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Tag: pork


(Green is the meat temperature, purple is the grill temp.)

Our second run at pulled pork was wildly successful. We used a different rub (hickory garlic, very tasty) but I think the big differences were in cooking technique. First off, I foiled the pork butt at around 150 degrees. This is where you wrap the thing in foil with a half a cup of water or apple juice in it. As the chart below shows, this more or less eliminated the stall while the moisture from the meat evaporates.

Second, I didn’t let it get quite up to 200. 195 degrees and she came off.

Third, I let it sit in the cooler for a full hour, not just 30 minutes, so the moisture distributed better.

End result was awesome.

Egg Notes

The EggWe got a Big Green Egg. (Darry Smith, Eggs By The Bay, sold it to us. Great guy, highly recommended.) Pricy, but cheaper than an iPad and we’ll be using it longer, so no qualms about the purchase.

Neither Susan or I have any grilling experience. We’ve done three meals, all of which turned out perfectly from a cooking perspective. I am not great at marinades yet but that’s a different question. The Egg is stupid easy to use. This weekend we embark on a pork butt as our first smoking attempt.

Notes for posterity:

Chicken from an EggThe chicken was at 350ish direct heat, 15 minutes on one side then flipped and around 10 more minutes. The last ten minutes we dumped in leeks and potato wedges on the cast iron half-pan, which came out perfect. The wedges were parboiled first. I think next time we’d want to do the wedges a bit hotter for more of a crust.

The pork chops were an inch or so thick. We gave ’em ten minutes on each side at 375. Also direct heat.

The salmon got ten minutes skin side down, two minutes skin side up, again 375 degrees, again direct heat.

After the pork butt smoking, the gasket adhesive should be well and truly cured and we’ll be able to experiment with higher heats.