First pork shoulder on a WSM


 
Bruno

Bruno

TVWBB Hall of Fame
I'm goin to do a shoulder Saturday night, any thoughts on a shoulder overnight cook.

I'll pick up something between 6 and 8 pounds today, rub it and let it sit overnight.

How many hours do you think this would take?
 
It all depends, to me, on what temp you plan to run the smoker and how the weather is outside. Also, do you plan to foil at all or will you wait out the stall? What was the meat's temp before going on, and at what temp do you plan to pull it? It's all relevant to the discussion, IMO. It's cliche, but true that BBQ is done when it's done, so I always smoke to temperature and not time. I hope that helps.
 
8-10 would be perfect, give me a chance to sleep. I wake often anyways so I'll keep an eye on things. I don't plan to foil because I'm hoping to not have to go outside until the AM.

This will be fun. If all goes well brisket next weekend.

Thanks for the input.
 
I do overnight cooks a few times during the year. Typically, I use 7 - 8 lbs. boston butts and it takes about 12 hours when targeting a 230° - 240° cooking temperature. I do the Minion method with Kingsford and start the smoker around 9:30 - 10pm so that it is settled out by 11pm. WSM's are amazing for heat control with minimal interaction.

Good luck.
 
A rough estimate is 1 1/2 hours per pound. Give or take, depending on your temps that you like to smoke at, whether your smoker maintains those temps unattended, whether you foil or not. That's what I use as rough guestimate, if you have plenty of time, use a lower temp, if you need it faster, use a higher temp.
 
Bruno, how did it go? Hope everything went well for you.

When I did a 9lb butt on my 22.5 WSM, it took me 14 hours at 235*, without wrapping.
 
Mick, thanks for asking, I have been swamped this week with work and the kids.

The first shoulder I smoked (years ago) on my kettle was a disaster so I was a little nervous.

I fired her up at 8 pm with a full bag(18.6) of KBB, some apple and pecan chunks and and waited until 9 to let the smoke clear. I used a full water bowl (unfoiled) hoping to keep temps more stable. When I put the 10 1/2 pound shoulder on, temp was around 235. With the Maverick I kept an eye on things for a bit and went to bed. I woke at 2 to check on things and I was at 237, went back to sleep and woke at 7AM. WSM read around 239 and the shoulder was showing 190, I was nervous because I was hoping 200-205, when I pulled the lid and stuck in the thermapen in a few locations it was literally like a hot knife through butter. I knew we would be good.
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I pulled it around 8-9 AM and I covered it and put it in a cooler for a few hours then pulled it and separated it from bark pieces, cooked pieces and useless fat. Didn't do that last time, left in too much fat.
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We packed up a lunch of pulled pork and coleslaw and took the boys to the beach for a picnic. It was a great day.

So we loved it the first day at the beach, but on Monday I shredded it up a lot better, mixed in a little more BBQ sauce and it was AMAZING just by itself.

Thanks for the inspiration!
 
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Crazy stable temps! I filled the water pan to the top this time! Had some left in the AM. I'll be using the water pan for now, other than getting rid of some nasty water it really isn't difficult!
 
Yeah running without a temp controller I would definitely say stick with water in it it helps a lot to keep temps low and stable, I would check my wsm every 20 min before i got my temp controller but fact is once i had it steady within 10 degrees so long as it wasn't a windy day here it would stay rock stable at whatever it settled at for many, many hours.
 
Looks good Bruno. Yeah, I use my water pan as well...even with an Auber temp controller. I also use my Maverick to keep the Auber honest, just in case. ;) So, if I figured right, you smoked a 10 1/2 pound shoulder, or was it a butt, at 235* in 10 hours? WOW!! If I could do that, I wouldn't worry about it.

The last one I did was about a 9 pounder, and I set my Auber temp controller on 235*, which it held within 5* the whole time, and it took 14 hours...to get an internal of 200*. It turned out perfect. However, I did another 9 pounder this weekend and dropped down to 230* smoking temp. I put it on the smoker at midnight Friday night, and at 4:00pm Saturday afternoon it was still only at 195* internal and I pulled it...after 16 hours. I thought it felt good when I probed it, but it didn't pull as well as the last one did...so, I wish I'd have waited until I got an internal of 200*-203*. It's just that I knew it was going to take another hour or two to get there, and I needed some time to rest it before dinner. I mean, it was really good, and everyone enjoyed it...it was just harder to shred than the last one.

I did decide, based on this butt and my last 17-hour brisket, both smoked at 230*, that I would never go below 235* smoking temp again...and will probably aim for 250* from here on. I just wanted to play with the real low and slow smoking temps that I could never achieve for long periods on my old stick burner. Now, I know the WSM can hold it there for 16-17 hours, with the help of the Auber, and never waiver. I just don't like waiting that long...and for me, 12-14 hours is plenty of time to wait on it. :cool:
 
It was a beautiful night here in the Bay Area I'm sure that helped. I'm going to let the iGrill Chart the temps next time so I can see what it does all night.
I was pretty damn surprised how easy it all was.

I may go ahead and do a brisket this weekend if I can find a medium sized one to try out.
 
I nearly always do two Boston Butts at once on both my 14.5" and my 18.5" WSM. My butts generally run 8-9 lbs. I run at 275 degrees and it take 8-9 hours. We let it rest a bit (sometimes in a faux cambro, depending on what's going on at the time). I pull when it probes tender. Sometimes that is at 195 degrees and sometimes it takes 205 degrees, depending on the particular shoulder of meat.

The only difference I see between running a 230 degrees and 275 degrees is the higher temperature is much quicker and I vote for QUICKER:cool:...

Keep on smokin',
Dale53:wsm:
 
MickHLR said:
Looks good Bruno. Yeah, I use my water pan as well...even with an Auber temp controller. I also use my Maverick to keep the Auber honest, just in case. ;) So, if I figured right, you smoked a 10 1/2 pound shoulder, or was it a butt, at 235* in 10 hours? WOW!! If I could do that, I wouldn't worry about it.

The last one I did was about a 9 pounder, and I set my Auber temp controller on 235*, which it held within 5* the whole time, and it took 14 hours...to get an internal of 200*. It turned out perfect. However, I did another 9 pounder this weekend and dropped down to 230* smoking temp. I put it on the smoker at midnight Friday night, and at 4:00pm Saturday afternoon it was still only at 195* internal and I pulled it...after 16 hours. I thought it felt good when I probed it, but it didn't pull as well as the last one did...so, I wish I'd have waited until I got an internal of 200*-203*. It's just that I knew it was going to take another hour or two to get there, and I needed some time to rest it before dinner. I mean, it was really good, and everyone enjoyed it...it was just harder to shred than the last one.

I did decide, based on this butt and my last 17-hour brisket, both smoked at 230*, that I would never go below 235* smoking temp again...and will probably aim for 250* from here on. I just wanted to play with the real low and slow smoking temps that I could never achieve for long periods on my old stick burner. Now, I know the WSM can hold it there for 16-17 hours, with the help of the Auber, and never waiver. I just don't like waiting that long...and for me, 12-14 hours is plenty of time to wait on it. :cool:
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Interesting you use water with your Auber. I have an Auber as well and have only used it dry. How does it work with water in the pan? My last shoulder was probe tender except around the bone after 16hrs at 235 (on at midnight and pulled at 4pm). I may bump up the temp to 245 next time.
 
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