Pulled pork experiment: sous vide + BGE method

horseflesh

I wanted to try cooking some pork shoulder sous vide and finishing it in the BGE. It came out pretty well, well enough I will continue to try and refine the technique. 

First off, why try a combo method? Sous vide cooking cooks the meat perfectly edge to edge, and it's a really easy unattended process. You can also cook meat in a flavorful liquid and the flavor will really get in there. It can make a really spectacular cut of meat and so I really want to combine the best of both worlds. 

I started with a pork shoulder "cushion," which is about a 3 lb piece. I bagged the meat with some garlic and about a half bottle of hard apple cider, vacuum sealed it, and cooked it at 175F for 12 hours. (You aren't supposed to cook meat this way with salt, as it can make the texture rubbery... salt comes later.)

After cooking the meat was fall-apart-perfect and juicy, and you could definitely taste the apple cider and garlic in the meat. It was pretty tasty, though unsalted and un-BBQd! I reserved the liquid in the bag, which tasted like pork gravy and apple cider--it was really good. 

Because the meat was too soft to hold together, I put the pieces in a veggie tray and seasoned them with my usual rub. Then they went into the BGE for a couple of hours of pecan smoke at around 250F. (I flipped the pieces once.) I pulled the meat out when it looked good--nothing scientific here, I just wanted it cooked as long as possible without drying out too much. 

After that, I pulled it as normal, and added some of the reserved cooking liquid. 

It is definitely different than the usual BGE pulled pork. There is no bark because the outside didn't dry out hardly at all, though the seasoned outer parts are still plenty tasty. The smoke flavor is more mild because it just didn't spend as long in the smoke. But it's quite good. 

Next time I will try a different cooking juice with more seasonings, and I'll try a heartier smoke like hickory. 

Any other ideas?