Pulled Pork - A Party in Your Mouth

October 10, 2006 | Issue 27

Hello friends and welcome to the October edition of the most read barbecue/smoking meat newsletter online. As a lot of you know, I have been very, very busy moving out to our new 10 acre property and it is beautiful beyond words.

I have a small apple and peach orchard just ready to be tended to and more than 30 pecan trees that are absolutely loaded and ready to drop just after the first frost. There is a small creek that runs diagonally across my property on the south side of the house and plenty of raccoons, squirrels, deer and other wildlife to enjoy as well as some other not so enjoyable critters such as snakes. The first night we killed a timber rattler that was crawling thru the garage as if he belonged there.

I am truly feeling like davy crockett in the new frontier at the moment but that is a matter of perspective simply because I have been an urban dweller for most of my adult life.

I am looking forward to some major gardening next season to go along with the smoking.

There are a few downsides.. my cell phone does not work that well and piping in high speed internet was an act of congress! It is a major ordeal to go into town and we have learned to ask everyone in the house if they need anything while we are out.. all in all we are adjusting quite well and personally.. I am in Heaven!

Well, I knew everyone was wondering about that so now you know and now let's get into what is truly interesting.. smoking meat!

Here is the lineup for this month.. enjoy!

• Results from Last Month's Feature
• Pulled Pork Made Easy
• Barbecue Competition Calendar
• Featured Products
• Joke of the Month

Results From Last Month's Experiment

I have had hundreds of emails asking about the results from the baby beer can chickens and I have to admit that I absolutely forgot to write about that.. you would think that it would be a logical conclusion to any experiment to give the results but go figure.. I simply forgot so somebody shoot me!

Anyway.. the toss up was between the V8 chicken and the Pineapple juice chicken and I think the pineapple was the most tasty of all. To me the tomato flavor just did not have a lot in common with the chicken whether it was smoked or not.

So there you have it.. if any of you tried it I would like to hear what you thought about it.

Easy Pulled Pork

Some of you are no stranger to pulled pork however based on the thousands of emails I get on the subject there is still a lot of questions about it and you will be happy to note that it is one of the easiest, most forgiving, and tastiest meats you can smoke.

That is great news for you newbies since I am going to tell you how to impress everyone with your new found cooking skills without knowing everything yet or having mastered the more difficult things.

Pulled Pork is simply shreds of meat from the shoulder of a pig.. usually the shoulder is cut into two pieces called the "Picnic" and the "Butt" also called the "Boston Butt". In my humble opinion the butt makes the best pulled pork and it has a shank bone right through the center of the meat which tends to make the meat taste sweeter.

When shopping for a pork butt, look for one in the 6 to 8 pound range and one that has lots of fat marbling within the meat for the best flavor.

Preparation of the butt is simply rinsing it real well under cool water and setting it aside. You will then want to mix up a batch of my rib rub or if you have another favorite rub that will probably work ok.

Once the rub is mixed up and ready, coat the butt with yellow mustard and then apply generous portions of the rib rub all over the meat making sure to get it into all of the crevices as well.

a quick break..

Back to the main article..

Get your smoker fired up and adjusted for a 225-240 degree fire and once the smoker is smoking and ready to go, place the butt in the smoker and go fix a tall glass of iced tea of your favorite beverage.

You can plan on roughly 1.5 hours per pound to get it done.

If you are using a non-wood smoker such as charcoal, gas or electric, you will want to keep applying smoke for about half of the cook time or until it reaches 140 degrees or so and that should be full of flavor by then. I like to use mesquite, apple, or cherry but pick your favorite wood and go for it and don't be scared to try new kinds of wood as long as it is a hardwood and is good for smoking.

I recommend using a probe meat thermometer like the Taylor version sold at Amazon.com or the maverick remote thermometer but you may also be able to find a suitable one at your local department store.

Once the meat reaches 140 to 160 degrees, I generally recommend wrapping in foil for the remainder of the process however, I tried something new last week and it worked marvelously.

Instead of foil, place the butt in a large pot with lid and let it remain covered until it reaches 205 degrees.

Once it reaches temperature, you can bring it in and put it in the oven on the warm setting for a couple of hours to hold it if you need to or you can let it rest with the lid slightly ajar to help dissipate some of the heat for about 30 minutes.

Once the resting period is over just use a couple of forks to begin pulling the meat apart.. you will find that it will fall apart with very little pulling actually required. The bone in the center will pull right out and can be discarded* properly.

Stir the meat around with the juices and serve on buns with my famous barbecue sauce..

*Note: I have been notified that giving cooked bones to a dog can splinter and be quite dangerous in the digestive tract. Upon further research it seems that this information is very true and should be adhered to in the best interest of your dog.

November 2006 BBQ Competitions

11/03 - 11/04
Shelby, NC
State Championship
Hog Happnin'
Contact: Jerry Gardner, 1710 Troy Road, Shelby, NC 28150
Phone: 704-482-4202 Fax: 704-482-4202
E-mail: jgardner2@carolina.rr.com
KCBS Reps: Ron Harwell, Harvey Hamrick, Ed Magnusson

11/10 - 11/11
Key Largo, FL
State Championship
Great Key Largo BBQ
Contact: Jane Van Fleet, 106000 Overseas Highway, Key Largo, FL 33037
Phone: 305-451-4747 Fax: 305-451-4726
E-mail: marketing@keylargochamber.org
KCBS Reps: Gary Wells, Stephen Smith

11/10 - 11/11
Stillwater, OK
State Championship
The Pig Event
Contact: Shane Landsdown, 178 Student Union, Box 1014, Stillwater, OK 74078
Phone: 405-269-8558 Fax: 405-744-4323
E-mail: shane.lansdown@okstate.edu
KCBS Reps: Carol Whitebook, Merl Whitebook

11/17 - 11/18
Plant City, FL
State Championship
Plant City Pig Jam
Contact: Amy Nizameff, 106 N. Evers Street, Plant City, FL 33563
Phone: 813-754-3707 Fax: 813-758-8793
E-mail: amy@plantcity.org
Contact: Jodi Smith
E-mail: jodi.smith@baycare.org
KCBS Reps: Clif Welch, Stephen Smith

11/17 - 11/18
Little Rock, AR
State Championship
Smokin' Ribs at the Rock
Contact: Erin Helms, 303 W. Capitol Avenue, Little Rock, AR 72201
Phone: 501-975-7230 Fax: 501-975-4241
E-mail: erin.helms@cjrw.com
KCBS Reps: Ron Cato, Mary Cato

Please go to www.kcbs.us for even more competitions scheduled in the month of November. If you know of other competitions, KCBS sanctioned or otherwise, please drop me an email at least 2 months in advance and I will add it to the list.

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Jeff's Naked Rib Rub and BBQ Sauce Recipes

If you are truly serious about barbecue and cooking outdoors for family and friends then you need my rub and sauce recipes. It is the two tools that you absolutely need in your barbecue toolbox and the are the second most important investment next to your smoker in my opinion and lots of folks agree.

These recipes are a result of my passion for barbecue and smoked meat and I am only too happy to hear when they are a huge success at your house.

If you would like to experience these recipes for yourself (and you should) simply click the link below to read more testimonies or click here to go ahead and order.

Note: This is an immediate download which means just as soon as you order you should receive a download link within minutes.

Note: Please email me right away if you do not receive an email within just a few minutes of ordering so I can jump into action and find out what is going on.

I have an outside company that handles this for me and I have to keep them on their toes.. my goal is 100% satisfaction and I won't be satisfied until you are. I PROMISE.

Read Testimonies

Joke of the Month

Working people frequently ask retired people what they do to make their days interesting.

Well, for example, the other day I went downtown and went into a shop. I was only in there for about 5 minutes and when I came out there was a cop writing out a parking ticket. I went up to him and said, "Come on, man, how about giving a retired person a break"?

He ignored me and continued writing the ticket. I called him a "Nazi."

He glared at me and started writing another ticket for having worn tires. So I called him a "doughnut eating Gestapo."

He finished the second ticket and put it on the windshield with the first. Then he started writing a third ticket. This went on for about 20 minutes. The more I abused him, the more tickets he wrote.

Personally, I didn't care. I came downtown on the bus and the car that he was putting the tickets on had a bumper sticker that said "Hillary in '08."

I try to have a little fun each day now that I'm retired. It's important to my health.

Submitted by Larry Maddock at SmokingMeatForums.com

Thanks Larry and all of you who regularly submit jokes into the jokes section of SmokingMeatForums.com .. we all get a great laugh out of them and it makes our days a little better.

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Have a Wonderful Day and Keep Smoking (meat that is)!!!

Jeff Phillips
Pitmaster/Webmaster
www.Smoking-Meat.com
www.SmokingMeatForums.com

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My good buddy Bruce keeps me supplied with his wonderful Cajun Put-it-on-everything Bayou Shakedown and I invite you to give it a try.. I think you are gonna love it as much as my family and I do.

Check out his stuff at CrazzyCajun.com

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