3/5/2017 – Smoked on the MES a 7.48 lb pork shoulder and BB Ribs for Jeff and Maggie’s Sunday visit after they had eloped just after Christmas. The evening before we rubbed the shoulder with Stubb’s Hot Pork rub. See separate post this date for the baby back ribs. This morning scored 1/4″ fat cap to the meat in diamonds and added rub pressing it into the cuts.
6:45 AM – Amazen tray is loaded and burning with Trafalgar hickory pellets. MES is preheated as it was set to 250 and after coasting to 280 opened and inserted meat on 2nd grate from the bottom. Once the door was closed the MES temp settled at 266. Ambient temp is 61 and humidity is 95%–drizzling rain.
7:00 – Grate temp is 226 and MES had fallen to 235 and heating back to 250.
8:00 – 1:45 hour – Grate temp is 234 and MES is 246 and heating.
9:15 – 3 hours – Grate temp is 232 and MES is 246 and heating. Yup, same as 8:00.
9:30 – Inserted probe and IT is 134. Added two BB Ribs to top and 2nd grate.
10:00 – Grate temp on shoulder has fallen to 192 …due to the cold BB Ribs. MES is showing 250 as its probe is below the shoulder so it is not heating. Shoulder’s IT is 140. Reset MES to 270 and it began heating. LESSON LEARNED!!!
11:15 – 5 hours – Grate temp of shoulder is 207. Grate temp under top grate is 220. IT of shoulder is 155. MES is heating and climbing at 252.
12:15 – 6 hours – Grate temp of shoulder is 215. Grate temp under top grate is 227. IT of shoulder is 160. MES is heating and climbing at 252 (oddly, same as 11:15).
12:30 – 6:15 hours – Pulled shoulder, wrapped in foil and into the oven set at 350. Lowered MES to 250 and left ribs to smoke more. IT of shoulder when reinserted probe was 154.
2:45 – ChefWorks probe alarmed at 205. Drained jus from foil pack and put wrapped shoulder into small Igloo cooler sitting on two hot mats and covered by two dish towels. Added jus to what was caught by alum tray below shoulder during the smoke.
Finishing Sauce – See above for the capture of the base. In the quart sauce pan it was about 1/3 full of jus. Poured in a little more than half of that with ACV. Added about a teaspoon of Stubbs rub then some thyme. Put lid on it and left it to simmer very slow.
5:00 – Removed from cooler and unwrapped. The blade bone pulled out cleanly and was dry. The meat pulled apart in chunks easily and two forks easily pulled them into bite site pieces. Poured the finishing sauce over it, stirred it in, and served.
