Suggestions for smoking pulled pork and brisket

Do some reading on the subject then just buy meat and start. Boston butt is cheap (.89-.99 per lb; 2 in a cryopack) when on sale. Rouses just had brisket on sale for 1.99 for choice. I think its something you just have jump into.

My pulled pork process:

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Suggestions for smoking pulled pork and brisket

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Just do what I did

Start with pork butt or ribs or you'll get discouraged and not want to bbq anymore. Work your way to brisket.

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I’ve never smoked any meats before,

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You nailed it.
Get the butt to 200~ then wrap and let it rest 30-45 minutes. It cannot possibly NOT be tender at that temp.

Do a practice run with no meat to learn how to operate the Kamado. A Maverick or similar probe sensor setup will greatly help you dial in the temp.

After that, it's all about monitoring the internal temp of the meat. It seems overwhelming at first, but it's not too bad once you have the right tools.

I'd start with the pulled pork as it's much more forgiving.

YouTube is your friend.

I just got into smoking a few months ago, looked up videos, and fell down a rabbit hole of tons of useful information. There's so much that can't possibly be captured in a single post on TD, and if it did, you'd probably die of boredom from reading it.

I'd just start there and you'll find channels you like that will teach you more than you thought you could know.

A couple channels I follow are:
Cooking With Ry
Allthingsbbq
Traeger Grills
The Dawgfatha's BBQ
Mad Scientist BBQ
Heath Riles BBQ
SnS Grills
Cowboy Kent Rollins
Aim'em and Claim'em
Meat Church BBQ
BBQwithFranklin
Dead Broke BBQ
BBQ iT


And a ton of others.

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Thanks for posting this. My only change will be to add a teaspoon of the dry rub instead of the Tony's. I know most people keep it in their pantry but, why not just use the same seasoning that was put on the pork in the first place?

I will also make extra injection & use it as a mopping liquid

I'm doing a whole pig (that's been quartered) next week!

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I just followed the recipe when I first tried it and it was tony's. I don't disagree with what you said and I often deviate here and there from the plan to try different things.

Like several other, start with shoulders. Cheaper, easier prep and more forgiving.

If you have the dry goods, you can make your own rubs. If not, there are several off-the-shelf ones that are good for pork shoulders. Bad Byron's. Sweet Rub o' Mine.

For brisket, all you need is salt-n-pepper, aka a dalmatian rub.

Can dampen the meat with a "binder" to aid the rub in sticking. I use dill pickle juice. Others use mustard or olive oil.

Can use a lot of rub for both shoulders and briskets.

I like to let mine sit 24 hours in the fridge after rubbing.

Can expect about an hour per pound cook time - obviously temp dependent.

Get a clean burn with lump charcoal before putting on the meat. IOW, coals turning gray.

Most smokers do not have uniform heat flux. Will want to know where your hot spots are. Orient the meat accordingly. May want to move it around once you see how it's cooking.

Since the heat is coming from below on a ceramic cooker I prefer to cook fat side down. You'll get a lot of different opinions on this. But note you can 'flip' it during the cook.

Smoking meat is a great hobby. Best wishes!