They seem to be the hot topics lately, so I've been using both.
Wednesday afternoon I trimmed the fat cap from a pork shoulder, seasoned it up with Ozark Heat from R Butts R Smokin, sealed it in a vac bag, and dropped it in my Sous Vide cooler with the circulator set to 165*.
Wednesday night I trimmed the fat cap from a pork shoulder, seasoned it up with Ozark Heat from R Butts R Smokin, sealed it in a vac bag, and put it in the fridge overnight.
Thursday morning I opened up the fridge bag, and put that shoulder on the pellet smoker. I ran it on Smoke for 2 hours, then cranked it up to 300. The Sous-Shoulder was at about 22 hours, so I pulled it, shocked it, and put it in the fridge for a while. When I was happy with the bark on the Smoker-Shoulder, I wrapped it. At this point I actually went and put it inside in the oven, so I could put Sous-Shoulder on at Smoke to get some flavor. Sous-Shoulder fell apart into 3 large chunks when I pulled it from the bag, and left me with quite a bit of pork juice (2-3 cups, I should have measured) I gave it another coating of rub over the 3 pieces. The idea was to have them both ready to rest at nearly the same time. Smoker-Shoulder was probe tender first, and went into the Cambro, with the Sous-Shoulder getting up to temp and having a bark around 30 minutes later. I let them rest for 2 hours, then brought it all inside to be pulled.
The Smoker-Shoulder had a bit more fat that I had to clean off as I shredded it, but it was also the moister of the two. When the Sous-Shoulder was done it felt a bit dry, so I incorporated some of it's juice back in. When I had my girl test them, blindly, she thought they tasted pretty much the same, with the Sous version being juicier. Sous-Shoulder seemed to have a much more vibrant pink color to the finished pork. I felt it had a significantly greater smoker flavor (though she didn't notice that) and it also had a much softer bark.
If I wasn't trying to match up the resting times, it would have been a lot easier to skip the fridge step, and it probably would have been ready to rest within 2 hours of coming out of the water bath. The active time with this method would be significantly less, for a product that we were very pleased with. That said, the actual work of using only the smoker would have been less, since there was no need to set up the water bath, then pat it dry, re apply seasoning, put it on the smoker.
Wednesday afternoon I trimmed the fat cap from a pork shoulder, seasoned it up with Ozark Heat from R Butts R Smokin, sealed it in a vac bag, and dropped it in my Sous Vide cooler with the circulator set to 165*.
Wednesday night I trimmed the fat cap from a pork shoulder, seasoned it up with Ozark Heat from R Butts R Smokin, sealed it in a vac bag, and put it in the fridge overnight.
Thursday morning I opened up the fridge bag, and put that shoulder on the pellet smoker. I ran it on Smoke for 2 hours, then cranked it up to 300. The Sous-Shoulder was at about 22 hours, so I pulled it, shocked it, and put it in the fridge for a while. When I was happy with the bark on the Smoker-Shoulder, I wrapped it. At this point I actually went and put it inside in the oven, so I could put Sous-Shoulder on at Smoke to get some flavor. Sous-Shoulder fell apart into 3 large chunks when I pulled it from the bag, and left me with quite a bit of pork juice (2-3 cups, I should have measured) I gave it another coating of rub over the 3 pieces. The idea was to have them both ready to rest at nearly the same time. Smoker-Shoulder was probe tender first, and went into the Cambro, with the Sous-Shoulder getting up to temp and having a bark around 30 minutes later. I let them rest for 2 hours, then brought it all inside to be pulled.
The Smoker-Shoulder had a bit more fat that I had to clean off as I shredded it, but it was also the moister of the two. When the Sous-Shoulder was done it felt a bit dry, so I incorporated some of it's juice back in. When I had my girl test them, blindly, she thought they tasted pretty much the same, with the Sous version being juicier. Sous-Shoulder seemed to have a much more vibrant pink color to the finished pork. I felt it had a significantly greater smoker flavor (though she didn't notice that) and it also had a much softer bark.
If I wasn't trying to match up the resting times, it would have been a lot easier to skip the fridge step, and it probably would have been ready to rest within 2 hours of coming out of the water bath. The active time with this method would be significantly less, for a product that we were very pleased with. That said, the actual work of using only the smoker would have been less, since there was no need to set up the water bath, then pat it dry, re apply seasoning, put it on the smoker.
