2nd smoke--Whole Shoulders

[Ray B]

I heeded a lot of folks advice and started these at 4:00 yesterday for them to hopefully be done between 3-6 today.

Two 17lb whole pork shoulders, minion, started with meat at room temp, cool water in pan.

Several errors on my part: I started with a 90% full charcoal pan of 50/50 lump and brick because I did not have a full bag of either. Obviously in my heart of hearts I knew I needed to cram as much fuel in there as possible but after mowing the lawn and weedeating after work yesterday I had no interest in going to the store for more coal. I got to 235 easily and held it easily until about midnight when my temp started dipping. I stired the coals, opened the vents, etc. and got back up to temp. Of course in my apprehension I had to check it at 1:00 and 2:00 while getting no sleep. At 2:00 I was still at 225 so I went to sleep thinking I should go to the store and get charcoal. This ain't gonna make it. Of course because I didn't fall asleep until 2:30 or so, I slept right through my alarm until about 7:00 when I discovered my temp had dropped to 200. I rushed off to the store and got some more fuel, fired it up, and got back to temp by 8:00. Not sure how long I ran at 200 but I figure It can't be too devastating. Still, stupid because I could have prevented it...

Lesson learned: If you think you might even be the tiniest bit short on fuel--get some!

Gonna check meat temp in about a half hour at 9:00 and see where we stand.

PS: I left the rind on the shoulders and smoked them with that side up so the fat could baste through the meat all night as it rendered.

 

[Ray B]

While I wouldn't quite go so far as to call this one a total disaster it certainly fell well short of the lofty standard set by my first smoke (loin back ribs).

The shoulders were done at the 14 hour mark and displayed nice bark. I held them in a cooler (which works really well btw) for about 4 hours and they were still too hot to touch.

The smoke ring was deep and pronounced but the flavor, sadly, was not there. I used 6-7 pieces each of both hickory and cherry that were each about the size of a tennis ball.

The meat was very tender and the rendering fat cap under the rind kept the meat very moist.

I think that my lack of smoke flavor stems from several factors. First: the rind over the fat cap prevented smoke penetration into the meat over roughly 1/3 of the pieces--this also lessened the bark to meat ratio. Second: I think my taste prefers a deep smoke flavor, maybe moreso than many people, for which the cherry wood was just too mild perhaps. I think I should have gone with all hickory or at least a 2:1 hickory to cherry ratio while doubling the amount of hickory I used. Third: due to the size of the shoulders themselves they have a low surface area to mass ratio which reduces both bark and smoke flavor penetration once pulled (Chopped).

I think I will stick to just plain old butts moving forward.

 

[Bryan S]

Yes Ray, The skin will block the smoke and prevent bark formation. I wish you would have skinned them... Chalk it up to sperience. Lesson learned.