Another shoulder/water/foil/temp topic

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OK, I've done three overnight shoulders on my WSM since getting it for Christmas. Each has come out great. The problem is that I never even get close to a final temp of 190. The highest I've gotten is 170 and I have to finish the shoulder in the oven. The reason: due to the single digit/teen temps here in New England, I have to run the WSM with the vents wide open with the Minion method to maintain temps of 225-250.

Each morning I wake up and the temp is around 200 or less. Poking the coals gets it up to 210 for a few minutes but that's it. /infopop/emoticons/icon_frown.gif She's spent. /infopop/emoticons/icon_eek.gif

Here are my thoughts: tomorrow eve I'm going to forego the water and use a dry pan with the Minion method. This will cause me to pretty much close the vents to get the low 225 - 250 temps, thus prolonging the fuel and the cook.

What do you think? I hate to finish the shoulder in the oven and want to have it be done fully on the WSM. /infopop/emoticons/icon_smile.gif I guess I'm trying to be a purist!

Any thoughts on this? /infopop/emoticons/icon_cool.gif
 
Sounds like a good plan to me. I've cooked plenty of butts with a dry pan and it works just fine, maybe even better than with water. You'll do fine without the water.

Regards,
Chris
 
Hey Doug,

The 190* internal temp thing is key. If your not hitting that then your not rendering the fat out of the beast yur cookin'. If you find your outside temp is colder then use more charcoal at full temp before you put the meat on. Ready up a full chamber of red hot coals before you put the victim's on the grill. You should have to shut all the vents in order to bring the temp down to where you want it. You should not have to fight to bring the temps up.

If you go with a dry pan your gonna push the temps way up. Good for chicken but not for rendering and slow cooking. Maintain 210+* & let the meat cross the temperature plateau (usually around 160*) and you'll have the good stuff.

Brother Jim's method work's great when your cooking overnight in normal weather. If it's really cold or wet adjust your base fire to help yourself. Put a bunch of unlit briquettes on top of the blazing inferno and your temp won't let you down.

Good luck and I really hope this helps ya!
Dave
 
I cooked a 10 lb shoulder that was rubbed, covered in mustard and rubbed some more. I used an empty water pan with the Minion method. No problems getting things up to 250/260 right off the bat (I was shooting for 250). In fact, as expected, I had to close all three vents until they were only 25% open for 250.

I put the shoulder on at 10:45 PM and when I got up at 8:00 AM, the internal temp was 180 and the temp at the lid was still right at 250. /infopop/emoticons/icon_biggrin.gif I simply poked the coals around a bit, flipped the shoulder and a couple hours later it was 190. There was even fuel left. /infopop/emoticons/icon_razz.gif When I used water the fuel was always exhausted in less than 12hr. and the temp when I woke up was never more than 210.

The bark was crispier than before and the meat was still very moist inside. I pulled the meat, allowed it to cool for about 10 min, put it into four 1 quart freezer bags and froze it. Very nice. /infopop/emoticons/icon_cool.gif

Going w/o water is the way to go for doing overnight shoulders/butts in the winter.

How does everyone serve pulled pork? /infopop/emoticons/icon_confused.gif Do you mix it with some BBQ sauce and then serve it or do you serve it dry? The local BBQ joint sells pulled pork for $10/lb and it is mixed with some vinegar-based sauce. Just curious.
 
Here in South Eastern Virginia they like it Carolina style vinigar based sauce on a bun with coleslaw. I'm originally from California so it took me a while to get used to it but now I like it that way.
 
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