At sub 5lbs you were probably missing a lot of the fat that a full size 7-12lb'er would have had. 205 shouldn't have been the end of the world but obviously you wanna pull more like 201-203.
Only 2 options I would suggest is in the future wrapping with foil half way through the cook, and/or adding a bit of apple juice to the pulled pork to give it back a little moisture.
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Was it actually a butt? Sounds like one of the leanest butts on earth.
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Pork Butt Blunder: what did I do wrong?
My daughter came over for dinner yesterday and she specifically requested a pulled pork Thanksgiving dinner the week prior. Good kid that one J Long story short, I haven’t been able to use my Webber kettle for 3 years so I was excited for this cook. For full disclosure, I only had 8 pork butt cooks under my belt prior to yesterday (I mostly grill), four of which were low and slow and the other four were hot n’ fast (300-325ish degrees). Yesterday’s cook was done in the hot n’ fast method. This butt (actually half butt, what I mostly find at my grocery store…4.3 lbs) was the driest meat of any kind that I have made for as long as I can remember (and I’m pushing 60). Setup: SNS with water (replenished as needed), 40 lit Kingsford blue on top of 40 unlit KFB. Pit thermometer and meat thermometer (Redi Check). Apple wood chunks and Memphis meat dust for the yummies. Each hour, the butt was spritzed with apple juice. Cook ran just a tad over 5 hours….meat temp ran a bit high at the end (Mark 4 instant read showed 205 to 207). Wrapped and then faux cambro’d for 90 minutes. When it came time to pull, it was flat dry….no unctuous fat and collagen. This morning, I went out to wrap up the foil layer used to catch the fat and drippings to keep the bottom of the bowl clean and there was next to no fat. Usually, it is a solidified gloppy mess.
I am at a loss. The previous hot n’ fast cooks turned out fantastic table fare. I want to redeem myself! Where did I go wrong? Now to figure out how to eat this dry pulled pork for the next couple of days
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