27th Q: Yardbird vs. Lemon Peppered Pork Shoulder Roasts L&S 19H w/o foiling [w/ pr0n]

We just had to know, commercial or self-made rub, Plowboy's Yardbird vs. Lemon-Pepper.

Two about equally sized pork shoulder roasts without bone without speck with a total weight of 20.23 lbs to begin with



A full charcoal ring with lemon lump and five small apple wood chunks for an overnighter



The lemon peppered pork went onto the lower grate



The Yardbird pork went onto the upper grate



Together with a new batch of our Essence of Q Sauce



Ready to go on Saturday evening at about 10 p.m.



It was a cold night and a start with grate temp below 200°F in the first hours, this is what it looked like 14 hours later with a grate temp of about 250°F and IT 175°F




Since I was not in the mood to refill charcoal, I put the two roasts into the oven at 225°F. I probed at IT 196°F, the Thermapen went in like butter in some spots, but still a little tough in other spots, so I took it to IT 203°, which was reached after a total of about 19 hours.

The result:















The self-made pita bread for our pulled pork sandwiches





The very best pulled pork sandwiches I ever had so far, with all components made to perfection: the crispy pulled pork sauced with our 'Essence of Q' with yogurt based coleslaw without mayonnaise and the pita bread => heavenly dinner to die for! :smile:







And of course the low carb variation for the wife: pure pulled pork with coleslaw on a plate



So how was the comparison of Yardbird vs. Lemon-Pepper?

The self-made lemon-pepper rub won big time no questions asked! The commercial Yardbird rub is nice, but we just don't get the hang of it, maybe it really is just best used on poultry, I don't know. We made our own rubs right from the very beginning, and they cover the flavor profiles we like just fine. The self-made lemon-pepper is the uber-winner hands down, the smell and taste of fresh lemon zest on four-peppers-blend can drive you :crazy:!

The overall result of such a 19 hours L&S cook without foiling compared to H&F with foiling nevertheless is in favor of H&F. On one hand L&S produced the best bark we ever had, with unbelievably good pieces of fatty pork candy crunch, on the other hand most of the meat was just not juicy enough.

Is it really impossible to have it both, juicy meat and crunchy bark???

Considering my experience with L&S so far the results just always get too dry.

Should I try again H&F with foiling and finishing unfoiled over high heat for re-crisping?

Phubar said:

Lunchtime!

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Guess what's up for lunch? :biggrin:

cirk said:

You wanna share that lemon pepper recipe??

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My lemon pepper rub was inspired by the pepper thread, and really is just simple and basic:

• zest of 3-4 natural lemons carefully grated
• 1 cup of four-peppers-blend (white, green, black and red berries) coarsely grinded
• 1/2 cup (more or less) of coarse sea salt

That mixture with 4 lemon zests gives such a rich aroma, it truely is amazing what difference the lemon oil from the zest can make.

cowgirl said:

Looks fantastic!!

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It indeed looks, smells and tastes fantastic, but my wife is so disappointed, because she wants to eat it pure without sauce and specially reheated most parts are that dry she can barely eat it.

So the challenge is now to produce a moist pork product with crispy bark next weekend, otherwise I'll have to pause on pork (which is what the wife demands).

Now the next try will be with two pork necks without bone without speck (because there is a special offer this week), and as procedure I'll go H&F with foiling in apple juice at IT 165°F till IT 200°F and then recrisping the bark without foil for another half hour to an hour. If anybody has some thoughts on this plan, please tell!

Well, that massive amount of pork lasted till today, although we even gave some of it to our co-workers.

These are the last impressions of such pork-goodness:

Two emperor buns filled with sauted pork, our 'Essense of Q' sauce and fresh red onion for me





And a nice low-carb salad with pork and red onion for the wife



Next cook is scheduled for tomorrow, two boneless pork necks without speck are already awaiting their destiny in our fridge. I'll keep you posted. :wink:

willbird said:

I think from my one try on boneless pork shoulder. Next time I will tie the thing up with some kind of twine, the various sliced parts from deboning as you have seen can drastically overcook. I think tying it up might help those surgically wounded parts cook more evenly .

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That's exactly what my wife said, but I would not listen, because that measure will drastically reduce the surface and therefore the amount of bark.

willbird said:

Honestly I would just prefer to use bone in ..............but boneless surgically altered pork parts was all that store had . Bark is good..........but 25% burned to waste crunchy cinders is not Bill

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As seen, it's doable, but the overall better result has been reached by H&F with foiling. Maybe I'll try such a boneless pork shoulder roast again with twining. Right now I have two pork necks in the works. :smile: