The BIG day!!!!!!

4:45 AM: Alarm goes off. Time to get out of bed and start the fire in the "Q" Reading about how this all works its important to make sure the whole unit is hot. In order to do this the fire is to be started an hour or so prior to putting the meat in. I had split the wood for kindling and starting the night before...... Thought the neighbours would appreciate not waking up to the banging of the splitting maul.
5:00 AM: Place the homemade fire starter (yet another post to come) on the fire grate. Place a big chunk of wood either side of it. Lay the kindling over the top and light the fire starter.
5:10 AM: go in the house, make some coffee, pray a decade of the rosary and drink some coffee. Contemplate the dry rub ingredients and the process of the few day just past:
To make a small batch (enough for one shoulder)
1/2 cup Brown sugar
1/2 cup Coarse Salt
1/4 cup Black pepper
1/2 cup Paprika
1/4 cup Cumin
1/4 cup Granulate Garlic
1/4 cup Granulate Onion
1 tsp Cayenne Pepper
1/4 cup Oregano
1/4 cup Thyme
Okay I have to admit the quantities above are a good guess. That's usually how I cook and it always seem to work out (so far). The dry rub is really a personal thing and the more you do it the more you'll develop your own. The only caution I would give is to go easy in the cumin, it can quickly and easily over power all the other ingredients.
The process that was done in advance is covering all the surface area of the meat with the dry rub at least 24 hour in advance. The best way to do this is to liberally sprinkle the surface then rub it in with you hands, this gets it in all the cracks and crevices. Don't worry you can't really over do the dry rub.
In this case we rubbed the pork shoulders Wednesday night and the cooking started Friday morning.
6:00 AM: After an hour or so the temperature is up to 300F so it's time for the meat to hit the racks.



6:30 AM: check the temperature and the fire; both are doing well. Temperature is holding at 300F and the fire is burning well. I put another round in the firebox and go back in the house.
7:00 AM: check the temperature and the fire; both are doing well. Temperature is holding at 300F and the fire is burning well. I put another round in the firebox and go back in the house. THIS IS PRETTY MUCH HOW THE BULK OF THE MORNING GOES.....
Some time between now and 10:30 I realize my suspicions were correct. The point were the baffle ends and the smoke and heats make the rise into the top of the cooking chamber creates a hot spot so I move some of the shoulders over and swap them out. I'll do this again once more before the day is over.
10:30 AM: Check the temperature and the fire both; are doing well. Temperature is holding at 300F and the fire is burning well. I decide to start applying the mop...an apple cider, white vinegar, oregano, granulated garlic, black pepper, cayenne pepper mixture that was also made in advance and left to get the flavours to all meld together. I put another round in the firebox and go back in the house.



11:00 AM: check the temperature and the fire; both are doing well. Temperature is holding at 300F and the fire is burning well. I apply more mop. I put another round in the firebox and go back in the house. THIS IS PRETTY MUCH HOW THE AFTERNOON GOES NOW WE'LL SKIP TO THE END.....

4:30 PM: check the temperature look the shoulders over. They've been in for 10-1/2 hours and look wonderful. I my haste I forgot to take one last photo so you'll need to imagine the photo above with each shoulder glistening with mop, nice and dark dark brown, sizzling and dripping with flavour.
6:40 PM: We started pulling the meat apart, I had read that these will stay hot for a long time but would never have guessed how long. They were still too hot to handle.
7:00 PM: Dinner was served and was a huge success. Everyone eat their fill, including seconds all 130+ people and we have about 5 - 8 lbs left over. Now I know how much pork to cook for that size of crowd. 10 pork shoulder, bone-in, skin off, pretty much 100 lbs.