Play by Play Smoked Pull Pork Recipe

This Fall I plan on traveling to the only area of Baja I have not been. Shari watch out here I come. Any way this recipe can be cooked at your Baja camp site or home with a smoker that would fit in the littlest car. That is if your smoker is the #1 priority of your trip like mine is.

After a hard week of work it HOT Fullerton working on cell phone type towers it's time to relax, have a c o o o ld beer, a case er glass of wine or two and unwind with my favorite hobby of cooking in my home in usually cool San Diego (not today).

I thought I'd do something different this time and present pics and recipes in real time. I just prepped a whole pork shoulder cut into two 8 lb roasts. I made the rub and the injection recipe, then injected the roasts, placed them in the biggest ziplock I've ever seen (electronic equip bag) and placed them in the frig to brine over night. Tomorrow pics will show the lighting of the coals and the start of a 13-16 hour smoking process.

Starting Material


Injection of 2 cups into each roast


"The Money Muscle". This striped chunk of meat is the choice piece that professional BBQ masters present to the judges. You treat this part of the roast as King of the Roast. A second injection is in order.


Rest until tomorrow.


Recipes for the injection and rub. I find recipes online and copy them into Word. Then store them under a Recipe Folder for another day. I usually change each recipe after tasting it to add a-little-of-this-or-that or less-of-this-or-that for the next time. I'll be looking at this recipe to taste either the pear or habanero inside the roast or I'll change it accordingly.



To be Continued tomorrow starting at 4am.....

[Edited on 7-25-2014 by Lobsterman]

Day Two

Up at 0430 to take the butts out of the frig and make coffee. At 0530 started 25 coals. Added the 25 coals when lit to about 5 lbs of unlit charcoal (minion method).


Wiped the brine off with paper towels and applied a thin coating of olive oil to both butts. Then used the remainder of the rub on the meat side not the fat side. I'll put some more rub on the fat side after it renders a bit and the roasts are turned over.


Butts on under a water bath at 0615. Ideal smoking temp is 250 deg.


This is my cooking area littered with BBQs, smokers and a portable 2-burner stove of yore with the exception of a newer Weber 26.5" grill (they are either charcoal, gas or electric). I prefer charcoal by a wide margin. The smoker I'm using is an 18" Weber Smokey Mountain.


[Edited on 7-25-2014 by Lobsterman]

You are one cooking guy ... thanks

After 3-hours. Notice the rendered fat from the top roast dripping onto the bottom butt. I think I'll switch positions in 2 hours so the top butt can get dripped on as well.


[Edited on 7-25-2014 by Lobsterman]

Thanks for the report. Looks delicious------- so where is San Diego do you live?

After 6-hours. I wrapped one of the butts in double alum foil with some liquid and BBQ sauce, fat side down. The other butt I'll finish as is. I love the blacken crispies of fat and meat (chicharones con carne). Both butts are at 157 degrees "the crunch stage".


[Edited on 7-25-2014 by Lobsterman]

After 11 hours

The top butt is an hour or two away. The bottom butt is only at 167 degrees. Once I take the top butt off I'll replace it with teriyaki marinated yellowtail I caught last week 27 miles off point loma. Might as well kill two birds with one stone.

I used hickory chunks for the first 5 hours only. I'll use apple wood once I put the YT on.

12- Hours Later

I'm in a dilemma. It's 6pm and dinner is no where's close. Therefore, I'll continue cooking the butts until they are done (about 9-10 pm) and then put them in a cooler for tomorrow's problem.

The teriyaki marinated and dried YT is on with apple wood smoke for 30 minutes. The temp is higher than I'd like but I'm trying to finish the butts as 1st priority. Therefore, the YT will cook more than slow smoke. Temp is 275 degrees. Then apply a thick teriyaki baste until done about 2-hours.


[Edited on 7-26-2014 by Lobsterman]

[Edited on 7-28-2014 by Lobsterman]

14- Hours later

It's time for bed, ready or not all stuff comes off the smoker, wrapped and placed in a cooler. The YT cools then into a ziplock into the frig.


Nite all

Anyone have Guy Fieri's addy?

Day 3

After coffee I dove into processing the pork butts I smoked for 14 hours yesterday between 240-270 degrees. They had been stored over nite in a cooler wrapped inside with towels. The butts were still warm in the morning. I plan on vacuum sealing all of it including the yellowtail. I was interested in how the wrapped and unwrapped butts compared in taste, moistness, etc.

Unwrapped Butt


Wrapped Butt



Finished product after 3 days of labor


The wrapped butt won hands down in the taste, moisture, and tenderness. The unwrapped butt did have the best bark but was drier. I think I'll freeze all the unwrapped butt to use in stews, congri, carnitas, tacos and other dishes. The wrapped will be eaten shortly as well as some bags taken to Fullerton with me tomorrow for a room snack.

Back to work

[Edited on 7-26-2014 by Lobsterman]

[Edited on 7-26-2014 by Lobsterman]

Well thanks a lot .... now what am I supposed to do ....

That looks good.