Carolina Chopped pork question

Gotta question gents. I found this video and I want to do it this weekend. It is a video I found for Carolina style chopped pork, looks fantastic, not to mention simple. Problem being the gentlemen in the video (He may be a member here) uses a Grill Dome and I only have a pellet grill at the moment. He uses apple and does not cover the pork on an 11 hours smoke. Would this turn out the same if I did this on my pellet smoker with apple pellets? More or less I wanted to know if I need to cover it in foil half way through? I am assuming that apple pellets are not as strong as say hickory or mesquite so covering is not needed? I generally pull my pulled pork off the grill and wrap in foil after 4 hours or so or I go by color. Curious if most guys wrap or not. I will add the video and would appreciate any feed back. Certainly a great pork recipe.


I will also add I am in the market for a couple of new smokers. I was deadset on a Gateway barrel, but I think I going to get a Big Green Egg XL now and build a UDS or get a pit barrel and have the best of both worlds. Certainly open to comments or suggestions on a Komodo style cooker or barrel smoker. Hell I may run over to my local Ace Hardware here in town and buy that BGE this week. My ACE has great BBQ section. Every time I go in there I am like a kid in Candy store. They have it all, I’m serious, they really have a great selection of grills, pellet grills, Ceramic grills and so on. Funny when I go in to grab pellets the guy that works in that department is always asking me what I am doing. Guy loves BBQing.

Video
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jCnFe-tVnJ0

SwineGuy said:

You should have absolutely no problem not covering the pork, especially with a pellet smoker. I do not cover anymore and I have smoked a bunch of them on my Traeger. I also have an XL BGE. I love it. As said above, space is the only issue but if you are cooking for just a small crowd, one or two meats at a time, you will be fine. The BGE is so easy to use, I don't have a guru for it. Just set the two vents and it will hold temp on one load of charcoal for 12 hours easy. I am a bug fan of the BGE.

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Thanks for the feedback. I almost have an empty nest, so I cook for me and bride. My daughter will be going away to school next year so I don’t need allot. The BGE XL will be perfect. I noticed they have a 2XL now??? Holds quite a bit of food. My plan is for slow cooks on the BGE like pulled pork and Brisket and use the pellet for sides, quick burgers and stuff like that. The BGE was nowhere on my list, but the last few days I have really come to like it and planning on getting in a couple of weeks. Will add a barrel cooker in the mix real soon.

fwdiii said:

I used to wrap but no longer do, unless it’s a time issue.

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Exit 9?? I am exit 10! Are you in CMCH??

BillATL said:

I don't bother to wrap pork butts generally, they're pretty darn forgiving and I'll take all the bark I can get. I've never cooked on a pellet smoker so don't have any opinion on pellets in particular but in general apple is a little milder than hickory - I think everything short of an oil fire is milder than mesquite. When I was growing up in the Carolina's most all the BBQ places used hickory though a few used pecan. Never saw many folks bragging about applewood except for bacon and trout.

I've always heard people say that pellet smokers have less smoke than other cookers so I think you'll be fine whether you wrap or not and I wouldn't worry too much about whether you're using Apple, hickory, pecan or whatever's handy.

I've got a ceramic cooker (not a BGE but a Primo Oval). They're very versatile cookers and easy to run once you cook on them a couple of times. My only complaint was in amount of grill space so I added an insulated vertical cabinet. Still have the ceramic and use it to sear steaks, do smaller cooks, etc.

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Good post thanks. Got my feet wet in smoking with the pellet smoker. I love it, but looking to get some real BBQ going. I have been mixing Cherry and Hickory for Pork and like the flavor. I was just following the video for Apple. I have a bag of apple a pecan and it is easy enough to switch out. I really have no knowledge of this kind of stuff, so I just kinda follow recipes and videos till I get a better hold on things.

I was reading about the Primo today, that is a very fine cooker you have. I believe that is one of the best out there? Going to keep my eyes peeled and look for a sale. The BGE is at the top of my list, but if I find a deal, I will jump on it.

jermoQ said:

You will be fine to do it on the pellet cooker. IMnotalwaysHO, if you do big cuts on the pellet grill, you want to run it on as low a setting as possible for 3 or 4 hrs to help give more smoke flavor, then crank it to whatever temp you want to cook at. I also wouldn't think about wrapping, so there is more bark and flavor. I am not able to tell you the best flavor wood to use, but I like hickory and oak in mine. Apple is a great flavor too.

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I have noticed that I don’t get allot of bark built up on my longer smokes. I watch allot of videos and I notice that my product does not come out the same as guys cooking over an open pit. That is going to change though. The wife and I are shopping for a good ceramic smoker. Hopefully in a few weeks I will be doing it right. As I said above I love the pellet smoker. Nice to set and forget, but IMO you just do not get that same flavor as a charcoal smoker.

OklaDustDevil said:

I've cooked butts on a stickburner and a pellet smoker using hickory and pecan, and I've never wrapped. It will come out great.

Good video, his ENC sauce recipe looks good. Don't forget to find a good ENC Cole slaw recipe to go with it, even if you don't make sandwiches. You can find plenty of recipes on-line.

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Oh yeah, will be doing slaw. I have a buddy in KC that taught me a good slaw recipe. I will send it your way if you would like.

thirdeye said:

I have two drums and two Eggs, they each have a place. The Eggs are good smokers, but they excel at grilling, and they laugh at cold weather. I've done all-night cooks at -20°F with no problems. The drums on the other hand are great smokers any give you the opportunity to hang many cuts of meat which expand their capacity beyond using a grate, like 8 or 9 racks of ribs.

Like the others said, no problems with not wrapping pork UNLESS it's getting too dark for you or you need to speed the cook along. I do wrap before resting in my hot box and add a cup of apple or white grape juice to the foil. This gets mixed into the pulled or chopped meat. And by the way, chopped pork is highly underrated.... it's pretty good. I heard a story years ago that chopped pork was popular in the early days at pig roasts because a lot of the older country folks had bad teeth, and having some chopped meat allowed them to enjoy the pig pickin' better.

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Ah man I cannot wait to get one of each. I stop by my Ace once a week to pick up pellets for my weekend smoke and I drool all over the BGE’s. They have em all over the BBQ section. Small ones, big ones and a little tinnie tiny one. That tiny little BGE cracks me up, looks like it does two burgers and a hot dog LOL. I may just go over on Saturday and just get me a BGE XL.

jermoQ said:

I agree that you don't have the same flavor as charcoal. That is why i like my UDS more. I don't know know about the lack of bark. I have seen pictures from pellet cookers that have good bark on their stuff and I have done good on my own, I just don't get the smoke flavor that I like. Maybe you need to go heavier on the rub? Not sure? Anyway, good luck on the Komado grill search, it should be fun to use!

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Could also be that I wrap to soon also. I am done wrapping. I am doing this Carolina Pork Sunday. See how it goes. I will add pictures.

Cook said:

Here is a tip when it comes time to put the sauce on your chopped pork. Keep in mind that the sauce is a seasoning. You don't want to drown it. You'll be much more please with your final product if you add the sauce a little at a time & mix it in. Taste it, and them mix in more if you feel it's needed. When you start tasting vinegar you need to stop! It shouldn't be vinegary. Just a very slight hint is more than enough.

I also throw just a bit of heat in my sauce. You can mix it like the guy does in the video, but most folks will let a cold mixed sauce sit for a week to a month before using it. I like to barely bring it to a boil and immediately shut it off. I'll be ready for use in under an hour (once the peppers steep). But then again, the best barbecue restaurant in the state simply sprinkles crushed red flakes right over the top of their pork & call it a day...so go figure! LoL

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Good tips thank you! I have seen other variations of this sauce, is this the same seasoning sauce you would use other than adding a little heat? Getting ready for Sunday. Picking up the pork tomorrow from the butcher and will get that sauce done tonight.

Zed said:

I try not to wrap if I can help it, time constants on big fat butts sometimes forces me to. I dont use a pellet grill but all in all the process is the same. I do find that smaller butts 3-4 lbs do push right through the stall and tend to get a stronger smoke flavor overall compared to the larger butts with the same amount of time in the smoke. But the bark is king and wrapping is the killer of bark. Also I live in SC so I know all about good chopped and pulled pork! Well how to eat it that is!!!

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I have noticed that when I do a pulled pork and I wrap, it does indeed render it down, but it also makes it wet on top. The only reason I ever wrapped was because most of the videos I have seen the gents doing the cooking wrap. They say to much smoke makes it nasty? However I am getting different opinions here. Wrapping really does seem to defeat the purpose of a nice long smoke.