NOTE: Photos will be added in the future

Preparing pork shoulder or pulled pork in the BGE is a relatively easy, but time consuming process. Typically, a pork shoulder is a 24 hour plus affair, but the good news is once everything is in the BGE, you just have to monitor and resist the temptation to peek.

Preparing the Fire

One thing that sets this type of cook apart from the others is it’s length–typically about 24 hours. Normally, for a tri-tip or ribs, I’ll just re-light the fire in the BGE with the existing charcoal and proceed. Pork shoulder is completely different–I usually use this as an opportunity to clean out the BGE. You can just use the scraper to get 80% of the ash out from around the base, but I usually pull everything apart to truly clean it out. I then add a new batch of charcoal, using bigger pieces toward the bottom. The smaller coals left over from the previous sessions are put on the top. It is also important to completely fill the fire box with charcoal, you don’t want the fire to go out in the middle of the cook!

I then start the wood chips soaking while starting the fire using the BGE electric starter. If I am shooting for a noon finish the following day, I will prepare the BGE two days before the start and then start the fire early in the morning of the cook, usually right when I wake up around 7 or 8 a.m. I have found that I get less of a temperature spike if I let the fire come slowly up to temperature and stabilize at about 200 degrees, rather than rushing the fire and getting a bigger spike later. I keep the plate setter in the BGE and let everything stabilize while preparing the meat.

Preparing the Meat

For meat, my source is usually Costco, where you get two boneless shoulders in a pack. The total weight typically runs around 15 pounds. The morning of the cook, I will pull the meat out of the frig, rinse it, and pat it dry. For seasoning, I use both the dry rub and Magic Dust from Mike Mills book:  “Peace, Love and Barbeque”. I haven’t spent too much time experimenting with variations as I like the seasoning the way it is. I liberally sprinkle the Magic Dust inside the meat.

Using butcher’s twine, I then truss the meat up and follow it with a liberal coating of Dry Rub and a little Magic Dust on the outside. I insert the remote temp probes into the meat and then wait for the fire to stabilize. Usually, I try to have the meat ready and coming up to room temp for an hour or two and then proceed with the fire.

As far as probes go, I have a Polder thermometer and another probe from a cheap thermometer that fits the jack for the Polder. It seems to give the same results as the Polder probe.

Cooking

My goal is to keep the temperature around 200 – 225 degrees for the duration of the cook. I begin by using welding gloves and pulling the plate setter out of the BGE (setting it on fire bricks, NOT cool concrete!) and adding the wood chips, replacing the plate setter, adding a foil-lined tray for the drippings, replacing the grill, and finally adding the meat with the trailing probes. The key is to close the top and NEVER open it until the cook is finished. Opening the top only extends the cooking time and there is nothing to see until the end anyways. The wood chips will smolder for the first few hours and the temp will be lower than before the meat was placed in–this is o.k., the temp will come back to the previous temperature once the chips are gone. At this point, you can go back to whatever you want to do–all the work is done. I monitor the temperature, keeping a log of the time and temp for each piece, but this isn’t necessary. Sometimes I will make very small adjustments to either of the vents if I think it’s getting a little too hot or cold, but keep in mind that you need to make very small changes (i.e.: fractions of a millimeter on the bottom vent and just small rotations on the top). I will make a change and then come back a half-hour later to see the effect, but most of the time now since I got better at stabilizing the fire temp before adding the meat, the minor adjustments during the cook are much rarer.

I will usually check the temps right before heading to bed for the night. It may seem like the meat will get done sometime during the middle of the night, but I have found there is a plateau that holds the temp until the morning, but if you are paranoid, set an alarm and get up to check, or just stay up really late.

In the Morning

Bright and early the next morning, I wake up and check on the meat. I have noticed that there is usually a jump in the internal temperature of the BGE overnight, usually about 25 – 50 degrees. I have tried to combat this spike and discovered that the temperature progression of the meat slows, so now I just let it happen.

I let the meat go until an internal temperature of 190 degrees is reached. In the morning I will plug the Polder base unit into the probe of the piece that looks like it will finish first and keep a tab on the temp. Also, make sure the audible alarm is set to the ON position.

Once the alarm goes off, you can open the lid and look at your shoulders in all of their glory! I usually try to use a couple of forks to get them meat off the BGE. Keep in mind that it basically wants to fall apart at this point. This is where a good trussing job pays off. I close the lid and let the other piece continue to completion.

Once I take the meat off the BGE, I will cover it with foil and let it rest at least 20 minutes. After this time I will remove the probe. Keep in mind that you can wrap the meat in foil, place it in a cooler and transport it to the event where you are going to serve it. I have taken it on the road for a couple of hours and still had it way too hot to touch at the destination.

In the tray, there will be a crust of black burnt stuff and fat. Based on my experience, there is no gravy or anything tasty to be had from this tray. I usually put it in the freezer and dispose of it.

Serving

Serving is the easy part. Usually the hardest part is keeping errant hands out of the meat while pulling it. I have tried both pulling manually by hand and chopping with a knife–both provide good results. The only thing I try to remove is the larger chunks of fat and connective tissue from within the meat, but other than that, I just serve it up. I will usually serve the pulled shoulder in a large tray with hamburger buns and barbeque sauce. You can add slaw or anything else as a side dish, but I find this simply gets in the way of the meat. I have been tempted to serve it with Wonder Bread, but I feel that most people wouldn’t appreciate such a pure presentation!