Pulled Pork Internal Temp: What is The Best Internal Temp for Pulled Pork?
Finding the right Pulled Pork Internal Temp is key to success. This means removing the meat from the smoker after it has reached the desired doneness. All the steps are important, but they will be useless if the pulled pork temperature is not right.
You will need either a smoker or a charcoal grill to make this easy pulled pork recipe. You can make pulled pork in slow cookers by ignoring the instructions regarding wood chips or coal temperatures.
Cook the pork to a temperature of 195°F. It’s possible to still baste the pork with apple juice, but you don’t need to wrap it in foil to preserve any juices.
The meat will become even more tender if it is allowed to cook at 200-205°F. It is worth giving it a little extra time, as long as you do not allow it to overcook.
See Also:
- Internal Temp of Brisket
- Internal Temp for Pork Butt
- At What Temperature is Pork Done?
- How Long To Smoke Pork Shoulder At 275?
- How Long Does It Take To Smoke A Brisket?
How to make Pulled Pork: Cooking Instructions
1. Mix all spices in a medium-sized bowl.
2. Apply the spice mixture to the pork butt and massage it into every crevice. Allow the seasoned meat to rest at room temperature for one hour before you start to prepare the smoker or grill.
3. To heat a smoker to 210 degrees Fahrenheit, Half the wood chips and half the apple juice should be added to the water pan. To begin cooking, add the pork to the middle of the smoker.
If using a charcoal grill, please wait until the charcoal has been coated with a fine layer of light gray Ash. Then arrange the coals on one side of your grill. The overall cooking time of the pork will be affected if it is not placed on an area without any coals underneath.
When the temperature in the grill has reached 200 degrees Fahrenheit (or the desired result), add 1/4 cup of wood chips to the charcoals. Then close the grate and add the pork to the “bare side” of the grill. Close the lid.
4. If you have trouble remembering the number, you can refer to a pulled-pork internal temperature chart. You can monitor the smoker or grill for any changes in wood chips or apple juice. If you have a grill, you may need to add more coals. To “baste” pork with apple juice, grillers can use a spray bottle. Keep the temperature of the pork at 200 to 225 degrees.
5. The pork should be at 165-175 degrees Fahrenheit after 5 hours. This can be checked using an instant-read thermometer. To preserve the juices, wrap the meat in aluminum foil and return it to the oven.
See Also: Soraken Wireless Meat Thermometer Review
6. After an additional hour, start checking the meat. It will be done when it reaches the classic pull-apart consistency. However, it should reach an pulled pork internal temperature of at least 190 degrees by this point. Continue cooking (without removing foil) for an additional one hour if it still doesn’t.
7. Allow the pork to rest for one hour.
8. Carefully open the wrapper. The bone should be removed and thrown away.
9. Once the pork has cooled enough to handle; you can cut it into bite-sized pieces with the tips of your fingers. If you find any large pieces of fat or gristle, remove them and throw them away.
10. Warm the pulled pork with toasted buns and some of the side dishes. You can serve your favorite barbecue sauce with the pulled pork, but it will still have a delicious, smoky flavor. [1]
See Also:
- Pit Boss Error Code Err
- What Does The Pellet Grill P Setting Do?
- Using The Smoke Setting on a Pit Boss
Internal Temp for Pulled Pork:
Is it safe to remove the pork shoulder from the smoker when the digital temperature readout is 160 degrees Fahrenheit? Not quite. It’s important to ensure that all the delicious pork fat has had a chance of escaping. This will make it easier to shred the meat.
The pork shoulder should be cooked until it reaches a minimum temperature of 195 degrees Fahrenheit. The crucial resting period will allow the pork to continue cooking until it reaches 200 degrees. The meat will become so tender at these temperatures that it will begin to crumble when you poke it with a fork.
You can leave the pork on the grill until the temperature reaches 202-205 degrees if you want it to be even more tender. It is best not to let the pork cook for more than necessary. You can overcook pork shoulder. This can cause your pulled pork to become dry.
See Also: Pit Boss Lockhart Platinum Series Wood Pellet Grill and Smoker
Use these Recommended Temperature Tools for Pulled Pork:
Meat Prep:
Every pork butt was removed from the fridge and rinsed. Then, each butt was rubbed with water and dried on paper towels. Because our butts were not boney and needed extra support, we tied them all with kitchen twine. To ensure that the pork cooks evenly, it is important to tie it.
Each butt was also generously rubbed with dry rub. We used I Like Pig Butts spice rub from PorkU and I Cannot Lie spice blend from Pork U. You can use your favorite dry rub for pork. When they were placed in each smoker, both pork butts were approximately 45°F.
Probe Placement:
The probe was placed in the middle of each butt using the ThermaQ probe. We wanted to ensure that the meat was at the desired Internal Temperature in its thermal center.
The Cook:
Once the ThermaQ probes were in place, each butt should be placed fat-side down to prevent heat from reaching the meat and protein. To track progress, we checked the internal and external temperatures of the smokers hourly. We did not spray the pork’s surface with liquids, but we just left it as is.
Monitoring Smokers:
ThermaQs set high and low alarms for each of their ThermaQs. A high alarm is 250degF for the smoker at 225degF , and a low alarm 200degF for the smoker at 225degF. We also set a high alarm of 320degF and a low alert of 280degF 138degF for the smoke at 300degF.
It can be difficult to maintain a constant internal temperature in your smoker for a long time. This is why firecraft is necessary. We were able to use our high- and low alarms to determine that we had to maintain a consistent temperature throughout the cook time.
The Stall:
Even though we paid attention to our smoker temperatures, we still experienced “the stall” (low and slow) when smoking meats such as beef brisket or pork butt for extended periods. The internal temperature of the meat may seem to plateau at 160°F, or it can even drop slightly.
Verifying the Temperature They reached their goal of 195°F not too long after this rise. This was verified using a Thermapen One.
We’ve already mentioned that the faster temperature smoker smoked pork was much more efficient. The butts were placed into their smokers at 9:00 AM. At 6:25 PM, the higher temperature pork reached 195degF.
This took 9 hours and 25 minutes of total cooking time. The lower temperature pork did not reach 195degF until 1:0 AM–a staggering 16 hours and 15 minute! Six hours and fifty minutes more.
Resting:
Like any other type of meat, resting with pork butts is an important step. Allow the protein fibers to release heat and reabsorb water. Our pork was wrapped in butcher paper, and kept in an aluminum foil pan for 30 minutes.
Butcher paper is porous and allows for the pork to breathe. The bark can become soggy if it is wrapped in foil after being cooked.
Shredding:
Both butts were ready for their own disintegration after a rest. We began shredding the meat after removing the twine that held it together.
Taste Test:
Could there be a difference in the taste? The short answer to that question is yes. The higher temperature roast actually had more browning, which gave it a great flavor. Even though the pork was cooked at a lower temperature, it still had good bark and browning.
The real difference was in texture. The lower temperatures allowed the connective tissue to reach Temperature quicker and were kept at that temperature for longer periods of time. This resulted in protein fibers that were soft and silky, as well as juicy.
The higher heat cook caused a noticeable change in the protein strands of the pork. The meat was a little more stringy because the protein was less denatured at higher temperatures.
The meat felt firmer against your teeth, and it didn’t feel as moist. The roast that was cooked at a higher heat had incredible flavor from the bark and rub.
Verdict
For pulled pork, 195 degrees is a good Pulled Pork Internal Temp. We recommend that you wait until the thermometer reads 200 degrees. This will allow you to shred more efficiently and will preserve the meat’s moisture and rich texture.
See Also: Thermopro TP 25 Review