I thought I was smarter than the WSB


 
J

Justin D

TVWBB Member
I thought I was smarter than the WSM

I'm entertaining this afternoon, so yesterday I bought an 11 lb shoulder and rubbed it in the morning. My previous smokes (9 lbers) took between 14 and 16 hours to finish (which I always thought was long, but I'm pretty new to this). I thought with the 11 lb, I'd better give it some extra time to ensure that the pork would be ready to eat by like 2pm.

I put it on the smoker last night at 5 pm... when I woke up just now, it was at 195 degrees! It fell apart when I was taking it off the smoker.

I've been outsmarted by a pork butt. :(
 
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Justin D said:
I'm entertaining this afternoon, so yesterday I bought an 11 lb shoulder and rubbed it in the morning. My previous smokes (9 lbers) took between 14 and 16 hours to finish (which I always thought was long, but I'm pretty new to this). I thought with the 11 lb, I'd better give it some extra time to ensure that the pork would be ready to eat by like 2pm.

I put it on the smoker last night at 5 pm... when I woke up just now, it was at 195 degrees! It fell apart when I was taking it off the smoker.

I've been outsmarted by a pork butt. :(
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That's crazy. I've that happen. The time scale of hours per pound really isn't linear at all. I think it really has a lot more to do with the thickness. I've had 6 lbers take 14 hours at 225.
 
I think the cook time is proportional to how soon you need the food. If you need it sooner, it will take longer to get done. If you give it extra time, it will take sooner than expected. Gotta love Q, it is done when it is done.

Dave
 
Dustin Dorsey said:
The time scale of hours per pound really isn't linear at all. I think it really has a lot more to do with the thickness. I've had 6 lbers take 14 hours at 225.
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Bingo, and the same thing applies to briskets. I'll add that half butts and little partial brisket flats can amaze you on how much cooking they can require.

Last Saturday I put a couple of nine pounders on the top rack of my 18 at 7am. All vents open to reach 275 grate temp in an hour, and then I turned on my PartyQ to maintain that. Lazy cook..thinned fat cap a bit and rubbed the night before, but no injection, or foiling during the cook. I flipped both butts side to side (to fat up) at noon. One was falling apart by 4:30.
 
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Well said Dave R. In my experience, that nails it.

Dave R said:
I think the cook time is proportional to how soon you need the food. If you need it sooner, it will take longer to get done. If you give it extra time, it will take sooner than expected. Gotta love Q, it is done when it is done.

Dave
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I normally figure 18 hours as a rule of thumb for time before hand. If it gets done earlier than normal I pull the bone and wrap it in foil then into a cooler. Even after 4-7 hours it's almost to hot to pull by hand!
 
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