My first BGE Pulled Pork on Saturday

CowboyColin

Hey guys, I'm a newbie here.

I just got my BGE last Sunday and am breaking it in this weekend. I'm having some people over for some pulled pork and here's how I wanted to plan, along with some questions for fellow eggheads:

If I want to keep the temp between 225 and 250 for about 7-8 hours, with a 9ish lb shoulder, how much wood should I use? Again I've never smoked anything with the BGE, so I don't know if I'm needing to replenish wood on a regular basis? Any help with this?

I have seasoning down, no problem with that. I prefer my meat, in general, with more of a sweeter taste than spicy or salty, so I wanted to incorporate raisins somehow. For this I was thinking just adding them to the final "pulled" product, but you all may have better ideas.

Please let me know what you think, pictures will come the day of. Thanks.

JWBurns

Pork Shoulder:
275 grid, indirect on V Rack with drip pan. Spacer under pan. 1.5 / 2 hours per pound typically. Mustard, Dizzy Dust, and Smoke. Fat side down. Pull around 195, FTC. Spritz at hour 8 if desired. 

Those are my cook notes for how I do a butt.

I smoke for the first two hours, you don't want to over do it on the smoke. I use cherry and apple wood.

I think your timing may be a bit short.. I'd expect a longer cook time at those temps. Personally, I like to hold mine FTC for a few hours before serving.

I'm of no help on your raisin idea. Maybe purée some raisins and inject along with apple cider / juice?

Jason

travisstrick

Two things:

1. That cooking temp is fine but I'd go higher. Closer to 300 dome.
2. You can forget about 8-9 hours. No way it will be done that fast. I just did a 6.6 lb'er and it took 12 hours. You should forget about time except for rough planning purposes. Cook to temp. For pulled pork, an internal temp of 205 is good.

lousubcap

First off here's a great link for pulled pork-worth the read-

http://www.amazingribs.com/recipes/porknography/perfect_pulled_pork.html 

And check out the recipe section of this reference (eggcellent source for all things ceramic) for a good walk-thru on pulled pork- http://www.nakedwhiz.com/ceramic.htm as well. 

With respect to lump (wood) the BGE temperature (calibrate that dome thermo) is air-flow controlled, given enough lump and an ignition source.  Within reason you cannot load too much lump. For long low&slows you can load up into the fire ring-and the LBGE will run for well beyond 20 hours on a single load (some have been into the 30 hour range).  And I would recommend you run with your dome thermo (calibrated) at around 290*F (+/-) for the indirect cook.  At that temp your pork cook will take anywhere from 1.5-1.8 hrs/# so plan accordingly.  Cook to around 195*F internal and you are good to go-err on the "start the cook early side" as you can easily hold the finished butt FTC'd (foil, towels and cooler) for 4-6 hours then pull and serve.

CowboyColin

Oh thank you all so much! I appreciate the feedback and let you know what I change and will have some pictures at some point. Thanks again!