Bull Quesadillas, Boneless Pork Shoulder, Baked potatoes

[Sockwalker]

Ok, don’t judge me too harshly, some of this noobie trial run smoking session may be sacrilegious, and my pics aren’t in order nor are they anything special to look at, but what the heck:

Started thawing 6.5 pound Costco boneless shoulder Friday evening and put it in the fridge overnight. It was still pretty frozen in the middle at 8am today (Saturday).., I tried about a seven minute defrost in the microwave to continue the thawing. Mixed some dijon mustard, yellow mustard, and maybe a tablespoon of sesame oil and slathered on as a binder... rubbed with a custom mix of roughly 1/8 cup Montreal steak seasoning, 1/8 cup Carne Asada seasoning, 6T fresh ground black pepper, 3T Kinders Maple rub, 2T coarse Pink salt, 1T Kinders Buttery rub, and 2t cumin. Put in smoker at about 9:15 am with Pit Boss Hickory pellets at 265* setting.
Probe said 32* for about 30 minutes so I was a bit concerned...then internal temp started very slowly rising. Threw some quesadillas on for lunch as well.
Smoked meat at 265* for nearly 5 hours. Meat was only 125* internal but had developed a decent bark so I wrapped in foil, put it in our enameled Dutch oven (no lid, just foil wrap) and back on the RT700 it went. I incrementally raised smoker temp several times over the next 2 hours, as internal temp was slow to increase with smoker set @ 265*. Somewhere around 285*

setting and 170* internal I put a few tablespoons of salted butter and a few tablespoons of brown sugar on top, recovered and ended with a setting of 320* for the last 1.5 hours or so, while also adding 6 small whole russet potatoes rubbed with olive oil and pink salt.
Internal temp finally reached 195* at roughly 7pm. Let it rest for 15 minutes and shredded with a couple big forks. Shredding was time consuming as I wanted to remove most of the fatty deposits.
All said and done it was pretty tender, the bark and outer smoke ring was delicious, and altogether everything

tasted really good with or without bbq sauce mixed in.

 

[Kanco Connection]

Kudos! I don't know about you being a noob, but you dove right in and sounds like you got a good result. My guess is you'll evolve your approach as you Q and you'll have an easier cook with an even tastier product. Nice job!

 

[Sockwalker]

Now I’ll skim the fat from the juices and redistribute some juice back into the shredded meat.
I’m considering taking a small pile of the shredded meat, getting it good and wet with bbq sauce and the au jus, and re-smoking it, almost like a burnt-end meatloaf style cook.
Has anyone done this, and will it make the meat too dry? Maybe partially wrap it in bacon first

 

[Sockwalker]

Kudos! I don't know about you being a noob, but you dove right in and sounds like you got a good result. My guess is you'll evolve your approach as you Q and you'll have an easier cook with an even tastier product. Nice job!

Thanks. I’ve definitely been watching a lot of videos. Next time my pork shoulder will be fully thawed first, or I’ll use straight from refrigerator. I think the cook took a 2-3 hours longer than it should have were my pork fully thawed.