“I’ve had good success lately using my smoker to cook some wonderful BBQ pork shoulder from Curt’s Market.  The meat was inexpensive and yet, when you prepare it this way, it can be a real crowd-pleaser.

I’m originally from Wisconsin, where, traditionally, folks are much more experienced in grilling bratwurst than in smoking meat.  So, until a few years ago, I had ZERO experience cooking large cuts of meat.

But if you get yourself one of those little Brinkman bullet-shaped electric smokers (which cost about $50), smoking meat becomes a no-brainer!  You don’t have to check on the meat all the time.  If you get busy and
accidentally let the meat cook for an hour more than you wanted to, you’re probably still alright.  And with pork shoulder, you can feed a lot of people for a low price per pound!

What You’ll Need From Curt’s

- one pork shoulder (about 9 lbs)
- spices to make a dry rub*
OR
- “Lysander’s All Natural Meat Rub for Pork”   ($4.49)
- hickory chips for smoking ($1.99)
- plastic wrap (optional) ($1.39)
- Roma Hamburger buns ($2.29 for a pckg of

* Spices that I tend to use when mixing up my own dry rub are:  chili powder, garlic powder, maybe some onion powder or minced onions, black pepper, parsley, and maybe some red pepper flakes.

You’ll Also Need:
one smoker (electric preferred, for minimum fuss; sorry, Curt’s doesn’t sell these!)
water

About the Smoker

Feel free to use whatever smoker you want.  Personally, I’m partial to my little Brinkman electric smoker.

Why?  Because I don’t have to deal with charcoal at all.

With a charcoal or wood smoker, I would have to check on the fuel all the time to make sure that the fire was still going.  Not with my electric! Sure, it runs up my electric bill for a few hours.  But I probably would have gotten as big a bill running my stove for that long!  And with my smoker, I can smoke two pork shoulders at the same time, if I want to.

Also, my previous electric smoker lasted me for about 8 years before the bottom rusted out of it.  And a new one cost me just $50.  I think that’s a pretty fair investment.

Preparing and Cooking the Meat:

1) Buy a pork shoulder from Curt’s.  They average about 9 lbs each, so you’re getting a lot of meat.

2) Unwrap the meat.  Dry it off a bit with a paper towel.

3) Mix up a bunch of spices to create a “dry rub” mix.  A “dry rub” is simply a mix of spices that you intend to coat the outside of your meat with. (You can also buy a terrific prepared dry-rub mix at Curt’s Market
called “Lysander’s All Natural Meat Rub for Pork”!)

4) Using your hands, rub the spices into the meat all over.

5) OPTIONAL:  Wrap up the shoulder in plastic wrap and put into the refrigerator overnight, to let the flavors absorb into the meat a bit.  The next morning, remove the plastic wrap and then…

6) Pour 2 or three cups of hickory chips into a bowl.  Add water.  Let the chips soak for at least 30 minutes.

Put water into your smoker’s water pan.  Plug in your smoker.

9) Put your meat onto the smoker’s grate.  Make a mental-note of what time it is.  Add 17 hours.  That’s when your shoulder should be done cooking. (More on this in a minute.)

10) Take your hickory chips out to the smoker.  Open the little side door on the smoker.  Take your hand and scoop handfuls of hickory chips and place them onto the lava rocks and heating element of your smoker.  This will create a nice stream of smoke for the next hour.

11) Go relax.

12) OPTIONAL:  You MAY want to soak some more hickory chips and put them into the smoker in another hour or two.  You can do this as often as you like, depending how much smoky flavor you want your meat to have.

13) OPTIONAL:  You do NOT have to check on your meat during the 17 hours that you’re going to smoke it (assuming your pork shoulder is at least 8 or 9 pounds).  In fact, taking the lid off of your smoker to check on the meat actually lowers the smoker’s temperature for while, every time that you do it.

14) After 17 hours, take the shoulder off of the grill.  Let it cool for about 30 minutes.

15) Put the shoulder into a large bowl or roaster (whatever you plan on serving or storing this in).   Take two forks, one in each hand, and start tearing / shredding the pork.  The pork should shred easily. It should practically fall off the bone.  If it isn’t shredding easily and you suspect it’s a bit under-done, see “ABOUT THE COOKING TIME” below.  Discard the large bone you will find inside the shoulder.  Shred all of the pork.(Try not to eat to much of it by yourself while you’re shredding it!)

16) At this point, you may want to mix in your own barbeque sauce.  Some people like to eat the pork with just the flavors of the dry rub mixed in. If I’m serving guests, I try to offer one or two different varieties of BBQ sauce “on the side”, because some folks like a sweet sauce and some like a spice sauce.

17) Feel free to freeze any leftovers! (Haven’t tried this at my house yet. We pack lunches for the next day, give folks some to take home… Usually there’s not much left after that.)

About the Cooking Time:

17 hours might seem surprisingly long to you. Well, it was for me too!  I had gotten used to smoking beef briskets at about 12-15 hours for a 12-13 pound brisket.  When I tried that same time
range with pork shoulder, the meat wasn’t done all the way through.

I learned the 17 hour mark by trial-and-error and with a little help from a guy I saw on the Food Network.

One thing you learn with a smoker is if you go an hour or two over your intended cooking time, the meat is probably still just fine. We’re cooking at lower temperatures here, so the outside of your meat might be a
little drier than it would have been, MAYBE.   Pork is a fattier meat than beef, so it won’t dry out as fast.  So don’t get TOO concerned about that long cooking time.

If you shred the pork and you think it’s a little underdone, just put it into the oven at 250 and let it cook for another hour.

But I do suggest that you try following this recipe once BEFORE you try this out on guests.  That way, you can get a better “feel” for what cooking time you’ll need to use with your smoker.

Good luck!  I’m sure you’ll get lots of compliments on your cooking skill… plus you’ll be happy knowing you got a lot of meals off of that one piece of meat!

David Raasch
Curt’s Raving Fan