Pellet Smoker Cooking: Lexington Style Pulled Pork

Oct 04 2015

This recipe was a west N.C. style pulled pork with a ketchup and vinegar based sauce. Some recipes out there have more ketchup to vinegar ratio and some have more vinegar. I am not sure which is more authentic but I knew I would prefer the one with more ketchup. I found this recipe at saveur.com.

The pork butts I have done lately I used molasses for a glue and a good rub applied then smoked at about 265 deg. until it got to 160 deg. IT and then wrapped in foil to finish to an IT of about 200 deg. and a probe slid in like butter. I decided to not wrap this one and baste with the sauce every hour per the recipe. I usually left the fat cap on too but decided to trim it off this time to get more bark.

Tuesday evening I trimmed the 10 pound pork butt, made the rub and the sauce. I stayed true to the recipe except for a teaspoon of crushed red pepper replaced the cayenne in the sauce. I cooked the sauce down for about 40 minutes. I left the water out, because I forgot it! I left it that way since I liked it; but I had to thin some down to use for basting.

I got up at 4:15 AM and got the pork butt rubbed down and on my 200 deg. preheated Traeger at 5:30. It was running about 210 deg. grill level and some good smoke. I had lit my 6 inch amazin tube for some extra smoke. I went back to bed for a while and was up to baste it at 8:00 and raise the heat to 265 deg. grill level. I basted every hour but the last two. It hit 198 deg. IT at about 5:00PM I checked with my thermopen and most was at 207 IT and my probe slid in like butter. I use a 3/16 inch aluminum rod to probe with.

It was on for a total of 11 ½ hours, 2.5 at 210 deg. 7 hours at 265 deg. and about the last 2 hours it was at 275 to 285 deg. this was all at grill level temps. It just about fell apart getting it off the grill so knew it was tender!

I let it cool some then broke apart with forks until it was cool enough to pull with my hands. I think it was about the best tasting bark I ever had. The grandson was here waiting on his Mom and I don’t know how much he ate. I gave him a bowl to use and I think he came back twice for some more!

The pork was covered with plastic wrap and in the fridge. I am getting ready to vacuum seal some and in the freezer and leave some out for tonight’s sliders.

Click Here for link to recipe

The pork butt