Pork shoulder battle: Slow cooker vs smoker, and it's not even close

I did a side by side test last weekend with two 8 pound butts from Costco. One went in the slow cooker on low for 10 hours with some apple juice, the other on my offset smoker at 225 for about 14 hours. The slow cooker one was fine and juicy, but the bark on the smoked one and that deep hickory flavor just blew it away completely. Has anyone else tried this and felt the same way, or am I just biased toward smoke?

3 comments

3 Comments

susansingh11d ago

Oh, I have to disagree a bit here. I actually prefer the slow cooker version for pulled pork because it comes out so tender and moist without any risk of drying out.

wendy82011d ago

My 3am pulled pork experiment last week ended with me falling asleep on the couch and the slow cooker running for 14 hours instead of 8. The meat was so dry it basically turned into pulled pork jerky. At least my dog was happy, she got a whole batch of sad meat snacks. So I get why you like the slow cooker for tenderness, but clearly I cannot be trusted with one. I need something with a timer shutoff or a smoke detector that yells at me. You gotta respect a method that doesn't rely on my non-existent self control.

aaron_perry9d ago

Is it really that serious though, @wendy820? Worst case you get some dry meat and a happy dog, not like you burned the house down or anything.