1st Pulled Pork attempt on UDS

Here's my my first smoke of a Pork shoulder in hopes of getting some delicious Pulled Pork. As far as I can tell, it was a success.

The shoulder cut was just over 5 lbs. I read that French's Mustard is a good "glue" to hold the Pork rub and during the smoke all the "mustard" flavor is lost. I thought about mixing up a my own Pork rub or looking up a recipe but instead kept it simple and went with McCormicks Grill Mates Pork Rub.

I set the shoulder on Saran wrap and lathered it down with French's Mustard. Then rubbed the McCormicks on, sealed it tightly with the Saran, and placed it in the fridge to sit for 8-12hrs.

Around 10 hrs later I pulled the shoulder out of the fridge and started to prepare the Ugly Drum Smoker. Opened all intakes. I only filled the charcoal basket about 1/4 full of Kingsford, equalling approx. 6-8lbs. I pushed them towards the outside of the basket, creating a ring of charcoal around the outside while the "inside area" was open for the lit charcoal to be added later. This is called the Minion Method. I will address this more indepth in a later post.

I lit another 8-10 peices separately w/my handy Weed Burner. Talk about quick & easy! So much faster, not to mention more fun, than a charcol chimney. After about 5 mins or so they had a nice gray coating ash. Added the lit charcoal to the center of the unlit basket. Tossed a few chunks of Hickory wood on top of the lit & unlit charcoal. This will distribute the smoke flavor throughout the entire session. *Hindsight, in the future I might keep the wood only on the lit charcoal as too much smoke throughout the cook can create a bitter or nasty flavor.

After about 5 mins it reached 150 degrees. I closed 1 of the intakes. Another 5 mins and it was @200. I closed another intake. Now just the intake with ball valve was open. After another 5 mins it reached 220. I closed the ball valve intake 1/2 way. A few minutes later, it leveled out at 225. PERFECT!

Time to add the pork! After adding the shoulder and having kettle lid off, the temps jumped to 250 but only for a short time, then leveled back around 225. The rule of thumb for Pulled Pork is 1.5hrs per 1lb. So I figured it would take around 7hrs. Well approx. 7 hours later the temperature of the meat reached 190, which 190-200 is the desired temp for easy pulling pork. Here's the pics!

After 5 hours...

After 7 hours...

After! Mmmmm



During the entire 7hrs I adjusted the ball valve maybe 6 or 7 times. Not bad consistency if you ask me! I love my UDS!