26+ hour pork shoulder


 
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Tom Raveret

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I made it to Peoria Packing on Sunday while down in Chicago for the weekend and picked up some very nice looking pork shoulders and immediately threw some MR brown on them when I got home.

Last night, monday I started up the WSM with the Minion method in the middle of a sleet/snow mix (the top was frozen on when I went to startup) and I have an 8 lb and a 7 lb shoulder. I positioned the WSM in a corner sheilded from winds on two sides but exposed to the south and east. The minion method worked wonderfully and thanks to it I got a good night sleep of 6 hours with the WSM running at about 225 all night. Today the cook went on fine with a refuel about 2:00PM So its 26 hours into the cook and I'm now at 179 on one roast and 181 on the top roast and trying to shoot for 195. The top roast looks like its about to fall apart but the themometer dosent say its done yet.

For each of the roasts I'm measuring with a taylor/poulder type and for the temp on the grill level I'm measuring the top rack with a williamss sonoma/maverick with the element through a Potato. I double checked the reading with a Taylor digital Instaread and its within a degree of the reading from the taylor/poulder

I have opened the WSM to refuel and a couple of times to turn the roasts and change levels and mop but this its taking FOREVER. To speed things up a bit I kicked the vents open a bit and am running closer to 250. Tonight is much colder than last night with windchills in the -0 levels.

Any thoughts on why this taking sooooo long ??? I'm trying not to give in to the urge to put it in the oven to finish it as I really want my "Pig Candy"

Thanks for the input
 
Tom,

The last pork butt I did was about 7.5lb, when it got to 185 it also looked like it was about to fall apart. A couple things to try, 1) did you move the thermometer probe to different areas of the roast(when I did that I found one section read 196, while the section the probe was in was at 185); 2) IMHO I thinks it's done, pull one and see how it is, what have you got to lose? 26 hours seems unusually long. Let me know how it turns out.

Oh by the way, mine took 15 hours on 12/28 it was 33 degrees out.
 
well I took your advice and took one off the WSM at one at 3:45 am let sit for 1/2 hour and then pulled internals didnt get above 185 and it pulled ok but it was dry. Worst i've made yet. It still taste nice but I hate making dry Q. i pulled the second one at 4:30 am and am leting it sit now but the internal only made it to 186 so I'm not expecting much different. I'ts dissapointing to stay up all night to not get the desired result. Oh well its experience!! I still dont get why I couldnt get the internal temp up to 195??
 
Can be a couple of things, the thermometers try calibrating and see what you get.
Was there any fat left in the butts? If it is very low in in fat content that would show that it was rendered and then by continuing to cook they dried out.
I cook butts of that size in aprox 14 to 16 hours, I don't try to keep the pit at 225?, but I don't think that was the problem.
Jim
 
One thing I have found is that I do not leave the thermometer in the meat but take spot temp checks if I am using that as my guage of doneness. For pork, i still use the bone looseness as the final test.

another thing i have discovered during the cold winter months is that the dome temp can be affected by the cold wind blowing into the dome vents and cooling off the temps and giving me a false reading.

Ironic about your problem. I just finished the USA Smoke cooking class in Houston last weekend and we cooked an 8 pounder in about 5 hours. Was not ecstatic about the results but it was done. We figured out what we did wrong to affect the results, but the process we learned does make it possible to cook a butt in an afternoon.

Dale
 
Jim, there wasnt much fat left but one of the muscles on one of the shoulders was like the sweet pig candy I was looking for the others though definately were a product which fell short of my expections for dryness though it all puulledd easily. While it was dry I still wonder if that meant I hadnt broken down the collagen because I only got to 186 or so. Jim what temprature do you manage the temprature to on your WSM at grill level? Perhaps I should go back to trying just one shoulder instead of two and see what happnens?

I will callibrate the thermometers but the temp readinng I was taking Dale were at meat lever right next to the roast with the maverick stuck through a pototo. I also spot checked with taylor digital instaread several time s when I was concerned i was possibly having a thermomether problem. This is going to be a tough question to answer online as I'm guessing its one you culd much easier show me than tell me but how do you describe or judge bone loosness? I will say that i thought the whole thing was gong to fall apart as i tried to pick it up but I figured 30+ hours in the smoker should do that for ya, Thanks for the input!! I still have much to learn and thats the fun part!!!!!

(dosent someone on this board sign their posts with that what does not kill us makes us stronger)
 
Here in New England, like a lot of places, it's been a cold winter. The last few things that take longer (briskets, butts, etc) have not come up to temperature even after 50% longer than anticipated cook times. Trying to wait them out has resulted in dry food.

For a 4 lb brisket I smoked it for 6+ hr (only got up to 165 degrees) and it came out dry. I should have removed it after 4 hr and finished it in the oven.

For a 7 lb butt, I took it off after 12 hr and then finished it in the oven. It came out great, nice and juicy with a nice smoke flavor.

My suggestion is to smoke for the alloted amount of time, remove, wrap in foil, insert thermometer and finish in the oven. It only takes a few minutes in a 300+ degree oven to bring things up to temp.

Just my $0.02.
 
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