After years of believing that pulled pork is something made in a crockpot, I decided that my family needed a reality adjustment. And my recent trip back to Chicago seemed the perfect opportunity.So, my brother and I decided to pull a pulled pork all-nighter.
My brother may not have a Salivator per se, but he does have a propane-powered Great Outdoors smoker. Sure…a grizzled, Carolina pitmaster might scoff at the notion of propane-powered Q, but I’m not one for pretention. Besides…that which the smoker lacks in authenticity, it more than makes-up for in convenience. And convenience is exactly what’s needed when you’re pulling a Q overnighter, but don’t really want to stay up all night.
We slapped 12 lbs. of spice-rubbed pork butt onto the smoker at 11pm–about the same time that it started to rain. We then–in a stunning display of psychic, harmonic convergence–both woke at 4am to adjust the temperature and replenish the supply of wood chips…a task that not only took place under a heavy downpour, but also in nothing more than our boxer shorts.
That should be an interesting topic for discussion at the next homeowners’ association meeting.
Then, finally…we woke again at 7am to oversee the home stretch.
The butts hit our target internal temperature of 197F at noon–a comfortable three hours before the rest of the family arrived.
And the verdict? Well…let’s just say that nobody thinks I’m a crack-pot for dissing the crockpot, anymore.
[BTW…I know what you’re all thinking, and it’s true. This entire post was nothing more than an excuse to publish the above photo.]
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