ht01us
New member
Avoiding the Stall: A Thomas Edison moment
Whoops; meant to post this in this week's contest (10/2/11). Not sure how to move it.
I had a Thomas Edison afternoon. I succeeded in finding a way not to make pulled pork.
A couple of weeks ago I used a Cook's Country recipe to prepare Kalua (Hawaiian) pork. It was prepared similarly to pulled pork but was cooked in an aluminum pan with a few holes poked in for smoke for a couple of hours, then completely covered for a few more hours. I wasn't a big fan of the rub; but the meat was tender, succulent, juicy, delicious. It fell apart like regular pulled pork. I thought at that time it might be worth trying a method like this for pulled pork.
Then this week I read Craig "Meathead" Goldwyn's article on methods to avoid the stall. It is a great article worth the read. The short version is you can avoid the long "stall" where the internal temp of the pork shoulder (or brisket) sits at 160* +/- for a few hours. The solution is to tightly wrap it in foil. Hey; that's what I found with the Kalua Pork. I was intrigued and thought I'd give it a shot. If I could cook a good pulled pork in just a few hours, I'd be very happy.
So, I went for it. My earlier results were so good I thought I'd skip the injection and brine, so I went straight for the rub. I put a basic pork rub on a 3.8 pound boneless pork shoulder Saturday night, wrapped it tightly in plastic wrap and let it rest in the refrigerator.
a 3.8 boneless pork shoulder.
After a night taking in the rub.
One benefit of this method: shorter cook time means I can get to church in the morning. After church the shoulder goes on the grill as a normal cook 235* waiting for an IT of 150.
It took four hours to get to 150; then wrap it and increase the temp to 335*.
I was very surprised; it went from 145 to 190 in an hour. A figured it would go up more quickly than usual, but this was ridiculous.
And I'm not a fan of the color of the juices.
After resting, I took on the task of pulling.
The butt was tougher than my grandma. But bear claws were a trusty ally.
It may look good, but it sure didn't taste good.
Thank goodness for barbecue sauce. I used a little Bob Gibson's sauce and served up a sandwich with some slaw.
Part of the problem may have been the meat, I had 2nd thoughts about it when I picked it out Saturday; it had a lot of fluid in the package. The other problem may have been that it went from 145 to 190 so quickly. I think next time, I'll pay closer attention to the piece of meat I use and then smoke for only 2 hours then put in the foil.
There may be a lesson to be learned here; I'll spend a few days figuring out what it was.
Whoops; meant to post this in this week's contest (10/2/11). Not sure how to move it.
I had a Thomas Edison afternoon. I succeeded in finding a way not to make pulled pork.
A couple of weeks ago I used a Cook's Country recipe to prepare Kalua (Hawaiian) pork. It was prepared similarly to pulled pork but was cooked in an aluminum pan with a few holes poked in for smoke for a couple of hours, then completely covered for a few more hours. I wasn't a big fan of the rub; but the meat was tender, succulent, juicy, delicious. It fell apart like regular pulled pork. I thought at that time it might be worth trying a method like this for pulled pork.
Then this week I read Craig "Meathead" Goldwyn's article on methods to avoid the stall. It is a great article worth the read. The short version is you can avoid the long "stall" where the internal temp of the pork shoulder (or brisket) sits at 160* +/- for a few hours. The solution is to tightly wrap it in foil. Hey; that's what I found with the Kalua Pork. I was intrigued and thought I'd give it a shot. If I could cook a good pulled pork in just a few hours, I'd be very happy.
So, I went for it. My earlier results were so good I thought I'd skip the injection and brine, so I went straight for the rub. I put a basic pork rub on a 3.8 pound boneless pork shoulder Saturday night, wrapped it tightly in plastic wrap and let it rest in the refrigerator.
a 3.8 boneless pork shoulder.
After a night taking in the rub.
One benefit of this method: shorter cook time means I can get to church in the morning. After church the shoulder goes on the grill as a normal cook 235* waiting for an IT of 150.
It took four hours to get to 150; then wrap it and increase the temp to 335*.
I was very surprised; it went from 145 to 190 in an hour. A figured it would go up more quickly than usual, but this was ridiculous.
And I'm not a fan of the color of the juices.
After resting, I took on the task of pulling.
The butt was tougher than my grandma. But bear claws were a trusty ally.
It may look good, but it sure didn't taste good.
Thank goodness for barbecue sauce. I used a little Bob Gibson's sauce and served up a sandwich with some slaw.
Part of the problem may have been the meat, I had 2nd thoughts about it when I picked it out Saturday; it had a lot of fluid in the package. The other problem may have been that it went from 145 to 190 so quickly. I think next time, I'll pay closer attention to the piece of meat I use and then smoke for only 2 hours then put in the foil.
There may be a lesson to be learned here; I'll spend a few days figuring out what it was.
Last edited: