My First cook - 7lb pork shoulder

TRPIV

I was asked to post a thread of my first time using my Large Big Green Egg. I posted this post at the end of my "Used Big Green Egg!" thread. For some of you this may be a repost. Please bear with me. :woohoo:

By the grace of many egg brother and sisters here on the forum, my first cook was a HUGE success.

At the recommendation of one of the members, I decided to try a pork shoulder. I wound up getting a 7#'er. I ran the egg solo, with no gizmos. Started at 11pm and let 'er run until just about 11:30am.

12.5 hours @ 250 using a Generic Lump Oak brand I picked up from the local Egg dealer. He said it was the same as the American Royal Oak.

I pulled the shoulder when it hit 190 on the thermometer. The meat finished well before dinner so I let it rest in two layers of foil, wrapped in two beach towels and sitting in a cooler. At 5:30pm PST it was still amazingly warm!

The pork is DELICIOUS. Moist like you can imagine. The bone was as clean as a whistle. My wife thinks it's too smokey. She's not a giant fan of the smokey flavor. I think it's great. I love my Egg!

Some photos of my first cook:

Just about to open the lid, for the first time I opened it after 12.5 hours:


Ohh la la! (I won't use a 50% mixture apple juice and water in the drip pan again...)


About ready to wrap 'er up...




I read a lot of threads prior to starting my shoulder. Everyone raved about the stability of the Egg. I can vouch for that! Amazingly stable. I put the meat on at 11:30. I checked the temps at 12:30, 1:30, 3:30, 5:30 and every two hours after that. The temps were so stable, that I'm now pretty sure I could have set it and forget it.

Dare I say, I'm not sure I will need a Stoker!

Anyway, thanks for letting me share, brag, gush, etc.

Ted P

smbishop

Way to go! We just ate my 3rd shoulder off the BGE. I made it for my Texas In-laws, and they loved it. So I must have done something right. I have the Maverick 732 to monitor temps, and the only reason I got up in the middle of the night is that I forgot to set the food temp to 190 and it woke me up at 165. darn it! Other than that stable temps and hardly and adjustment. 14 hours for 7.5 pounds:





My mother in law stated "We don't have a BGE, how can we make this when we get home?"

WokOnMedium

CONGRATS! Yes the egg is scary stable. Save your money on the electronic component. I'm so glad for you. Its hard for me to understand the"its too smokey" team, but I appreciate all of our personal differences. Nice cook and welcome, you took on a doozy, so nice win. Truly great job.

WokOnMedium

TheLazyC

Looking good. How long after you first lit it were you able to get it to the correct temp? Was it an up and down thing to start with? Or did you just jump right in at the correct temp?

deepsouth

awesome first cook!

TRPIV

Thanks for the kind words guys. I couldn't have done it without your advice.

LazyC,

The previous owner gave me a quick rundown when I bought it. He told me about where to put the upper and lower vents to get a stable 250. Even with that info, I had to fiddle a bit the first hour or two. When I first checked it, it was at like 265/275. I had to adjust it a few times to get it down to 250.

I checked the egg at 3:30 and all was good. The meat was 168. I woke up at 5:30 and the meat was 165. In a bit of a panic, I checked the egg. The temp had dropped down to 225. It was really cool outside, as the fog had just come in from the coast. I cracked the lower vent about 1/4 inch more and it hit 250 with in 15 or so minutes.

That's the last time I touched the vents until I pulled the meat at 11:30'ish.

If the egg consistently that stable, I'm not sure why you'd need DigiQ. The argument could be that I wouldn't have had to get up several other times to check. Now... I think the stoker would be seriously cool. Just to be able to check and adjust the temps from my phone or my computer. The other side of that coin? I work on computers 5 (sometimes 6) days a week. It's nice to step away from them on the weekends. :laugh:

My wife said that I should cook something on the Egg for Easter lunch/dinner. Any suggestions?

Hoss

SWEET! and no,you need no gadgets. Looks GREAT! CONGRATS!

Hoss

You NAILED shoulder,Now try a Packer Brisket.It's like BlackJack.It takes a few minutes to learn the basics and a LIFETIME to master!

transversalInactive

Ted, looks like you aced it!! Great job. If you read my post above, I'm bragging about my pork loin today. Ain't Eggin great??

TRPIV

What's a Packer Brisket? The only real dedicated butcher in town shut his doors. If I find a good butcher, will he know what it is if I ask for it by name?

Smbiship - How big is the shoulder you cooked? time? temps? rub?

Sophie - same questions. Size? time? temps? rub?

I prepared mine with some mustard and a few bits of various rubs I had lying around. I need to find a good quality rub or make my own.

How many of you experts make your own rubs?

Hoss

A brisket has 2 parts,a FLAT and a POINT.A Packer still has them connected.They run 12 pounds plus.A packer is a little more forgiving than a plain flat.You can buy them either way.

smbishop

7.5 lbs, 240-270, 14 hours, pulled (using a thermapen to check temps) at 193. Used mustard and a 'but' rub from my dealer. Wrapped in foil and towel in a cooler for 4 hours...

Austin Egghead

Congrats you nailed it. Thanks for all the detailed info. Bookmarked.

crghc98

Congrats. next time no need for anything in the pan, but layer it with foil for easy cleaning. Also, go ahead and let it settle in at 270, won't hurt the butt at all. No need to be that precise since the egg retains so much moisture. It will also allow for that bit of temp drop which could be caused by the airflow being restricted by a little ash.

Your grate temp is lower than the dome temp anyway.

Many have observed an internal drop in meat temp during the plateau. no need to worry about that.