Why are my smoking times much shorter than others?


 
J

JohnWallet

New member
All, I am really puzzled by something. In the Cooking Topics portion of the main site there is the write-up on the mustard rubbed pulled pork (http://virtualweberbullet.com/pork1.html). The author said that his smoke session took 19 hours with 2 8 pound butts (~16 pounds total).

I have an 18" WSM and smoke 2 butts the same way all the time and I am done it 10 hours almost every time! My smoker stays at 225* the entire time and I get the meat to ~195-200* and it is perfect. It doesn't really matter what season (Portland, OR area).

Why would my time be so much shorter? I have noticed this to be the case on many things that I smoke. The cook time is hours shorter than what others experience.
 
Are you measuring the temp with the lid therm or with something like a Maverick with the pit probe on the grate?
 
Air density will affect how the charcoal burns. Put a barometer near your cook area and make note of its reading. I bet your short cooks the barometer is > 31
 
Yeah, that was a weird cook. I'm not totally sure why it took 19 hours, but you'll notice that the cooker temp was bouncing around a lot from 180 to 250 and I didn't really attempt to adjust the vents to compensate. I was using water in the water pan, so that kept temps down. I don't remember if that was a cold night outside or windy (I'd have to check my cooking log), and I don't remember if the meat was ice cold when I put it into the smoke or not. I also turned the meat once and basted the meat several times, so I was removing the lid a lot to play with the meat. These are all variables that can lengthen cooking time.

Having said all that, if you look at the more recent Pork Butt - SYD Injection, I cooked those two butts in 9 hrs 20 minutes and the cooker ran at 260-275 with no water in the pan. So half the time!! And more in line with your experience.

Maybe there was something wrong with my thermometer when it took 19 hours? Maybe I got a false reading? I don't know, I'd consider that cook an outlier and wouldn't pay much attention to the time shown.

If your butts are finishing in 10 hours at 225 and that concerns you, I'd just check your thermometer for accuracy. If it's OK, then it is what it is...BBQ is finished when it's finished. :)
 
So on Sunday I put 4 shoulders on (about 30 pounds). 2 on the top grate and 2 on the bottom. I used the mustard rub with the Modified Armadillo Willy's Rub (tripled the recipe) Total cook time was ~12 hours

Full water bowl of hot water. Full ring of charcoal with a 2" thick x 8" long stick of dry apple wood and lit off via minion method at 8:30pm. I got up once around 2:30am because my son woke up, so I checked the smoker. Temp was still sitting pretty at 225* at the lid. I added a little more coal (40 briquettes or so) and a little more hot water.

I went to work and had my wife pull them off at 8am because the internal temp of meat stalled at 185* due to low fuel. I told her to put them in the oven at 200* for an hour and then stick them in the cooler with towels.

I came home at 11am and pulled the pork and it was perfect!!! Best results to date. It pulled right apart. The meat was moist and had a great ring and the bark was incredible. I had more compliments on this batch than any other and I fed about 24 co-workers. I'm just glad that I was able to present everyone my best work.

Thank you all for your guidance and knowledge. I will have to post pictures when I get home. You can see them on Instragram for johnwallet #walletsmokehouse
 
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I have noticed the same thing. My shoulders always average about 1 - 1.25 hours per pound here in Houston with the temp at the grate averaging around 250.

But hey, if the meat tastes great, no reason to complain. Just makes it a little more difficult to plan because I am worried that one day, the long smoke will happen.
 
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