Hestitation blues and other pork near-fiascos

[Guest]

Tell me how long
Do I have to wait?
Oh can I get you now, or must I hesitate?

I thought it was written about something else, but obviously it's referring to --- pork (no, I mean pork).

I'm really just writing this to vent, but would be happy with any suggestions.
In short, pork leg cross section, bone in, 14 lb, vent temp 225 avg, cooking time 28 !@## hours, and then only got to 170F. I finished it in the oven 3/4 h to 190F. Its resting now, but bits keep falling off it, mmmm, delicious!!! Cooking notes follow.

I've lurked around this site for about a year since I got my WSM and would have been lost with all the sage advice here (as it was I really overdid the hickory first time out and scrapped the lot). So many thanks to all - have done BRITU bb ribs, salmon, trout, beef ribs etc all very successfully, but still infrequently.
I also think I may have invented something -- the INADVERTENT Minon method (apologies to Jim).

TIA for any comments (if I get serious about this I'll build a wsm winter hut!), so short of that, what do I have to do to get over this plateau given these air temps? My first leg (Sept) still took 21h at avg 15C.
Hope you get a smile out of this. Time to go pull it with my fluorescent pork-resistent safety gloves.

Doug
Ottawa, ON Canada

- wife is away, so time to do my second only pork leg
- tried to start 1/2 chimney of Kingsford briq on the side burner of the gas grill (per bbs)
- too windy, gave up and dumped the contents on a full collar of briq - no sign of any ash!!
- put the cover on the wsm
- couple hours later went to move the wsm and found it slightly warm to the touch - was about 15C outside
- the charcoal had caught - fortunately the top vent was still closed
- OK - rescue the leg from the freezer, wash and dry, rub with the last of the Willies#1derful plus some extra brown sugar, score the skin, add water to pan.
- 13h30 hit the grate 220 F in the vent
- 3 pc maple 18 oz added
- Tvent held about 230 all afternoon - slightly windy and overcast - Tair dropping to 5C
- 21h00 Tv=250, Tmeat=150, Tair 5C, Tvent prob. rose as the wind died, only abt 1/2 the maple burned
- added water, charcoal looks OK
- midnight, more water, added charcoal - Tmeat about 160F - bed
- 06h00 Tv=220 (my faith in wsm confirmed) Tmeat= 170F added water - went to work
- 11h30 Tv=180 Tmeat=170 added charcoal, Tv dropped to 150 and recovered slowly, vents were open to abt 90% - back to work
- 17h00 came home, Tv=220, Tmeat=170 - I can't stand it anymore and fire up the oven. After abt 45 min at 350 the leg is at 190+ and about another cup of fat rendered
- smk flavour surprisingly subtle, skin black and crackling, not leathery, but doesn't taste burned - very tasty
- still waiting to pull it.

 

[Preston Davenport]

Dear Mr. Spry,
We cannot lie,
You have a 14 lb ham,
you must be feeding all of man,
but surely you must wait,
or suffer a most obscene fate,
of unpullable pork unable to shred,
inedible to be fed,
to our friend and folk,
for this is no joke,
for such a large ham
best things come to those who wait
so watch your WSM until real late,
so watch your WSM until real late.

Sorry for the bad prose, but you started it! Anyway I think from the other winter posters on this forum that you will find the wind to be the biggest detriment. I have seen a few folks mention that they are smoking in snow with their WSM, but they use a wind shield. That WSM hut is looking better all the time! Being in Florida the only thing I have to deal with is the wind as far as affecting a cook.

14 lbs is a pretty big piece of meat. I think they use 1 hour and 30 minutes a pound on the larger cuts as a rough rule of thumb. So with a 14 lb piece of meat you can expect about 21 hours. Not too far off your results...

Regards,

PrestonD

 

[Mike Rockwood]

Doug,

You mention taking the leg from your freezer just before placing it in the WSM. Your freezer? Was the leg frozen? That would explain the increase in time, I would think.

If it wasn't frozen, perhaps letting it come up to room temp would also have assisted. With a chunk of meat that big, alot of heat will be sucked into it. I use 2hrs/lb for 7-8lb butts. I'd think a 14pounder would be at least 2hrs/lb.

 

[Kevin Taylor]

Hi Doug and welcome!

Sounds to me like your cooker temps were too low. You said 224? in the vent, right? That will put your grate level temps around 190-200?. Very hard to get the meat up to 200? when the cooker is that low.

Measure your temps at the grate level or take into account the difference between grate level and dome level temps. This will vary for almost every cook you do, so I always recommend measuring at the meat level.

Also, 2 hrs./lb.(at 225? GRATE level) is average for cooking a large pork roast to 200? internal.

Keep trying and be sure to take copious notes!

 

[Guest]

PrestonD - thanks for the poetry (I think) /infopop/emoticons/icon_smile.gif

All - thanks for your suggestions. I guess I should have done more reading and then done the math. No, the leg wasn't frozen, it had been in the freezer less than an hour because I thought I couldn't get the fire started.

I keep forgetting that the vent is hotter than the grate - I guess it seems counterintuitive.

I have a couple of other comments / questions - how can the skin be so black and not burned, and yet so "unsmokey"? Well it was the first time I used maple, but after sitting at say 200F for say 18 hours after the smoke wood burned off does some of the smoke leave the meat, or was it the 350F in the oven later - I think I saw that on one of the "Let's cook" pages. Obviously lots of variables to play with.

Anyway, it pulled really easily and is really, really tender, not to mention good. Have packed most of the rest in the freezer, cause I don't think I'm doing much bbqing when there's 3 ft of snow here, but we'll see.

Cheers,

Doug