Pulled pork

 The last big cook for me was a brisket for a party of eight a couple of weeks ago. It was a nailbiter, 28 hours on the grill, then a few in the cooler, then slicing -- which was a major effort. It seemed like I needed an axe (well, a hatchet at least). And the bark was so spicy Linda was worried our guests might not care for it (mea culpa, why did I add that hot stuff to the rub??)

So once sliced, we put it in the oven flooded with beef broth at 250 degrees, and ... drum roll... it came out both tender and tasty! 

Thus, a crisis was averted, and the party went well into the evening. Had nothing to do with the Sazeracs and Limoncellos...

But this is about pulled pork. Here's the story:

I pretty much prepped the grill the night before, knowing I had to deliver meat at 5:30pm. All I had to do @ 5am was light the grill, unwrap the overnight rest (rub was Terry Black's Pork Dry Rub mixed with Goya Adobo seasoning with saffron, 95-to-5 ratio, give or take),  dump the lit charcoal out of the chimney into the pit and cover it with more for a total of about 7 lbs. of fuel and let that combo stabilize at 230 or 250 degrees.

Meanwhile, it was grab an aluminum pan to fill with hot water, place above the coals (indirect heat on the Big Green Egg), then with the grill up to temp put the clod on the grate above the water, put the probes (laid out the night before) into the meat, and close the hood. Elapsed time, an hour.

I even remembered to turn off the Rings and bring our phones downstairs so as not to wake the dog or, more importantly, the spouse

So into the pit at 6am, out at just past 3pm, so about nine hours total. Cook temp generally about 240 degrees, clod temp 202 degrees when yanked, wrapped, and stuffed in the cooler.

Oh, that dip in the graph about 10am? The pit temp (red probe) started to tank, so I had to open the lid and stir up the coals. Yes I have a coat hanger and I'm not afraid to use it. This is much improved over the previous lengthy brisket cook, for which I ran out of fuel and had to disassemble the whole grill guts, add fuel, then relight and reassemble... o the things you learn along the path of the bubba...

When two of three meat probes hit 202 degrees, I took the butt off the grill, wrapped it in foil, and put it in a small cooler with two towels. I've read that slice/pull temp should be about 140 for max flavor, so with two hours ahead of showtime I hoped we'd get close.

And that we did, showing a 150-ish reading in several jabs with the ThermoWorks instant-read thermometer (Meathead totally recommends thermocouples, and this company is awesome). 

The result? The best pulled pork I've done... and no money shot. I haven't lost my zest for food photography, but thinkin' I should curb my enthusiasm. 

A bit.