Sink or swim, first Pork Shoulder

Ok, got the 14 lb hunk of pork shoulder at Costco...bone removed, (was only kind they had). Took it out of the package and it was two big hunks. By the time I got it trimmed up it was easier to make four clumps than two...lots of instruction on the forum about cooking these, not so much about what to do with bone out shoulders.

Anyway, I slogged along and got them glued and rubbed with bovine bold, overnight in the fridge and up at 0-dark-30, @225, hickory pellets.


Five hours later, things are moving along, picked up a helper...monitoring the smoker box temp, (research for later)


I love this part!


Not done yet, getting there....


To be continued!

Looks great!

Yeah, that's like Sam's has them. (and most other places) 2 per cryovac package.

The Rest of The Story...

So the pork was finally done! Now I know what Tent means when he says the probe goes in like its soft butter! Over the space of an hour all four were pulled and FTC'ed. Had a couple of hours till dinner, so I dialed #385 back to smoke and after she had cooled down I added Cheddar and White Cheddar with Habanero bricks to the smoker drawer.


Most of the cheese was wrapped tightly and refridgerated, two were held back and grated for dinner. The temp was dialed up to 350 and beans and a cheatin' onion (butter and Desert Gold) were put on. The beans were sort of what happens when copying nepas while channeling Deb and Cowgirl!


While the beans were cooking, I pulled the pork, no problems here!


Beans are done!


Everybody did something different, some added bbq sauce, some put pork and beans over texas toast. This was my plate: two sammies, one with bbq sauce, cheddar (with habanero of course), cheatin' onion, more cheese, etc. The other was pulled pork, a little bbq sauce, and cole slaw...very tasty!


Oh yeah, dessert was Scooter's Bananas! Too full to take pics! All in all, I think 'ol #385 got broke in good today, it was about 14 straight hours of smoking.

Beautiful rip. I'm glad you are the judge this weekend.

I did scooters bananas at a friends house last week (in the oven). And the kids were so impressed. There were some very loud enthusiastic YUMs. Such an easy good dessert

Looking good Rip! Both the pork and the cheese!

I looks like separating the shoulders into 4 chunks like you did gave you some extra bark surface area - Love it!

Looks like the new MAK is settling in quite nicely! What are your initial first impressions?

I love it! Often time you find things in products I like to call irkonomics (things that almost seem to be designed to irritate, or at the very least were a annoying cost savings measure)...so far I've only found well thought out design touches, from the lid which allows you to take food directly to and from the grill to the side tables, to little touches like the mouse hole for probe cables. The only quibble I have so far is the grill cover wants to become a parachute when the wind kicks up...still thinking of the best permanent solution to this.

Bob and his team have my admiration for a well thought out design. Couple that with the willingness (check the early posts from this forum) to fix and improve flaws while ensuring backward compatibility of new features...I'm a fan!

Looks outstanding Rip!! Beautiful feast!

looks really good rip. mak owner too. how cool. were mak brothers. ya for us. thanks bob and BP.

Overdue thanks to all of you for your kind words! Sometimes I think I cook for two families, the one at home and my friends here!