Bob's Pulled Pork on a Smoker

Wonderful! But what to do with left over apple cider marinade? Boil it down by two thirds; add tomato paste, garlic powder, onion powder, apple cider vinegar, Cayenne pepper and you got a barbecue sauce which is a great match for the meat.

Amazing flavor, everyone loved it. We ate this on buns with a homemade whiskey BBQ sauce. We used Jack Daniels brand chips (just for the heck of it, definitely didn't harm it any.) My only regret - we don't have any left!

I mixed all ingredients for rub and Apple cider in stew pot. Warmed until sugars & Salt melted, cooled this mixture completely. Poured this over the pork Butt in a very large zip lock bag to brine for 48 hours. Took out of bag washed, dried and placed in oven for 6 hours at 225, then took to the grill for a 4 hour open pan smoke. This meat fell apart and was SO moist. My friends loved it! Great mix of ingredients for a delicious flavor.

Great flavor. We followed the recipe exactly. The only thing we did differently was, once the pork reached 165 degrees, we pulled it out of the smoker, double wrapped in heavy duty foil, and put it in the oven. We cooked it in the oven another few hours very slowly (at 210 degrees) until it reached 195-200 degrees. It was super tender, moist and delicious.

First, Don't make the same mistake of the only one star review of this recipe and use apple cider vinegar instead of apple cider. Also, a big pork shoulder does take a long time to smoke to the pulled pork stage, so don't blame the recipe if your smoker cooks slower than average. ALWAYS use a thermometer to check how done your meat is. You can always smoke it for a few hours and then finish it in a covered pan or dish in the oven. Recipe as written is great, although I always add a little red pepper to my rubs. (just a personal preference)

I have used this recipe twice and loved it! It honestly was the best pulled pork that I have ever had...our dinner guests agreed! The second time I made it, I completely covered the pork with yellow mustard prior to adding the dry rub...this created a wonderful thick bark. Every hour, I used a spray mop mixture of oil and apple cider vinegar (50/50). I also used apple wood chips in the smoker...yum! I promise that you will be thrilled with the results!

Only reason I didn't like it is I had a 6.5 pound pork shoulder in my smoker for 10 hours at 210 - 220 degrees and it was definitely not done. Probably needs to smoke at 250 degrees for that amount of time...

I took the original and made a few changes based on comments I read in other reviews and my own ideas. 1. I used a bone in pork shoulder for more flavor. 2. I used apple wood to enhance the flavor. 3. Applied mustard around the shoulder before I put on the rub. 4. Cooked it at the regular temperature for 8 hours, then turned up to 250 for 2 hours. This made it more tender. This was an outstanding receipt with the minor changes I made. Pulled very easy with just a fork. I used a Kansas City type BBQ sauce on the side. One of the best pork shoulders I have made with my smoker.

Used this rub with a 3 lb pork loin in an electric smoker. Best pork loin I've ever had. The apple juice/rub marinated (overnight) seems to have added a subtle sweetness to the meat. That coupled with the sweet and spiciness of the rub makes it almost addictive. Specifics: * Rub - added about a teaspoon of chili powder for some spiciness * 3 lb pork loin marinated in 1 gallon zip-lock bag containing apple juice and 1/4 cup of the rub. * Cooked in electric smoker at about 250-275F for roughly 3 hours (to target internal temp of 145F) * Wrap in heavy duty aluminum foil, continue cooking for roughly 2.5 hours (to target internal temp of 180F) VERY tender (but doesn't fall apart). Excellent.

Phenomenal recipe, made it this past weekend and loved the results. My only tip comes from a little experience in smoking meats: Do not rely on time alone, rely on the internal temperature of the meat itself. 190-210 for pulled pork, around 170-180 for slicing (like for a roast). This is the general rule of thumb for cooking smoked meats (Google it).

I didn't use this for pulled pork, however I did use it on ribs and then again on chicken leg quarters. This has been the best recipe that I have found for smoking. The extra rub after the brining gives it a wonderfully sweet and slightly spicy flavor. The chicken skin came out smelling and tasting like bacon. The flavor worked it's way into the meat on the ribs and the chicken. Thank you for sharing this recipe.

This pork turned out amazing! I followed the recipe exactly but for some reason it wasn't done cooking after about 8 1/2 hours. I moved the pork to my slow cooker, added a can of beer, and set it on low and finished cooking it overnight. It had the perfect amount of smoke flavor with the added tenderness of cooking it in the slow cooker. It was a huge hit with my family and will be making this one many more times!

Great Rub. I am going to try it on chicken.

Best rub I ever made. I however used smokey paprika instead of regular and it was amazing

Tried this recipe tonight after marinating overnight. Simple, worked well, very tasty and was told the taste was restaurant quality. When making the sandwich, just placed the pork in a roll, covered in BBQ sauce and instead of tomatoes or lettuce (which you wouldn't normally use), garnished with coleslaw on top. Excellent. I can't wait to make it again. Thanks Bob for sharing!

This is truly a remarkable pulled pork recipe! I followed the recipe for the rub and brine exactly but I used an automatic feed wood pellet smoker instead of the charcole type. My smoker does not require a water bowl so I poured some brine in a metal bowl and placed it in the back corner of the smoker. I set the smoker to 225 degrees F and smoked a 10 lb butt cut pork shoulder to an internal temperature of 195 degrees F, about 10 hours. I served it piled high on large Kaiser Rolls topped with tangy coleslaw with sides of baked beans and BBQ chips... Delicous!

I didn't use unions. Instead I crushed 2 garlic cloves for the brine. Took about 12 hours but holy cow, this was amazing.

5 star, for a well to do rub. However, Allrecipes is wrong, Smoke does not break down the collagen that is high in pork. Temps should be maintained around 225 deg. One reviewer gave 2 stars because it wasn't done in 10 HR. A 6-1/2 lb shoulder could take up two 14/18 hours due to what is referred to as the (stall point) this happens at around 165 deg once past the stall internal temps will start to break down the collagen sometimes I wrap at around 180 deg other times I don't wrap depending the meat is looking. 200 deg internal temp is the magic number that gives pulled pork that deep moist rich flavor we all want.

This is the most amazing recipe EVER!!! I have to say I didn't do the brining process. I bought small pork tenderloins and just used the dry ingredients as a rub. OH MY!!! Better than even what you can get at the Iowa State Fair! Quick, easy, ingredients you already have on hand. Everyone who's tasted it is amazed! Tonight, for my fifth time using this in two weeks, I'm smoking pork chops.

I cooked this recipe, knowing beforehand that an 8lb pork shoulder smoked at 225* can be expected to take ~16 hours to reach temp. And that's how long I smoked mine at 225*, 16 hours. 8lbs for 8 hours at 210* is simply not done, and certainly won't be tender. This recipe does a dis-service to anyone who comes here with no experience and wants to smoke a pork shoulder. They, as many other reviewers have written, will be disappointed.

Made this and got rave reviews from the family. We ate it as sandwiches with slaw and Stubb's BBQ but it was great by itself as well. Just a note, it took nearly 12 hours to do an 8 lb butt trying to reach 190 degrees internal temp.

SO MOIST!!!! Awesome flavor. We just sliced ours up, no shredding. So delicious!

Amazing, I had to smoke for about 12 hours due to the size. The recipe was simple and delicious!!

Absolutely delicious! Had picky eater kids come back for thirds! Just like many other people who made this recipe, it took significantly longer than the recommended cook time. I did 10 hours in the smoker at 230 with an additional hour in the oven at 250 to cook a 7lb bone-in butt roast to perfection.

very good .... do definitely......

Trying to use apricot wood in the smoker, as I got a lot of trimmings from an old apricot tree. I am awaiting the smoking to finish...4.5 hours in. I upped the temp to 230 F, I added two tbs of ground ginger and 1 tbs dry mustard to the rub. I brined the 8 lb pork shoulder for 36 hours, pulled it, patted it dry and generously applied the rub. Took half of the remaining brine, added some apple vinegar , filled the water pan with it. BBQ Sauce Took the remainder of the rub, along with the remaining brine, added 1/4 cup molasses, 12 oz of tomato sauce, 12 oz of diced tomatoes, a few dashes of Worcestershire sauce, and 1/4 cup of tomato sauce (ketchup). Reduced down by half, added a tbs of corn starch in water to thicken for the bbq sauce. As I know how to smoke pork, as well as judging by the sauce, the pork will be awesome! It is why I am going a head and posting a review. Nice to be confident ain't it? End result. I held the temp in my smoker at 225 F for 9.5 hours, internal temp was at 185....wrapped in foil, put in a 215 F oven for 1.5 more hours, wrapped in foil. It was juicy, tender, fall apart. Internal temp was 197F..Let it sit for 1 hour without unwrapping. Apricot wood, not something I will use again, the pork is excellent, but there is a bitterness with the rind that I do not get with pecan or applewood, there is, past the rind, that fruit wood sweetness....but, will go with applewood next time. AN AWESOME RECIPE! Read it, tweak it to suit yer ne

I couldn't keep my hubby's fingers out of it as I was shredding. Even though I HAD to sub apple cider for white Zinfandel.(what, no apple cider on hand in the Fall!) I don't know how it could be, but I bet it's even better made with the exact recipe!

I used a 9lb pork shoulder and kept it in the smoker for ~9 hours @ 210-degrees as suggested. At 9 hours, the middle still had some pink and it wasn't tender. I had to bump up the temp to finish cooking and wasn't able to shred...had to chop. My guests ate it, but overall the flavor was bland (had to add a lot of bbq sauce for flavor). Not sure if I'll do this again...maybe at a higher temp (225-deg) to ensure the shoulder is fully cooked.

I've made this recipe in an electric smoker a couple of times now. As many have stated, the time to cook the meat as stated is way off. The last time I made this recipe it took about 11 hours on the smoker. The flavor is fantastic and everyone loves the end product. The outside of the meat was too dry, hard and burned to be eaten, so I think it lost a little of the flavor from the smack. I covered the butt for the last few hours, but to no avail. Regardless, the meat is tender, juicy, and tasty. I still give it 5 starts.

My meal turned out great. I did bump my temp up to 275. I had a 9 lb pork shoulder and I didn't need to be cooking all day??. I wrapped my pork shoulder in foil after 4 1/2 hours and left it wrapped for the next 3 hours. I let it rest for one hour and bam! Delicious pork butt. Great Dish....Keep Smoken!

A couple tweaks I would recommend to the recipe. Instead of a pork shoulder, I used a bone-in pork butt (the higher up portion of the shoulder). It takes a bit longer to cook through with the bone, but it typically comes with the fatcap in tact, so it produces a juicier final product. I have a Masterbuilt electric smoker. For a 10 pound porkbutt, it took me 13 hours at 250 to get it to an internal temp of 190. I wasn't surprised by this, I've found that pretty much everything but poultry needs to be cooked at 250 in this smoker. I've seen a lot of videos and posts where people mention getting the internal temp over 200 to get the fat to really melt down more into the meat. I wanted to try that, but it got to be 3 AM, and I just didn't have another 3 hours to let it hit 203 or 205. I was not disappointed at all with the results, though even at 190. I agree with a lot of other posted that an instant-read thermometer is a fantastic investment. I use a Weber I-Grill mini. It connects to your phone via blutooth, so you can view the progress, set timers, etc. right in the Weber app. I made pulled pork sandwiches with a redwine vinegar slaw instead of a mayo-based slaw, and tried 2 different Carolina style BBQ sauces with it, 1 vinegar based and 1 mustard based, both worked really well with it. For pulled pork, I prefer more tanginess than sweet with my BBQ sauce and slaw.

Great recipe! We're making it for the second time and will continue to make it. It's fun to experiment with different wood chunks in the smoker.

Yum! Nice easy recipe, very tasty!

I like it. I just wondered how frequently you added wood chips to the smoker? And was a little curious about if apple wood chips would be good as well being it was brined in apple cider.

WOW!!! I have a Cookshack Smoker...and have made many delicious smoked meats, beans, etc. BUT...this is the best rub ever. I did apply mustard all over the roast before the rub...Yummo! Thank you Bob

This leaves a really nice sweet tasting bark on the pork butts. I didn't wrap them at all. Just kept them in the smoker and let that nice sticky bark form. This was my first time using this recipe and I will definitely be using it again. This is the taste i have been looking for. I even put it in the injection I used for the Pork Butts. This is my go to pork butt bbq rub. Thanks for sharing this recipe with us. P.S. I used a Dark Brown sugar not light brown sugar as recipe asked for.

Amazing! I have an Oklahoma joe smoker and this was my first pork shoulder. (We do a lot of ribs) Used charcoal and pecan chunks. 8.3 lb shoulder. Followed the recipe pretty much exactly but instead of apple cider I had to use apple juice. Trimmed the meat really good prior to starting. Soaked the meat overnight in the brine. Took the meat out patted dry and slathered it in a half/half mixture of yellow and Dijon mustard and then rubbed. Kept the smoker between 220-250 pretty consistently ( thanks to my awesome orange little friend the Therm Pro - highly recommend) and it took about 10 hours (last three hours I wrapped in heavy duty foil). I poured the left over brine into a spray bottle and sprayed the meat down about every hour and a half and real good before foiling. I also rotated the meat a quarter turn every 2 hours. Once the internal temp hit 197 I pulled it off and let the meat rest for about 30 minutes before pulling. The flavor is amazing and the meat was so tender. Will definitely be adding this to my smoking menu with no further changes. Thanks so much for sharing this recipe Bob.

90% of the non-five star reviews of this recipe go away if the instructions would properly show cooking to an Internal temperature rather than a length of time. All the variables go away. The connective tissues and collagens break down at around 195 degrees, so a long slow cook to an internal temp of 195-200 will result in a done, falling apart tender pork shoulder regardless of the size. If it's larger, expect it to cook longer. Some sources give a rough estimate of 1.5 - 2 hours per pound at 225 degrees. When I cooked it was ten degrees outside so it took considerably longer, but in general more degrees means fewer hours, so you can increase the temperature of your smoker also if you don't want to wait. There is an excellent discussion of the pros and cons of doing that here: https://blog.thermoworks.com/pork/pulled-pork-time-temperature-matters/. Cider and Cider Vinegar are not the same thing, so that one one-star review is a little off base. If you like a strong vinegar taste with your pork, though, the Filipinos have perfected that with pork adobo and you should definitely try it :-). Traditionally many BBQ houses dress the pulled pork initially with a little cider vinegar and flavor and then offer different sauces to top it on a sandwich. I tossed mine with a few teaspoons of cider vinegar and a little chili powder, and I made a BBQ sauce by cooking the marinade down by 2/3 and adding tomato paste, onion powder, chili powder and a little salt. Put it on a King'

The recipe was good but in order to get the smoke flavor, you should have stated to remove the “FAT” layer prior to smoking because the smoke flavor did not come through. We have been smoking for several years as and this is the first time that the flavor really did not come through. The listed smoking time was way off as well. We smoked it for over 9 1/2 hours instead of 8 as stated and then had to put it into the oven for 2 hours at 350 degrees to finish cooking it. At least 11 hours later is was good but as stated did not have the smoke flavor we we’re expecting.

Worked out well. I think 230 for eight hours for my 8 pound piece would be perfect, as it took longer than 8 hours at 220. Not sure if the onion did anything. I used coal smoker with Apple wood chunks.

We made this for my daughters birthday and it was FANTASTIC! So moist and flavorful. People kept getting second and even third helpings. This recipe is a keeper in my book!

Best way to smoke a butt. Just follow directions without changing anything and enjoy you tasty treat.

This recipe worked great, actually going to make one this weekend for the super bowl with some minor personal tweaks, but I followed this recipe the first and second time i attempted to make pulled pork. Every one was happy with the end results.

This is an excellent recipe for pulled pork. I made it as written and smoked a 7lb. shoulder in my KBQ smoker. The rind was removed and much of the exterior fat was trimmed. My difference here was I used apple wood for the smoke. At eight hours it was ready to pull. This was made for a birthday party. None of those in attendance had ever had pulled pork nor really knew what it was. Meat was served on quality buns, horseradish sauce on bun and semi-dry coleslaw on top of the meat. BBQ sauce was available but none was used. Every single person had two helpings and some a third of just the meat. There were requests for take home portions. Yes, that was a successful party. This is now my go to recipe for pulled pork. It would be hard to find something better.

It was very good. This is my new go-to smoked pork recipe. I made an extra batch of the pork rub for the spice rack.

Meat candy! Enough said.

Forgot to use onion in apple cider, so after rub was on and in smoker, i laid the onions over the top. It was a fabulous recipe. We ate until we were full full full! Thanks a bunch, Jody

Tasted great! Even reheated some later and still very rich and tasty, the family loved it. Will definitely make this again!

I have tried a few different methods but this is the best so far. I used apple juice in-lieu of cider and tweaked the rub a bit but this definitly has profesinal results. I did have to finnish my sholder in the oven after about 1 hr. per pound of meat on the smoker (it wasn't sealed up like it should be) but by then I had plenty of smoke flavor and just needed some steady heat.

This recipe is excellent. My shoulder was 9 pounds so have it an extra hour. I used olive oil to help hold the dry rub on initially. I had a water pan with the brine in it and mopped it hourly. Wrapped it in foil tightly at the 4 hour mark and drained in some of the left over brine. Cooked until 200F/90C degrees internally. The skin was quite blacked and inedible, nothing like the above photo. . Served with smoky BBQ sauce. Perfection

Very juicy and tasty!

Too much vinegar for me, and I love vinegar. Pork cooked up beautifully though.

I had a large pork butt so it took more than a quart to cover it to soak in. After it was done cooking, it tasted like vinegar. It wasn’t very good.

I used the recipe for two boneless 6lb portions. Came out delicious and feed the office proudly. Would have left it on the smoked for a few more hours or wrapped in foil and finished it for 2-3 hours. Didn’t pull as smoothly as I was hoping, may have been due to the amount of meat on my vertical gas smoker. Over all it goes in the keeper bin. Will be using it again!! Great job!!

Have made this recipe twice on my Weber Smokey Mountain Smoker. Both times people have commented that it was the best pulled pork that they have ever had. Followed the recipe with only minor tweaks as noted in other reviews. 1. I coated the meat with yellow mustard before appling rub. 2. Warmed the apple cider and dissolved rub before brining. Served on brown and serve sourdough rolls with a home made Zinfandel BBQ sauce and home made coleslaw. Served with a wonderful dry creek valley (Sonoma County, CA) Zinfandel. Fantastic! Will definitely make it again. It took longer to smoke than indicated in the recipe. The first time I used Hickory as my smoking wood and made an 8 lb shoulder as stated in the recipe. It took 12 hours to get to temp (195 F). The second time I used Apple wood and made a 5 lb shoulder and it took 8 hours to get to temp. I think I preferred the Hickory but both were VERY good.

This is very good. Folks the recipe calls for apple cider NOT apple cider vinegar. Some complained at the vinegar taste. Read the recipe correctly and you will have great results

Excellent! Fantastic flavor. So good by itself that you may find that a finishing sauce is optional. I used a Landmann Smoky Mountain smoker. It took 12 hours at 230 (F) degrees for the pork butt to reach 195(F) degrees. The only thing I did different was to slather the meat with mustard prior to applying the rub. I also used a mix of apple and hickory chips.

I have made this 6 times and everyone who tastes it raves about it. I do not use hickory I use a fruit wood and mix in some whiskey barrel and it comes out amazing. I also inject some of the brine into the meat which makes it very moist.

It was excellent and I received many compliments. I modified the recipe somewhat. I boiled down most of the brine to a thick sauce and mixed it with yellow mustard for a rub that gave it great bark. Used rest of brine for a wash during cooking.

It turned out fantastic!

We don’t have a smoker so I did a lot to adapt this recipe. The brine was really good!! I roasted it in the oven, in alum. pan covered with parchment paper. It was in the oven for 4.5 hours at 275 degrees, then I tented it with foil and let go one more hour. Next time...and there will be a next time...I will add at least one hour to each segment. That will make the meat even more tender. This was yummy!

Most amazing meat I've ever made. Melted in your mouth good. Lots of work and watching over but totally worth it!!!! We had a huge cookout and everyone complimented this pork. Making it again this weekend!!!!!

Great recipe! Make sure you smoke the shoulder to 200 degrees which is about 10 hours at 210 degrees and the fat will breakdown leaving some tender pulled pork

I added a little bit of cinnamon and ginger to my rub. This was my first time smoking anything and using a smoker. My mom got a new one so I can her hand me downs(One of the best hand-me downs ive ever received). I smoked it for 6 hrs then removed it from the smoker, wrapped it in foil, but before I closed the foil bag I took some of the brine and poured into the foil along with the pork then returned to the smoker for an additional 3 hrs at 210. It turned out good and the outside of the pork was now moistly charred:P I bought another pork butt today( I smoked the first one yesterday) and am going to smoke the other in a day or two!Great recipe!

Made this for a Sunday Funday. 8 lbs pork butt was devoured in no time flat. I did have to increase the temp and cook time from the recipe, but otherwise, followed it exactly and was a hit. Will defiantly make this again.

I've followed this recipe many times and I love how everything turns out in the end. The 8 hours cooking time in the recipe is way too short in my experience. Look around the internet and most recipes for 8 lb shoulder take 14-18 hours. Just plan accordingly so you aren't waiting til midnight, or having to take it out before it's really tender.

This was the first recipe I tried in my smoker. It’s the one I always go back to. It’s amazing. Best pulled pork recipe I have found.

Was easy to make. Wish some sauce suggestions were given. Overall excellent. Easy directions After smoking used microwave to finish any rare parts

Fantastic recipe (even though I didn't quite have all the right ingredients) and I am looking forward to making it again (with the right ingredients).

Excellent! A wonderful variation without a tomato base. I precooked a 4 pound roast at 325 for 2 hours. Heated the smoker to 225-250 and smoked for 3-4 hours. I used apple juice instead of cider. After the roast was ready, I boiled the juice pan on the stovetop, added 1/4 cup apple cider vinegar, 1/2 cup water, a diced apple, dash of cayenne pepper and 1 tbsp. butter. Simmered until the apple was tender, then pureed in a blender. Shredded the cooked pork, then added the sauce. Absolutely delicious, next time I will make more sauce.

Smoked a good number of pork butts in my day but this is the first time I ever brined one beforehand. Came out a little sweet with a hint of appleness. Yum. This is my new favorite way to do them.

Couldn’t shred it after 8 hours but I did slice it and tasted awesome!! 8 hours was not enough time, probably 10-12 hours would have worked better. I am going to try again!!

Turned out perfect. Smoked for 10 hours, then 2 hours in foil, then 1 hour uncovered. Took the bbq sauce suggestion and it was great.

best pork butt ever...bbq sauce not necessary...however, you need to smoke the 8 pound pork butt for at least 12-13 hours at 225. it should fall off the bone and pull apart with 2 forks...if it doesn't, its not done. i smoke mine at 180 for 2 hours, crank it up to 225 for 9 hours, and if it needs more crank it up to 250. enjoy

Followed the recipe. Needed almost twice the cider for an 8# shoulder. Mixed apple and hickory wood. Started and finished with apple adding wood every 30 minutes in small quantities. First taste is apple sweetness followed by hickory. Wonderful

I thought this was a poor choice of cut of pork,and the flavor really wasn’t there.too much bone and fat.

I used 1 cup of dark brown sugar for the sugar requirements, also added a Tablespoon of Chili powder. Other than that I followed the recipe and cooking instructions. I did mine on a Char Broil True Infrared gas grill. The temp can be controlled better. We had eaten at one of the top 3 BBQ restaurants a week ago and 3 had the pulled pork, the 3 people loved this recipe. I made the Apple Slaw using the Q39 BBQ restaurants recipe, its outstanding. BTW ever in KC, try Q39.

This was the best BBQ pork ever! My son was here from North Carolina and said it was better than what he gets in restaurants there. I made it exactly as written but I smoked it on a Traeger. I smoked it for 6 hours on low. Then wrapped it in foil and poured in 1/2 cup of Apple juice. Then smoked it on medium for another 3 hours. It was very easy to shred. We ate it as is straight off the smoker the first night. So moist and flavorful it didn’t need sauce. The second night I added BBQ sauce and heated it in the oven. It was fabulous!! I’ll always use this recipe from now on.

I made this last weekend, but with a couple changes from the original recipe. I followed Jan Jan and mixed everything together to make a marinade. I soaked the shoulder for 48 hours, rinsed the roast, then seasoned it lightly with a Pork rub. I placed the roast directly on a pellet smoker/grill fat side down for 30 minutes at 360 degrees, using fruitwood pellets. Then flipped fat side up and cooked for another 30 minutes. At that point I reduced the temp to 225 and continued to cook, basting with an apple cider and worcestshire sauce mix. I cooked an additional 6 hours like this, basting occasionally. I then wrapped the roast in foil adding apple cider to the pack. I cooked an additional 2 hours. Came out ‘fall apart’ tender with a nice subtle flavor. Mixed with a little sauce after shredding - it was perfect.

I've been grilling and smoking food for more than 50 years and discovered, decades ago, that a brine with more than 2 or 3 ingredients is usually disappointing. Although I enjoy tryhing new ways to prepare foods, this recipe supports previous experiences. The rub might be OK, but preparing a shoulder as per this recipe gives it a soggy bark (if you can really call it that with a straight face) and a distinctly distasteful flavor. Thank the gods for BBQ sauce!

We have a pellet grill smoker, so we did not use the juices. We enjoyed the flavor very much thank you for the recipe we will use it again!

Made this on Father’s Day with our CharBroil Electric Smoker. We had a 10lb roast and made a vinegar sauce recipe from this site to go with it. It was phenomenal! I was worried about it being done in time because we had a larger roast and I slept in and didn’t get it started til 830am, so I increased the temp to 250 and by 530pm it had an internal temp of 197, let it rest about 30 minutes and it just fell apart. Beautiful recipe, thanks!

Turned out great! Made it in a electric smoker. Took longer to cook than I thought. Ended up being about 14 hours for 5.5 lbs. great flavor!!

Outstanding!

I normally hate when someone changes a recipe and then complains about it. But, I feel like I need to comment on this recipe. My first warning light went off when I saw the temperature recommendation for cooking...you must keep the temperature at 275 degrees (not 250, not 300...275 will break down the fat and connective tissue). Secondly the rub is way out of proportion on the sugars...salt, black pepper, cayenne pepper, garlic powder, and smoked paprika; that is your basic rub and works on any meat. You do not need to brine this fatty meat. I use a stand-up propane smoker with misquite chips. Smoke at 275 for four hours, then wrap shoulder in heavy foil, reduce heat to 235-250 and smoke for additional two hours. Meat has absorbed all the smoke it can after four hours, wrapping and continuing to cook for two hours insures absolutely tender and moist meat. Try this method and enjoy the best smoked pork shoulder you ever ate. It doesn’t matter what the shoulder weighs, this method is foolproof. If I have a really huge shoulder, I might increase my total cook time, but usually the six hour cook does the job.

Was one of my first attempts using my Electric smoker. Was super easy and came out just like the best BBQ joints in town. So much to eat. we tried it with multiple sauces from a variety pack from Heinz, but it didn't really need sauce at all. I saved the left over rub, and will be trying this same method on ribs!

Loved it. Like a few others noted, the time is just a guide. After 9 hours it was at 160, so I took the recommendation I noted below and put it in the slow cooker overnight with about 20 ounces of beer. Then boiled down that liquid out of the slow cooker and added it to the shredded pork. Was FABULOUS.

Didn't change much of anything. Turned out AWESOME! Only changes were slathering meat with mustard to adhere rub (no mustard flavor left once smoked) and setting electric smoker to 245, as I didn't want to wait 12 hours. Was finished in 8 hours for a 7.75lb Boston Butt. Meat reached 200 degrees. Rested meat wrapped in foil and towels in cooler for an hour before pulling and it was fall apart soft! Rub was excellent and simple. I've followed several other recipes and they always turn out much too salty! This one was great!

Loved how this turned out!

Made the pulled pork I injected it with apple juice and some rub let it sit over nite then started my smoker got it up to 250 degrees will it was coming up to temp I rubbed the shoulder which was 10 lbs soled the shoulder for 12 hrs using hickory chunks pulled the shoulder out of the smoker at 200 degrees let it rest for 30 minutes fell apart good bark tender and juicy

Delicious!

The rub was decent but the apple cider brine didn't taste that great to my family. Even after smoking there was a taste of vinegar.

I made this with a 10 pound shoulder roast. It turned out very moist and tender. Seasoning was perfect. This recipe is a keeper!

I left the meat in for just under 12 hours. Meat was very tender and juicy. Next time I'll probably add some chili powder to increase the heat of the rub.

fool proof and delicious.

I had a 7.5 lb. shoulder on the smoker consistently at 210 for 9 hours, and got to about 170 degrees in internal temperature. Needed a few more hours at 210. Flavor was nice. Next time, I will crank the heat to 225 or a bit higher, and start WAY earlier. Similar to other reviews, we had "chopped" pork sandos in stead of "pulled". Will try again with updates.

The pork had a great taste and was very moist. I smoked mine for about 9 hours. Will probably go a little longer next time because it didn't shred very easy. With another hour or two it will be perfect.

Excellent brine as is...hoewver...we chose to add 1 quart of orange juice to these ingredients. The rub is spot on Absolutely delicious end result

Followed the recipe to the letter ...it was my first time using my new electric smoker. It did take a bit longer, but well worth it! Meat was terrifically done and the flavor was as good as any I've ever had..thanks for posting this!