My first pork shoulder on my new pellet grill

So, about ten days ago I purchased a pellet smoker. Finally burned it in a few days ago, then I used Myron Mixon's (BBQ Pitmasters) recipes for injection, rub and hog glaze. I injected this pork shoulder/Boston Butt and let it sit in the marinade for four hours to marinate in the fridge, then turned it over and added 2 more hours.

I then rubbed it well and let the rub soak into the meat for two hours, then rubbed it again and put it on the smoker at 245 degrees.

The smoker has a built-in opening in the drip pan to use a standard aluminum 2 lb. loaf pan to hold water or juice, so I used apple juice. During the smoke about every hour during the first four hours I would spray the shoulder with a coating of the marinade, then I pulled it off and put it into an aluminum pan with a half cup of apple cider vinegar mixed with a half cup of apple juice, then covered it and let it cook like this for six hours with the heat turned down to 205.

Got up early this morning, took it out (it was sitting at 182 degrees internal, drained off the juices and saved them, then put it in a fresh pan and brushed it generously all over with the hog glaze, and put it back in for another two hours at 250. At two hours, my thermometer said it was 195 degrees, which is what I wanted. I then added more hog glaze and let it sit for an hour at 225 to finish the bark, pulled it and let it sit covered and in a sealed ice chest for two hours to set the meat.

After that, I pulled the meat off into pieces. I drained off the fat from the juice I'd saved, then took a half cup of the juice, added a half cup of the hog glaze and warmed that in the microwave, then poured it over the meat and tossed it in to finish it off.

Here's pics from start (after I had trimmed the fat and fibers) to the finished product. Planning time: 30 minutes. Shopping time: 1 hour. Prep time: 1.5 hours. Total marinate and rub time: 6.5 hours. Cook time: 14 hours. Meat rest time: 1.5 hours. Pull it apart: 5 minutes.

Taste? Excellent! Good bark, too. Really like that I can control the heat so easily.

This started off as a 10 pound shoulder/Boston butt before trimming. Here it is sitting in the marinade. I injected probably two quarts through the meat and most drained out, plus I added what was left of the batch I'd made.



Here's after the first rub.



This is after four hours in the smoker. (next time I'll cover that drip pan in foil, first)



This is after pulling it off this morning before wrapping it and putting in the ice chest. It's literally falling apart.



Finally, here's the pulled pork we'll be eating later tonight, along with the beans that I smoked earlier this morning and the potato salad I'll make later today and some marinated red onions.



This is my first pork shoulder/Boston butt ever. How's this for a first time effort?