First long cook Friday night...need help

A pork shoulder, the front leg of the pig is what is used for pulled pork. The top portion of the shoulder is called a butt, don't know why, and the lower portion is referred to as a pic-nic. You want to cook it with indirect heat with a dome temp of 250 until it reaches an internal temp of 190-195. At this point it will be falling apart. -RP

Mark, Pulled pork is a very forgiving cook.

Buy a fresh bone-in Boston Butt. I prefer to inject mine with a cajun injectable marinade (usually Creole butter), about 1/2 jar per 7-8 # butt (it won't hurt to do the whole jar). I then cover liberally in Dizzy Pig Coarse (or regular) Dizzy Dust. Straight to the Egg. Injecting is definitely not necessary, though.

Fill lump up to almost touching the platesetter (feet up). Light the lump on the surface in 3-4 places (to reduce the chance of a central burn). I mix about 4-5 large (fist-sized) dry chunks of hickory through the lump. Put spacers (foil balls, whatever) on the platesetter then a foiled drip pan on top of the spacers.

Let your fire stabilize with platesetter, drip pan and grid in place for 40-60 minutes at 240-250* dome. If you have a Guru, 225* at the grid.

Put the butt on (do not adjust the vents when the temp goes down from the cold meat). You might set your alarm and check every 3 hours or so to make sure everything goes well.

I cook mine to 200-205* internal, foil and rest in a cooler for an hour, then pull and enjoy !

The biggest thing is to not make to big a deal of it.
Clean the egg of all ash and old lump.
Use any commerically available rub or just mix Salt, pepper, paprika, and sugar.
Then follow AZRP's advice noted above.

I put the sauce on the meat when I make a sandwich. Before I got the Egg I used to mop the shoulders with a vinegar butter mixture to keep them moist but its not necessary in the Egg. Here is my sauce recipe. -RP

1 qt cider vinegar
6 oz yellow mustard
¼ lb butter
¾ T salt
½ T black pepper
½ T cayenne
Juice of ½ lemon
½ t sugar
32 oz catsup

Cook at a simmer for 10 minutes.

As far as rubbs go I believe you will get a great butt no matter what you use. Bad Byrons butt rub is a winner and Dizzy Pig is also a great choice. You can make your own with just some brown sugar, black pepper, chili powder, paprika, garlic powder, and a few other spices. If you want to make your own just google homemade bbq rubb. As far as how much lump, fill it up to half way up the fire ring and you know you'll have plenty. Make sure to cook at 250 dome as already stated. Probably over half of the fires I read about going out were fires where someone was trying to hold 225 or 210 or something. If you try to hold under 250 without a power draft unit I believe you have a much more sensitive fire to keep going. Even if you can hold 210 it takes the normal 1.5 hours per pound to well over 2 hours per pound resulting in it never getting done and on most accounts ending up in an oven for the quick finish. The only other thing I think is crutial is making sure you have all your equipment (plate setter, grates etc.) inside the egg when you bring it up to temp. Get it honed in on 250 for at least 20 minutes or so before adding the meat. When you add the meat walk away and dont come back for an hour or so. The egg should slowly creep back up to 250 as the cold mass (meat) gets closer to temp. This could take 2 hours. If you throw the meat on and jack with the temp for the first few hours you will have a sleepless night chasing the temp all over. Good luck and post results!

No Tweev, picnic and butt cuts will cook about the same. Both result in very good pulled pork. Some will say the B.I. picnic will be moister but I don't think it makes a real difference. I prefer Butts because there seems to be a little less dark meat.

Mark, Personally I have lately been trimming off most of the fat as it gives me more meat for the rub, thus more bark.

Most groceries carry some brand of injectable marinade, but again it is not necessary. I just think it adds a little more flavor to the internal meat that is not in contact with the rub.

Not sure about the Raging River - is has a good bit of sugar that might burn. I've always used Dizzy Dust. Someone else might have used RR and can comment.

If you leave the fat cap on, there has been discussion here in the past over placing it up or down and my conclusion as been to leave it down when I don't trim it off.

The Butt shouldn't have any skin on it - the pic-nic might.

Man, the bark is what we all drool over :woohoo: :woohoo: ! You can mix it in with the other pulled meat. The part that is too hard to pull, I set aside and chop up finely and add to the pulled pork - great flavor kicker! :woohoo:

you have email...

I used this. It is Elder Ward's write up on the Naked Whiz site. This was my second cook on the egg, my first time ever to smoke my own meat and it came out fantastic.

http://www.nakedwhiz.com/elder.htm

Also, I forgot, indirect with drip pan full of water and don't let the water run out. I fill my Large to top of fire ring. I have run out of lump before in 16 hours and I have had 2/3 left after 24 hours. No rhyme or reason. I have finished in the oven before if I run out and don't want to re-load. I also carefully place selected chunks on the bottom and sides (near vent holes) to protect and leave open the holes as much as possible rather than just dumping the bag. Several chunks of hickory, not just on top of lump but layered in your lump so some hickory is always smoking throughout the burn. Make sure your meat therm. probe is not touching the bone. Can you tell this is my favorite cook?