First attempt at Pork Shoulder

[JPSurf]

Looking real good with a nice bark there. I did one myself for the first time last weekend. 7.5 lbs and 14 hours later.....too many beers so no pictures but the wife said it was the best.

[Jerod Broussard]

That sure does look good! I love the last picture (the empty plate), that says it all.

Yeh, that was the clincher. I would have rather eaten some of that bark while it was still on the pit.

[_John_]

Looks terrific! Don't know if I would change anything either.

[Henrik]

That sure does look good! I love the last picture (the empty plate), that says it all.

[AaronS]

I put the water in the drip pan underneath the shoulder. Seemed to work well and I didn't have to monkey with moving the pan in/above the smokenator.

[Tennessee Trash]

That looks awesome. We've got virtually the same setup. I'll have to give this a try.

[Pit Master Apprentice]

Your food looks great. Good job. I love cooking pork shoulder; it makes me look like a culinary genius in front of my friends and family.

[IrondeQuer]

Excellent! And right on the kettle! Love that!!

[bep35]

I didn't see a pan of water in any of your photos. Did you take it out for pictures or did you not use water with the Smokenator?

[Jon Solberg]

That looks AMAZING! GREAT JOB!

[AaronS]

I love cooking pork, and it looks like you're gonna enjoy just as much with results like that.

Thanks! I've always liked cooking, but I think I LOVE smoking...

[boftx]

I love cooking pork, and it looks like you're gonna enjoy just as much with results like that.

[AaronS]

Alright- so this is my first time doing shoulder- I found a decent 5lb-er in the meat dept of the local grocery store. I had MMD left over from a few weeks ago, so I omitted the salt as directed.

I was up at 6am to get things started, and got the shoulder on at about 6:30am.

I have a Weber Gold with Smokenator (as you can see) along with the Maverick ET-732. Used Hickory & Apple chunks for smoke.

I was able to keep the temp in the 215 - 250 range for almost the entire time.

The stall occurred at about 178 degrees- which seemed high to me, but I waited it out, and after what seemed to be 2-3 hours, it started climbing again.

I pulled it off at 202 degrees. I checked it with my ThermoWorks RT600C at different spots and was satisfied with the results.

Shredding was easy with the Bear Paws. I had used them before on chicken breast, but they were really fun to use on the pork.

The bark turned out as good as I imagined, and I was tempted to tell my wife to avoid it because it didn't taste as good. But I'm a nice guy, so I let her in on the secret and shared with her.

We ate it off the serving platter with our bare hands, as did our 2 & 5 year old.

I kept the sauce off of it, but did dip some in some store bought Georgia Mustard sauce, and made some sweet potato hash to go along with it.

The pork throughout was juicy and flavorful- and turned out better than I had hoped. Not sure if I'd change anything the next time I try it. Given the amount of time- almost 12 hours, I'd say the end result was worth it, and I'll be doing it again sooner than later.