If this is your first smoke, it is not a bad idea to start with just a salt and pepper rub. It should shred effortlessly. Place a drip pan filled with water under the grill grates. Step 2 - Pork shoulders have a half-inch or so thick fat cap. I do a big smoke at least twice a month which, as you can imagine, makes my house quite popular. Kimberly, smoke your shoulder at 225 degrees. Cut the pork belly into 1 1/2 inch cubes. I did a cooking experiment one day with the same pork loin divided in six pieces, (fat side up & fat side down) two each in oven, crock pot & smoker. Trim excess fat from the pork shoulder. leave the skin on. Flip the butt over, so the fat side faces up. Making The Perfect Grilled Chicken Breast. Joe explains that every smoker is a little different and that the heat source will come from different areas depending on how your smoker is designed. Your email address will not be published. If your going to pull the pork smoke it longer, until it reaches 205 degrees. Leftover pernil is a must, my friend. Enjoy the website. Choose a butt that has good marbling or fat distribution on that side. Remove the pork shoulder from the smoker and wrap in butcher paper or aluminum and place in a cooler to rest for at least one hour. Hi, my name is Keith and I am a Texas native, family man and a big time BBQ’er. Continuously monitor the temperature with a probe thermometer. Have done a number of pork shoulders/butts...have always done skin and fat on the upside, Reason being the fat runs down into the meat adding moistness. Smoking time averages 90 minutes per pound, depending on the level of doneness desired. When internal temperature rises to 150°F, transfer the bellies over to your BBQ/gas grill. I shoot to maintain my smoker temperature at 225 degrees F and can typically plan about 2 hours of cook time per pound of pork. How Long to Smoke a Pork Butt. Grab the black pepper, garlic pepper, salt, brown sugar, paprika, and mix them up to break any lumps. Wrap the pork up and place it back on the smoker, making sure you keep your temp probe in and wrap the foil around it. Might sound high to some but trust me, it takes that temp to break down this tough cut of meat. Place the pork shoulder in your smoker fat side down, with 5 to 6 wood chunks of your choice on top of hot coals. With the skin on, pork shoulder is best used when the recipe calls for crispy pork skins or crackling. Prepare smoker to about 210 degrees F (99 degrees C). About 1 hour before smoking the pork, unwrap the pork shoulder and let it rest at room temperature. Yes, according to Joe Haynes, Certified BBQ Judge , and blogger at Obsessive Competitive Barbecue. Using a pork brine recipe will add lots of flavors to a smoked pork shoulder recipe or a leg of pork … The smoke, rub, and salt will be on the skin. BBQ brisket comes to mind, as does home-cured bacon.Equally good—but rarely thought about—is a skin-on shoulder or leg of pork. When you get your pork home and start prepping it for the grill, your first step is to trim it up. Fat side up - or Down? Spread the rub on all sides and top of the pork. A bunch of us went on a NC BBQ Crawl this past Saturday. The picnic will have far more skin to remove and often comes out tasting a but hammier. Cook until the deepest section of the meat reaches an internal temperature of 205°F, or about 8 1/2 hours. Allow the pork butt to rest for 30 to 40 minutes. Yes you can over cook a pork shoulder or butt, brisket, roast etc. However, most of it will melt as the pork cooks, and you can remove the rest right before you serve it to your guests. If you can’t track down a pork shoulder, look for a Boston Butt. Smoke pork until very tender, about 8 hours. In America, many people like to brine a leg of pork before smoking the meat. From there, use a pair of heat resistant gloves and pull the pork apart with your hands. When you get it, one side will be all fat and the other side will be meat and fat. Your email address will not be published. Once the meat gets to around 160° internal temp (around the five hour mark) is the perfect time to wrap. Just another way of dealing with the skin. Starting skin side down, pat the salt rub all over the pork to completely cover it. I like to stay around 8 pounds per butt for good cook times. no liquid needed. whatever fat and gelatin there is will melt off and make its own liquid (which you reduce into a barbecue sauce, so pick your dry rub well) and the skin you just pick out in a more or less solid piece. It is possible to run the gamut and over cook or over smoke food leaving a perfectly good piece of meat totally dried out or burned. There is so much fat inside the meat that you do not need the extra fat on the outside like you would for say, a brisker. For these, I got up at 5:30 AM and turned on the smoker (I use a digitally-controlled box smoker), had the shoulder in the smoker at 6 AM, removed the butt from the smoker at 10 PM and let it rest an hour, then pulled it, for a total time of 18 hours. throw in a chunk or 2 … You can put the shoulder in the smoker fat side up or down, I've had good results with either way of doing it. You want a bone-in, skin-on pork shoulder that’s at least 10 pounds. Once the bottom is done, flip and place on a wire rack that’s sitting over a baking sheet covered in foil. by: John . Pork shoulder is also best cooked low and slow, especially for any recipe that calls for a reverse sear or high-heat finish in order to get the skin to the desired finished texture. Cook the meat at a temperature of 250 degrees Fahrenheit for about an hour for each pound. So that seasoning flavors can reach the meat under the skin, it's a good idea to score the skin down to the flesh. Next, slather the sides of the meat and season with the rub. The pork butt is a fatty piece of meat so I cut off nearly all of the fat, down to about 1/8 of an inch. Now, you are all ready to smoke your pork butt. Skin will come right off when all fat and connective tissues has rendered. When you get your pork home and start prepping it for the grill, your first step is to trim it up. First rub the outside of the pork with mustard and then apply your rub. Same deal: bone-in, skin-on. Next, you want to apply your rub. Both come from the shoulder of the pig, but pork butt is higher on the foreleg, while pork shoulder is farther down. Part of the shoulder blade should be visible. The Boston cut is what you want. I prefer to use hickory at 225 degrees. A: A 5 pound pork shoulder(picnic) will require 7.5 hours of total cook time.. that is 1.5 hours per pound. Here is a step by step guide to how I prep my pork butts for the smoker. Place the pork shoulder fat side up on the top rack, cover with the lid, and bring the temperature up to a constant 225°F to 250°F, using the vents to regulate the temperature. Also, throw in a cup or so of beer on the pot with the shoulder? Saw a post here a week or so back saying the skin/fat goes on the down side. put the shoulder in skin side up. If it's Boston Butt, you don't have to trim any. Turn the roast over to finish removing the skin. You need to cut down the fat side to allow for better smoke penetration. Should the shoulder go in the crock pot (for 8-10 hours) fat side up or down? But the cuts are different enough that we generally prefer pork butt. Some foods are worth waiting for. I smoke for 18 to 20 hours or until the interior temperature reaches 199 degrees. Place pork shoulder in a large pot and add enough apple cider to cover. Cook for about 8 hours until the internal temperature of the meat reaches 200°F on an instant read thermometer. Pour cider brine into the water pan of the smoker; add onion and about 1/4 cup more sugar rub. At this point, you can wrap the meat with plastic wrap and refrigerate overnight before grilling, which will partially cure the meat. I agree with Bill - fat side up in most all smokers as the water/drip pan below will keep it moist underneath as will the juices from the fat melting off the top. Place pork belly on a medium hot grill, skin side down, or in a broiler, skin side up, and cook until skin is crisp. How To Smoke Tri Tip On A Charcoal Grill? Instead, I just grill indirect at 450 for 4 hrs. When the wood is ignited and producing smoke, place the pork in the smoker or grill, skin side up, and smoke until pork registers 160 degrees on an instant read thermometer inserted into the center of the belly, about 4 to 5 hours. Smoking a whole leg of pork will feed a lot of people. Put the skin up, until half way through the cook, then put skin down. Let it cook for about 4 hours or until it reaches 160°F. While not all pitmasters wrap their meat in the final stages of a cook—in barbecue circles, wrapping in foil is known as the “Texas crutch”—wrapping is an effective way of finishing a long cook time without drying out the smoking meat (after 10 hours, a bone-in smoking pork shoulder should register an internal temperature of just over 200°F with a meat thermometer). Place the pork belly on the smoker grate fat side up. Spread that mixture over the pork belly cubes and be sure to rotate the cubes so all of the sides are equally seasoned. My pork belly halves cooked for 4.5 hours at which point they were the color I wanted and about 163 to 168°F in the center. If you want to go with a little more, here is the rub that i use. Ultra Crisp-Skinned Slow Roasted Pork Shoulder » All products linked here have been independently selected by our editors. Related: Smoked pork loin recipe. Are you doing a pork shoulder or pork butt for the first time? rub down the entire meat with dry rub, put onions and minced garlic in the bottom. At Clyde Cooper's in Raleigh they cook their shoulders with the skin on and then strip the skin off. Make sure the grate and catch tray are clean, since you want to avoid any flare ups that will char the pork belly. Low and slow all the way, and make sure you wrap that pork shoulder in … Does it matter? Next they take the smoked skin and cut it up and deep fry it into some really great pork skins. Slather and rub. Score the fat … I've dry rubbed the 7 lb shoulder...huge fat layer on bottom. The first thing that you want to do is pick your cut and your particular pork butt or shoulder. If you’re going to slice it, cook to 185˚. For extra flavor and moistness, you can brine the pork shoulder for a day or two before smoking or grilling. You can also go by color– when it gets to the right shade of dark brown, you can proceed to the next step. Cup one hand along the side of the pork and use it to catch the rub and press it evenly onto the meat. Pork Shoulder with skin on.... what to do with the skin? Get the Recipe. Your butt should have excellent color and bark at this point. Should your smoker determine if you cook your pork shoulder fat cap up down? I always leave skin on, I think it helps to hold the porky juiciness in. KiterTodd Posts: 2,451. Never bothered to smoke a shoulder. Place the pork shoulder fat side up on the top rack, cover with the lid, and bring the temperature up to a constant 225°F to 250°F, using the vents to regulate the temperature. Place them skin side down, to crisp up the skin. Make a cut through the skin right down the center as shown. If your grill doesn’t have a temperature gauge, you’ll need to purchase a digital barbecue thermometer. If your grill doesn’t have a temperature gauge, you’ll need to purchase a digital barbecue thermometer. It's nearly as impossible to mess up slow-cooked pork shoulder as it is to bring the sucker to the table without eating half the skin yourself before it arrives. Give it a pull and if cooked right, the bone should cleanly pull out of the pork. You can either choose  a Picnic cut or a Boston. Preheat, the smoker to 250°. When you look for your pernil, seek out pork shoulder. Place pork shoulder in the smoker and toss 4-6 wood chunks onto the hot coals. Lay the roast on the cutting board skin side up. As relatively tough and fatty cuts, both benefit from long, slow cooking methods such as roasting, stewing, and braising. Cut it all off. If you have a thermometer then you will need to smoke the meat until it reaches 140 degrees internally and after that it just needs heat to take it on to 180 for slicing or 200-205 for pulling. Too much wasted skin and I'm to lazy to try frying it up. Apply a generous amount of the rub on all sides of the pork shoulder. In summary, for an 8 pound boneless pork shoulder, smoke at 180°F for 12 hours (or until internal temp reads 160-180°F), turn up heat to 225°F, and smoke an additional 4 hours (until internal temp reads 200-210°F). [p]Thanks[p]CB Any comments....unless otherwise convinced will continue doing it fat/skin side up. Let’s just call it a butt from now on. The roast can be smoked so it can be sliced up nicely for dinners or sandwiches. The pork butt is a fatty piece of meat so I cut off nearly all of the fat, down to about 1/8 of an inch. Smoke for about 60 to 90 minutes per pound, or until the internal temperature reaches 195-205 degrees. Because both, the shoulder … Take it with a grain of salt or as a starting point for how you want to prep your pork shoulder. When it is all done, it is fall apart awesome. My first time doing pork shoulder, and am also new to crock pots. While pulling up and away from the center, run the blade of a sharp knife along the attached skin. When you are done, wrap it up in plastic wrap and put it in the refrigerator until you are ready. Skin will be one one side of shoulder only. Mop the shoulder every hour with mop sauce to keep it moist. You need to cut down the fat side to allow for better smoke penetration. For example, an 8 pound pork shoulder will take about 16 hours from start to finish. Once the pit is heated up you can go ahead and place the beautifully marinated pork shoulder on the pit with the bone side facing down. Thanks for advice! If there's a lot of excess fat on the surface, you can trim some of it off. Aiming to do bbq pulled pork. Smoke the chicken or poultry on the bottom rack and use the top rack for the pork shoulder. December 2016 in EggHead ... Should I peel the skin off before cooking or maybe just cook it skin side down and allow the skin to serve as a protecting layer during ... You will not get any bark formation under the skin. Required fields are marked *. 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