Last weekend… yes I know, it took me that long to get this up on the blog… I smoked a pork loin and a beef brisket to make pulled meat. That does sound naughty does it not?   …Anyway. I smoked Pork for Southern-Style Pulled Pork. Here is what happened in pictures taken on my lovely new Nikon camera.

First I pulled the pork out and let it come to room temperature. Then I patted it dry with some paper towel and massaged as much Bone Dust as I could fit into this thing.

Set up was tough. It was raining so hard, it actually filled the water basin for us. I don’t really recommend that. A 50/50 mix of hot and cool water is more ideal, or if you can manage to get the water to the same temperature as the smoking temperature, then you don’t have to struggle to bring the heat of the unit up. If you use cold water, it takes longer to heat the grill to the ideal smoking temperature.

Putting the hot coals into the grill basket. There are still black coals in there. Make sure that you allow them to turn grey before starting to smoke.

Pork goes on. This was a loin, the recipe calls for a pork shoulder roast… this loin had been sitting in the freezer forever, and seriously I thought it was getting larger every time we talked about it. At one point I had it in my head that it was two feet long!

Look at that grill. So smoky and majestic sitting there in the rain. Really the temperature was a cool 20-ish°C (68°F). I felt the lack of humidity and sun helped keep the grill temperature steady and just right for the process. Once the sun is on your Apollo, the temperature shoots right up and is harder to manage. So try to smoke in the shade or on cooler days for easier temperature control.

Look at the lovely colour and smoke. See how the outside is getting real dark? That is the smoke working its magic.

The pork is now ready to come off the grill. It has been 9 hours and we could have gone a little longer, but the folks were hungry. Use a meat thermometer to know if the meat is fully cooked. When it’t fully cooked as per the meat thermometer it is safe to come off the smoker.

Shredding the pork before tossing in more sauce and serving. Note the lovely pink just under the dark exterior. That is the smoke penetrating into the meat. You can use an electric knife, forks or good old fingers to shred the pork. But be careful it is still hot.

Here it is on a lovely, fresh baked, focaccia style bun. They’re crunchy on the outside and sooo soft on the inside. Topped with sliced red onion, even more sauce and melted swiss cheese. You don’t have to use the Crazy Canuck sauce, use your favourite sauce instead.

Enjoy!

I am by no means an expert at smoking with the Apollo yet, but if you have any questions on how to do something, email me at Sultana of Sizzle and I would be happy to help.

Happy Grilling!