Pulled pork for 16-ish

[Imp81318]

For sides, I am thinking baked beans and coleslaw. I know the rule of thumb is a cup per person, but how much does a cup of baked beans weigh? I plan to start with canned bush's baked beans, and doctor them up a bit with some bacon and sauteed peppers & onions and cook/heat them on the grill to get the smoky goodness. But how many cans of beans do I need for a cup per person (there will also be corn on the cob and potentially other snacks as well)?

 

[Imp81318]

There is a saying amongst homebrewers:RDWHAH. Relax. Don't Worry. Have A Homebrew. I I think I'll need to channel that mentality for today's cook.

First step: buy the mea . Wife was going to the store, so i asoed her to 0icj up 2 nice 8 lb butts for me. They had a special on 19 lb twin packs, so instead of cooking 2 8 lb'ers it is goinv to be 2 9.5 lbers on a kettle. Hope theres enough room!

Second step: Light the coals. Easy enough. My cousins whose grill I'm using had told me he had charcoal and everything I'd need. Get to his camper and the only bag I can find has about 20 briqs in it. No biggie, that's why I grabbed a bag from home just in case...

Third step: dump the coals on the end of my snake and dial back the vents as temp climbs. Problem! The bottom vent sweeper is completely seized up! Arm was bending before the thing would spin at all. Spent 20 minutes cleaning and working it to no avail! Ok, RDWHAH... time to improvise!

Stuffed some foil in the vents to block them off, as temp stabilizes I'll pull the foil out or add more to adjust my temp. Not ideal, but hey everyone on here says we worry about temperature control too much anyways, right!

Step 3: Once coals have a few minutes to light the end of the snake, put the lid on. You gotta be kidding me! Lid isn't even close to sealing all the way around. Ok, RDWHAH... Try to squeeze it into shape, only to realize that it isn't working and instead only getting worse. I think the bowl is bent as badly or worse than the lid! Ok, RDWHAH... I'll just bend it back to the way it was and try to allow for the air leak around the lid as I "adjust my vents". If it is really too bad I'll add a foil seal to the rim...

So here I sit, enjoying the view, waiting for my grill temp to come up. Currently sitting at 156, think I'll go pull a little more foil out of the vent.

 

[Imp81318]

At least this is my view:

 

[Jrogers84]

Oh boy you got dealt a good hand! You got it man!

 

[Imp81318]

About 45 minutes later than I wanted, but the butts are on...

 

[Imp81318]

Oh boy you got dealt a good hand! You got it man!

Tell me about it! Haha... Thanks man!

After the last photo was taken I added a foil heat shield between the lit coals and the closest butt to prevent direct cooking. There is a also a very small air gap between the 2 butts that you can't really see in the photo. It is tight, but I'll just have to rotate them as the coals burn around...

 

[Imp81318]

Just as I was thinking that it was at least a perfectly calm morning, a stiff breeze came through. Maybe it'll rain in a little bit too!

 

[chrischandler71]

Good luck with the cook...have fun!

 

[Imp81318]

After a couple of tweaks to the foil vent stops and about 50 minutes, temperature is holding right around 270.

 

[Imp81318]

A little over 3 hours in I sautéed some peppers and onions, added to 1/2 pound bacon that I'd cooled and chopped up, and mixed into Bush's baked beans. Beans on, temperature holding steady although space is limited.

 

[THoey1963]

You got this...

 

[Imp81318]

My foil vent blockers are working out to be much easier than I expected. Grill temp 260, IT 158 and climbing slowly but surely...