Making Pulled Pork: An Exercise in Outdoor Cooking

In this photo: building a fire in the new grill at 7 AM this morning.

In preparation for Len's latest cooking experiment, we bought a new Weber Grill yesterday. The old one was in bad shape, and was also too small for some of the new recipes Len wants to try. After we bought it, Len assembled it, and built a big fire to clean in it off the manufacturing residue. Then he got up this morning to spend the day trying it out.

He's following the pulled pork recipe and instructions in the book Meathead: The Science of Great Barbecue and Grilling. There are several more recipes that appeal to us, and we'll probably try them soon.

In preparation for cooking the pork roast all day: a small charcoal fire is ready.
The grill preheats for around 30 minutes.

The meat, which has been dry-brined overnight, is rubbed with a spice rub.

On the fire: meat and a pan of water. The fire is in a special basket only on one side of the grill. The meat is on the cool side.

More briquettes must be added around once an hour.

At 5:30, after close to 10 hours of slow cooking, the pork is ready to be pulled.

Dinner! Pulled pork with home made bbq sauce, potato salad, slaw with vinegar dressing.

Ready to eat!

The Lifetime of Our Old Blue Weber Grill.

Closeup of the new grill. Color: crimson. Showing the two temperature
probes, one indicating the interior temperature of the meat, one to show
the temperature of the inside of the kettle.

June, 2008: A new blue grill and an old red grill. 

The old blue grill, which we replaced yesterday, lasted 11 seasons, but the vent blades were bent and the lid was out-of-true. So we now have a bigger crimson grill, and the old blue grill is in retirement in the garage. We do not remember what we did with the old red grill a decade ago, but it was in very bad shape, particularly because the wooden handles had rotted, so we must have discarded it.

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