PBC - Pork Shoulder - Hang? Wrap? Wood? Help!

[epope011]

My first pork shoulder on my new PBC tomorrow. I have done about 6 cooks ranging from ribs to brisket to steaks, and fact is my PBC runs hot, 275+ and as high as 325. I have read a ton of posts in this forum, as well as Meathead's articles on Pork Shoulder and wood, etc. I have 3 big questions and would love thoughts on each:

1. Hang? I am planning on hanging the 8lb'er with two hooks, but tying it up with cooking string.

2. Wrap? When the meat gets to 165-170, should I wrap in foil and place on grate or just let it ride. Given my PBC is hot, I dont need to speed up the cook for time, so best I can tell the wrap's biggest benefit is time. However it seems the wrap really helps the juiciness of the meat, at the sacrifice of some of the bark. My biggest peave is dry meat, so I was going to wrap it and place on grate (with some liquid) once its 170 throughout.

3. Wood? I was going to put 1 or 2 chunks of hickory. The one time I used wood on my PBC, I put too much and did not like the smell or flavor as much as just the regular coal/PBC cook.

I hope everyone has a happy 4th!

[Karon Adams]

I use a PBS and do shoulder on a regular basis. first, they will be hard to keep low. what we have found makes it work is minioning. I take an old cooling rack, fold it in half so that it has about an inch of space between the two sides and then use some wire to attach it to one side of the basket. that allows you to create a first minion. it means the charcoal will burn around the basket instead of from the center out. it means less charcoal is burning at once.

we rigged a second grill surface for ours. that way, we can put a drip pan on the lower grill and the meat on the top grill. another thing we like it putting the meat on it's OWN rack that we can lift out or set right on the grill rack.

The other thing We do is run a blower on ours. we have it pretty much dialed in. we put the meat on with a VERY full drip pan under it at about 9 PM and it cooks overnight and is generally ready at lunchtime or a little before. DON'T do an overnight cook until you have dialed in everything. until you can reasonably predict your cook, you don't want to leave it overnight alone.

Good luck. happy to help if you want more detail

[Spinaker]

1) I would use four hooks to hang it. Create a daisy-chain with two hooks, that will ensure it doesn't fall off the hooks.

2) I don't wrap until the meat has enough color, that usually means in the 180 F +range. I try not to wrap until I have to go to the faux cambro. I love to let that bark build up, especially in the PBC. You can get some great color with the PBC. Adding liquid to the foil with soften the bark, I have never found that adding liquid to the foil does anything except turn the cook into a braising affair.

3) For the wood, add that to the fire right before you are adding the meat. Do not allow it to smolder, throw it right on the roaring fire and let it burn clean and hot. Smoldering will cause distasteful flavors that you will not like. (That might be the culprit for the cook last time.)

4) Relax and have patience.

[Spinaker]

Correct. Wrap with no liquid. Don't braise the meat. epope011

[Spinaker]

Oh easily. I have never lost a butt to the fire using this method. I have gone into the 190's before, without issue. The bottom hooks should almost cradle the bottom of the pork butts. SipIt

[SipIt]

Great to know, thanks Spinaker

[fzxdoc]

What Spinaker said--at least that's what works for me. I move the butt from the hooks to the grate when it starts to soften at about 170°F or so, but never wrap, since I love that pig candy bark.

Running the PBC hotter for a butt is not all that bad. With all that fat to render, it can take the heat.

Kathryn

[Rod]

I used a PBC skewer instead of hooks. Average PBC temp was about 275. I did use foil on and off during the cook to cover a couple of rebar holes while it was hanging to get the temp down to 260ish. I wrapped when the IT hit about 160 (I'm one of the rare folks around here that would rather sacrifice some bark for more juiciness.) and placed on the grate. I then removed the foil and cracked the lid for a bit to get temps up to 300ish to finish it off.

All in all it turned out pretty good. I will say it was a tiny bit drier than all the butts I've done in my pellet cooker. It wasn't dry by any means, just not as juicy as the pellet cooker. Higher temps in the PBC I assume, pellets vs. charcoal or the skewer putting the meat closer to the fire?. Dunno. The beauty about that hunk of meat is it's hard to mess it up. The "worst" butt I ever made was still better than most BBQ joints.

[Spinaker]

Oh yes, the skewers work great too.

[jfmorris]

I cannot comment to the PBC side of the equation, but can comment on wrapping. If you do it (I wouldn’t unless time constrained or trying to do a butt in 8 hours), no liquid is needed. The butt has so much fat to render out it is very much self basting. I always put fat cap (if any) up, but with the PBC heat source below the grate, if you wrap I think I would put fat side down on the grate.

[epope011]

Thank you everyone. Sounds like wrapping is a time shortener and optional. Time wise - my cooks have been close to the times on the PBC website for other meats (5-6hrs for pork shoulder). Based on the times posted by fzxdoc , those seem to be longer, more like 8hrs. I'm not sure how long it will take based on all this. Perhaps a good plan is to start early and only wrap if I need a speed up . . . But how long can the cambro hold it? If I start at 10am and it finishes at 4pm for a 630pm dinner will that be too much time?

Thanks for all the help.

[Huskee]

1-4hrs is good for the faux cambro, as long as the meat doesn't dip below 140 for too long to keep it safe.

[epope011]

Got it. I foiled all 4 rebar holes as it's going to run hot today. Put Butt on at 1030am and interior down to 290 degrees. Fingers crossed! Thanks for all the help.

[epope011]

Just hit 170 degrees at 420pm!!!

[epope011]

Took 8hrs, no wrapping, to 200 degree buttah. 7.5lb pork shoulder with Memphis Dust and a 12hr dry brine was just fantastic. One normal sized cunk of hickory did well. Average temp in the PBC for the entire 8hrs was about 275. THANK YOU to everyone for helping me through my first shoulder! See pictures. Not dry at all and the bark was just fantastic. ​​​​​

[Henrik]

You absolutely nailed that one, epope011, congrats on a nice cook!

[SipIt]

Yeah! That looks awesome!

[EdF]

Looks great!

[fzxdoc]

Looks amazing. Congrats!

Kathryn

[kamileon]

That looks beautiful. Great job.

[ColonialDawg]

There is one glaring issue here. And that is I wasn’t invited. That pulled pork looks awesome!

[Spinaker]

hahahaha

[Spinaker]

Awesome!