Cafeoutdoors.com: Yesterday's smoke

So I picked up a pork shoulder the other day with the idea of having sandwiches all week. Usually I like to put my rub on and then let it sit in the fridge anywhere from overnight to a couple of days but this time I didn't. Don't know why I bother (besides the fact that it makes my fridge smell yummy) because I really can't tell that much of a difference in the finished product between one that's been sitting for a day or two vs one that's only been rubbed an hour before going on, but I digress. Anyway, I fired up piggy with RO lump and some oak splits and then gathered all the ingredients of my favorite rub. Rubbed her down and let it sit a couple of hours covered on the counter. Took piggy up over 300 and let her soak in the heat for a while before dropping her back to 225. Here it is right before it went in.

So the butt had been in about an hour when my wife says "Are we having ribs for dinner"? I say "No, just smoking a butt for sandwiches". She says she really wants ribs, so it's off to the store I go. An hour latter I've got a slab of STL spares rubbed up and going in. Ran a mix of Apple and Hickory for my smoke and was able to maintain great temp control throughout. The highest I observed was 248 and the lowest was 216 but the majority of the time it stayed between 225 and 235. Ribs went 3 hours then got foiled for two hours. Came out perfect for my taste. Fall off the bone tender, good moister and good pull back. Here's how they looked when I opened them.

I usually foil butts when the hit 160 and then take them up to 190-200 before packing them in a cooler for a 1-3 hour rest. This time I let it go to 180 before I foiled simply because it was cooking a lot faster than I had anticipate and I wanted it to get as much smoke time as possible. Foiled when it started releasing juice pretty good. Took it up to 205 in the foil, pulled it out, put another layer of foil on and wrapped in towels and put in a cooler to rest. Let it rest 3 hours. It was still 158 degrees when I opened it up. Very, very juicy and pulled effortlessly.

Sorry, didn't take a pic after I pulled it or of the ribs after I cut them, I was too busy eatin.

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Shawn Wheaton
Missouri Waterfowl Association
Westside Chapter Chairman