Pulled Pork BBQ
I've never been much of a cook. Sure, there were some entrees and side dishes I made well, but I wasn't a man that really enjoyed cooking. It may have had something to do with all the years playing football in my youth. Food was fuel, nothing more. Except for tacos. And tamales. As I grew older, sometimes food was a crutch. Much of that has changed in the last five years. I have a healthy body image, and I've learned both to enjoy both the preparation and, of course, the consumption of food.
Of all the things I've learned to make since acquiring my Saffire, Amy's favorite is my pulled pork. And she's right, the Saffire makes it easy to smoke restaurant quality pork with little to no effort. We'd been talking about making the pork for a few days and I finally bit the bullet on Sunday in a steady shower of rain.
There really is no challenge lighting the Saffire with a weed burning torch. The coals were hot and flaming in less than a minute and I shut the dome to keep water from pouring in too much.
My real challenge was how to use my Maverick thermometer. I prefer to use the thermometer for longer cooks because it means raising the dome fewer times resulting in juicier meat.
My solution? I put my Maverick in a gallon Glad plastic bag with only the leads running to the meat and the cooking grid. Check it out!
Just hang the zipper part over the edge of the side shelf and it can rain all day without damaging your thermometer.
I did branch out a bit because it was Sunday and I knew I'd be home all day to monitor the grill. I decided to smoke directly over the fire, no heat deflection.
I could have used more wood chips from the start. I fed the chips in 3 times, but really only used enough to fill the feeder once. I think two full chip feeders would be better.
It may have had a little to do with how thick my rub was. I used a combination of brown sugar, chili powder, salt, peper, paprika and a teaspoon of cayenne pepper. The bark was much thicker than I've done in the past and that had a nice smoky flavor. I just think it blocked some from getting into the meat.
The meat went on at 11:00 and I flipped it at 3pm. I let it smoke until 7:30 when the temperature read 181. I wrapped it in aluminum foil and put some french fries in the oven. When the fries were ready I started pulling the pork.
The meat pulled perfectly. It was steaming hot and smelled terrific. I think if I'd waited another hour the meat temp would have reached 195 and then it would have pulled itself. In the future, I'll throw one on in the morning before leaving for work but use a heat deflector to make sure I don't have to babysit as much.
We used Sweet Baby Ray's Sweet n Spicy sauce, Amy threw some buns in the oven, and we had ourselves a tasty BBQ feast on a cold, rainy Sunday night.
