Pulled Pork Cooking Tips

by Rich
(Baton Rouge, LA)

Pulled Pork Just Put On

When preparing my pulled pork last night, I trimmed the heavy layers of fat tissue before putting on my dry rub. Was this wrong? All pulled pork cooking tips gratefully received.

I'm new to smoking and converted a new White Westinghouse gas oven to a smoker. Plug it in, turn on the gas, set the oven temp control and so far I have maintained 225 for 10 hours.

I can cook as low as 190 all the way up to 500. To get smoke, I drilled holes in the oven floor pan and the flame coming through ignites my wood chips in a smoker box. I can get 1 - 2 hours of smoking w/o reloading.

I chose an oven for simplicity, maintaining temp, size, cost, and should have a 4 cubic ft smoker for under $400 on casters. With 2 oven racks, I can put about 8 slabs of ribs with no problem. If you want pics during construction, ask. I stripped out the top burners and left only the oven control. I'm waiting for my granite top to come in and will add a chimney to the vent at the top with a control valve to reduce the heat and smoke leaving the oven chamber.

Paul's Comments:-

For someone who's new to smoking you sure seem to have the right idea when it comes to construction! But to answer your original question about the fat - no it's not wrong. Arguably the fat might keep the pork a little more moist but you've got to trade that off against the fact that by trimming the fat you'll get the rub onto the meat and so add flavor.

The best pulled pork cooking tip I can give is suck it and see. You decide, try it again with the fat on and let us know which you prefer.

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