Ok, I tried my first pulled pork of the season, and my first on the new smoker. After brining for about 18 hours I started up the fire around 8:30am, and it was going real hot at 9:30 so i decided to toss on the rubbed shoulder, close the vents and head out to breakfast with the family. When i returned at 11, I found an entirely smothered fire. Dead. 100 degrees inside. Damn, those vents are way more airtight than that Brinkmann i used for years. So i started up a new fire, set the vents at about 50%, and by noon was smoking again. Smoked for 8 hrs, could have gone for 10... but it was pretty solid anyway. Had more, please (Husband, and Dog  in tow) over to help devour, and I'd say it was a success. Maybe not absolutely perfect, but MP did leave "drunk on pork" which i think has to be a phrase i use somewhere. Anyway, here's my official "Pork-a-thon" review.

Price: Lets see.... it was a $63, 9lb shoulder from Pigasso Farms (why don't these people have a web site? OMG!). Probably could have made 20 sandwiches out of it. So add in all the extras, I figure this would be a $10-12 sandwich.

Appearance: Great visual smoke penetration and mix of pink and darkish coloring. Lots of crusty bark, and not a lot of fat. Piled up high it looked amazing (though my pictures sucked).

Pork Solo: Not overly smoked, very rich tasting. Incredibly tender. Bark was good, but maybe a touch too rich. It didn't have that immediate, holy-crap-this-is-the-best-thing-ever taste i was looking for, but it was hands down better than what I've tasted in my pork-a-thon thus far.

Sauce: I decree that I have perfected the vinegar red sauce. The richness of the solo pork was brightened up perfectly which just a few dashes of the sauce. I'm in love with this sauce! Note to self: don't change a thing.

Cole Slaw: What can I say about LEF's slaw? I love it. She thought it was better on day 2 which is usually the case, but I was very happy with it. She omitted the green cabbage and i didn't miss it at all. The only thing I'd change is a slightly thinner and shorter cut, but otherwise the flavor is amazing.

Bun: The dinner crowd liked them, but i thought they were wrong. I've never made rolls before, but I tried using the Baguette recipe  just using smaller quantities of dough and a revised temp setting as recommended by Bittman. Didn't work. Too dense, too small, and too much flavor. I ended up eating them more like pizza with pulled pork and slaw on top of a half a roll. Which means i ate 4 instead of 2. Mmmmm.... more pork.

Total Package: So aside from the roll, this was pretty spot on. The sauce was really the perfect pairing for the richness of the pork. I think next time around I'll try a slightly modified rub though. I might lose the Curry from it, or maybe take down the level of paprika. It would definitely benefit from a smoked Chili powder which I have only used once.... but I think might need to make an appearance again. I was definitely happy with this, and if served up in a bar setting I would be absolutely thrilled with it. I paired it with a Foxglove Zinfindel, but a PBR in a can would be just as killer. Personal rating = 7 of 10. I can get to 10.