EnigmaX

I'll start doing the same myself - saving the large chunks is a great idea! The bag I've got is the large CPL blue one, I think coals2u is the same company as CPL distribution - we are using the same stuff, I'm glad you approve of it! The bag on the website has recently changed, no idea if the quality has, I've got another order for next week. > What is in the dish that you served with the pulled pork? 😋(top left corner of your pic) Ah, that's my macaroni cheese with Red Leicester and bacon bits as a crunchy topping. I intended to smoke it on the bbq but after the Sunday morning I had I couldn't be bothered . I did loads of cheese sauce, the kids love it and that's the yellow sauce on the side. It was done with red leicester, cheddar and double gloucester.

Hi all. I wanted to follow up and let you know that, as of today, I've not died of food poisoning. Not sure if that's a benchmark anyone else would like to use to gauge success, but it's good for me. I can also say that I did a second pork shoulder in the slow cooker (for the kids) to avoid the "risk part", but interestingly it wasn't a patch on the one from the Kamado. It ended up being an interesting comparison between pork done on the Kamado low and slow (with a massive mid-cook failure), versus a seven-hour slow cooked pork shoulder in a crockpot. The moisture difference was incredible, and the taste wasn't close. Regarding the charcoal, what does everyone use? I've been using this https://www.coals2u.co.uk/restaurant-charcoal.html and other than the lumps being small and the end of the bag being "bitty", it seems to have been ok. I think my mistake here was that I tipped the end of a bag in to get sufficient volume for an overnight, and that's choked it out. I'll try again in a couple of weeks and see if there is a difference using only big lumps. What charcoal do you folks use for low and slow? I don't want to go off-topic I'm curious given the comments from you on this thread. Thanks!

Hi Adam, actually this is incredibly helpful thank you - you could be onto something. I have an ash basket, but it never occurred to me to shake it before lighting, I've always used it afterwards to help with clean-up. I did pour charcoal in to fill the basket and there were a lot of smaller lumps. I arranged the coal into a pyramid and ensured that there were large lumps near the top... but of course this would still ultimately choke it out if / when it all collapses down. When I rescued the pork shoulder this morning, I shook the basket to work out what was going on. It looked fine, plenty of coal but I was more concerned with the pork. I left the Kamado entirely and came back an hour later to a Kamado at 300c+. It just didn't make sense, especially given that I have an inkbird temperature control fan which was blowing at 100%. But if the fan wasn't blowing through the charcoal... all my cooks when I'm present have been a success, it's the low and slow's I've struggled with. Thank you all again for the helpful suggestions. What a great forum and resource we have here!

IceFever, thanks for taking the time to respond in my hour of need . The pork shoulder is currently sat at an internal temp of 95c in a slow cooker. It's been at this temp for well over 1 hour. I'd love to make this a learning exercise, at this temperature all known pathogens should have died - would you agree? What is the risk in this instance? I'm not disagreeing, just trying to learn more about the process. I can say the shoulder looks, smells and feels spot on. Do you have any insights that could help? Do you have any other thoughts? Thanks!

I've been up since 4.50am trying to salvage two pulled pork shoulders that were smoking on a Kamado overnight which appears to have extinguished at 1:30am while I was asleep. Moving aside why (I've honestly no idea, it was chugging along nicely) I'm concerned at whether I should continue to cook and serve the pork. I have an Inkbird thermometer that tells me when the fire went out due to the temp drop. Both pork shoulders hit an internal temp of 57c before starting to drop at 2am. When I got up at 5am they'd hit 34c. I've given up on the Kamado for this morning, I couldn't get it lit quickly enough and I was worried about the safety of the pork. I put on the oven in the kitchen and moved them across to continue the cook. Given that the pork didn't manage to escape the danger zone (up to 62c) and with the fire being out from 1.30 - 5am the pork has been in the danger zone more than 4 hours. If I am able to salvage the pulled pork from a taste and texture perspective, would it be safe to eat? The pork is currently sitting in a slow cooker happily at 85c, it looks great, smells great but I'm not sure if it's safe. Any thoughts? Thanks