Pulled Pork on the Palette

Hey Jason, Not sure the best way to help you out here. But what you described about the PP you had from the trucks sounds very similar to the way mine tastes. And no, I don't use liquid smoke I cook on a standard offset which does lend itself to a different flavor than most others. ( I don't know what your food trucks are cooking on) I do use some brown sugar in my rub. But it's no more than 20% by volume. I cook mine at around 225-235 or so, for about 14hrs. I don't wrap them when they are in the pit unless I'm running out of time and need them to get done in a hurry. I do however wrap them in foil when they come off then wrap that in a towel and place in a cooler to rest for about 2hrs.

It may be as simple as your smoker is not creating the same level of smoke that the ones the trucks use are. Or the could be using a stronger tasting wood than such as hickory, pecan or mesquite. Not sure what king of pellets you are using.

Anyway, at least one of us has something to say. I hope you figure it out!

MuggerzBBQ said:

Greeting's BBQ Brothers,

I wanted to reach out and see if I can get some feedback. I cook tons of pulled pork and pretty much get rave reviews, I Inject, Rub & cook low and slow @ 225 for up to 16-20 hours depending on how many I have on the smoker. I'm usually done 15 but If I have 75 Lbs on it always takes me longer. I have been cooking mostly with a pellet smoker the last 2 years.

Now this brings me to my question, what should the flavor train consist of. Mine always is the rub with a light smoke then into the natural flavor of the pork and its always a little sweet because I use a brown sugar/salt injection.

The reason I'm asking is I have tried 2 BBQ food truck that are trendy and have great reviews this past weekend, one with a small trailer smoker in tow pumping out smoke, however I don't see how it would be possible to cook his menu on it.

Both of the trucks Pulled Pork was very similar and nothing like mine. I'm eating dry "No Sauce" pulled pork, I didn't get a good smokey bark flavor, it was moist tho, then after a few chews the smoke came in later and it was very distinctive. So here I am trying to figure this out..

Either I'm doing something wrong or just not doing something? Are they not smoking there pork and adding liquid smoke?

I'm confused..

Jason

Click to expand...

You are doing nothing wrong if you enjoy your own pulled pork and others rave about it. While you can taste the difference when eating other pulled pork, why change if you think yours is great. Sometimes people can get hung up on what others do and lose sight of their own.

I think the best flavor of the pork shines without being sauced, but a little sauce on the side can enhance flavors if others desire to use sauce.

As far as advice....

When using a pellet smoker, the smoke flavor will always be slightly diminished when compared to cooking with a stick burner or with wood chunks. Nothing wrong with that because it does have smoke flavor, just not as prominent as when other smokers are used. Keep in mind that the smoke flavor should not be the first thing you taste, it should just enhance the flavor of the meat, not be the prominent flavor as you describe with your own.

If you are injecting for moisture, you really don't need to. A Pork Butt or Shoulder has plenty of marbling to keep it moist, and lots of connective tissue that will continue to break down during the 2 hour (or longer) rest in an insulated cooler. However if you are injecting with spices added to the concoction, then you are injecting for flavor and tenderness, that's a different story... I feel an injection can provide a lot of flavors especially when fruit juice is used as a base.


To me it sounds as if you have been doing things just fine.

Many times we also get "used to" our own flavor profile and can't really taste the same as others do in our product.

As said a pellet pooper doesn't add quite the smoke flavor to the meats as stick burners do. And if folks like yours why change?