Pork Shoulder help


 
C

Chris Stevz

New member
I have done pulled pork about half a dozen times and have never seen this and of course I have company coming over at 830 for NYE. I have had a 5.5 boneless butt on the WSM since 10 am, it's been five hours and it still says 138....been on 138 for hours now. Im aware of stalls, been through several, but have never seen this in the 130's. It was on bottom grate at about 210 deg while i had ribs on upper grate, ribs are done so moved it up where the temp of pit reads 230 now. Hoping for movement soon, any ideas?

thanks
Chris
 
Are you reading the temp with the lid therm or an internal remote therm? What is your setup? What size smoker?

What is the outside temp?
 
Bob Ivey said:
Are you reading the temp with the lid therm or an internal remote therm? What is your setup? What size smoker?

What is the outside temp?
Click to expand...

Thanks for replying. Using a Maverick ET-733 with a probe on the grate and one in the meat. 22.5 WSM fully loaded with charcoal used minion method. temp has held relatively steady except when opening the lid, but meat ain't moving. just jumped to 140 and i have been testing it also with my Thermapen. It is cold and getting windy, maybe high 30's/low 40's. If this thing is not done by 9 i may punt it down the block. it's a small one figured i was in good shape. ribs came out nice
 
I'd wrap it in foil, jup the pit temp up to 300 and if all else fails, into the oven at 350-375 to finish.
 
Done all of the above. Thanks for the suggestions. It's at 172 wrapped in foil in oven. Good thing I didn't do a brisket today too. Time for a drink. Happy New Years all.
 
In the end guests were pleased - shoulder came out pretty good though the cook is always very picky. Question, and this has happened before.... i Try not to open the smoker up but obviously need to at times, twice this happened during this cook and once during the last. I opened it up to get ribs out and wrap them so after 3 or so hours, when i put the cover back on the temp spiked to 300 degrees when it was holding steady at around 230 the whole time -and this happened twice. Could that be from wind or i just left it open too long?
 
Chris Stevz said:
Could that be from wind or i just left it open too long?
Click to expand...

Both. whenever you open the WSM it is getting more air flow across the coals which will create a hotter fire and increase the temperature. The windy conditions just made it worse.
 
Last edited:
Happy to hear all was good with the cook.

Lid off equals more air/airflow equals hotter temps.
My little 14" had ran in the 250 range for 7 hours yesterday doing a brisket.
I had the lid off for a few minutes when it was done and it spiked to 298.
Wind can contribute also of course.

edit, Pat beat me to it :)
 
Yeah, thats what i figured, thanks for confirming. it was quite frustrating to deal with but in the end all worked out.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

 

Back
Top