tried it your way though either. so YMMV

here we just use the package mix and a large pork roast. put in the slow cooker for 10.

If you want to make sure it is done then cook it ahead of time. Even the pulled pork I vacuum pack and freeze tastes perfect three months down the road.

For pulled pork or for use as carnitas, I get the pork butt ribs. I cut in half or thirds to get them to fit. I put 2 cups of water and 2 cups of orange juice in a stock pot with some salt. Bring to a boil and then down to a simmer and simmer for two hours, then for another 45 minutes to an hour I turn it up to a light boil. Don''t let it burn.

This causes the sugars to carmalize on the pork browning it and giving it a slight sweet taste. Take out the pork and let rest for a while and cool, just shreds apart, then mix with some Sweet Baby Ray's. This works great with Mexican, some tortiallas, black beans, fried onions, cheese, etc. yum!

Bump for update in OP

thanks for all the tips and help

Brian

For whatever it's worth, you can jack the temp up and easily cook an 8-pound butt in under 6 hours - I mean 'cook to 195 degrees' cooked - if you need to.

Sure, it's more fun to cook slow - but even brisket can be cooked much faster than what you did here, FWIW.

Glad it worked out well for you. Pulled pork is one of the easiest things to smoke and always a crowd pleaser. Try a bacon wrapped pork sirloin for your next project.

Anybody who uses the words "barbecue" and "crock pot" in the same sentence down South (other than to condemn it) would be disowned and accused of having a damn yankee somewhere in his lineage.

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