This past weekend I attempted my first pulled pork. This was also my first time using my new Charbroil H2O Smoker that I picked up off craigslist.I made a couple modifications to it after reading up on the web the problems this particular smoker has. I extended the legs a little bit to raise it up. I also drilled some holes for my temperature probes to fit through.
I planned to smoke the pork overnight since we wanted to have it for lunch on Sunday. On saturday I applied a rub to the pork butts and let them sit in the fridge until about 8:30pm. One of the butts also had dijon mustard in the rub, as I wanted to see how that affected the flavor.
I got the smoker going, using the minion method for charcoal. I filled the coal pan with unlit charcoal and then I 3/4 filled the chimney starter with coals and lit them. Once they were ready I put the lit coals on top of the unlit and let the smoker heat up. I filled the water pan with hot water and added a couple chunks of dry hickory.
When the smoker was ready, I put the butts on, one on each rack and put the temp probe in each one. I put the cover on and set my alarm. I wanted to check on the fire and temp after the first hour, and then every 2 hours after that. The internal temp of the smoker was right around 250.
At the one hour mark I checked my coals to make sure everything was going ok. I added a couple more coals and I spritzed the butts with some apple juice. Everything was looking good so far.
At the 3 hour mark I added a few more coals again since the fire was slowing down. The internal temp had dropped to around 200. I also added another hickory chunk as the others had burned off. I added a bit more water to the pan and gave the butts a spritz of juice.
At the 5th hour check, I started to see that the smoker was losing steam. The fire was just not staying hot and the ash was building up pretty good. I think this is one of the main flaws with this type of smoker. The ash buildup basically smothers the fire and restricts the air flow, therefore it is really difficult to go beyond the 5 hour mark for smoking. Adding more coals only helps so much if it cant get air to the fire. I also had forgotten about the automatic sprinkler in the yard and i don't think it helped the situation. While the sprinkler didnt go directly into the fire, I am sure it helped cool it down a bit.
At this point I realized that I needed to get the butts in more heat in order for them to finish. So I lit up some coals again in my trusty weber kettle, I used the minion method again. Once that fire was good and ready and the grill was warm, I moved the butts over to the weber and let them finish there. They were on the weber for another 4 hours when they finally reached an internal temp of 180. They had a beautiful crust on them and smelled so good.
I pulled them off the weber and wrapped them in tin foil with some more apple juice. I then wrapped them in a towel and put them in a cooler to let them sit for a couple hours.
In the meantime, I had prepared a couple of "fatty's" for breakfast! A fatty is nothing more than pork sausage wrapped in bacon! I also added some potato, bell pepper, egg and cheese and stuffed the middle of the sausage. I let this sit in the weber smoking for about an hour and half. They turned out pretty good, maybe a tad too well done.
One of them split open on the grill so it was a little messy.
Well the pulled pork never really became pulled pork. I am not sure exactly why but I think we may have waited too long to try pulling the meat. The meat just wasn't tender enough to pull apart and it ended up being slice pork. If you have any suggestions as to why it wouldn't pull, please let me know.
It still tasted good sliced. With some home made coleslaw, bbq sauce and baked beans it made for a great lunch!
Until next time....
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