Low N Slow issues with pork and brisket


 
J

Jonas-Switzerland

TVWBB Fan
Summer has officially ended. Its rains, its cold, and generallly unpleasant. A good time to take a break from BBQ and prepare for the winter cooking season.

This year I had good results on the WSM. I relied on overnight cooks for brisket and pork. This gave me plenty of time. But the flat of my brisket was dry, and I also managed to cook dry pork shoulder. I want to cook faster low'n slow and see if that improves my results. But there has been one cook which I just did not understand. Maybe you can help me figure out where my reasoning was off.

So I wanted to cook pulled pork, in 5 hours. Guests arrived at 12. That's when I was planning to be done, so it could rest for an hour before serving. I had three pounds of pork shoulder which I cut into three pieces. So roughly a pound per piece. I planned to cook at 250-275, I thought it would take 1h- 1.5h per pound.

It ended up taking 7 hours with wrapping. I am questioning my methodology, and even my pit probe placement. This is how it went:

I threw them on my WSM 22 at 7:00. Pit probe was lying in the hot zone and read 210F. At 7:45 it stabilzed at 250. The thickest piece reached the stall at 9:15 at 149F. At 10:00 I was about to wrap it in butcher paper, but saw the temperature was rising again. I thought I was through the stall. Then at 10:30 I looked at the temperature curves and saw it was stalled again at 163F.

I was getting nervous. I wrapped it in butcher paper. In hinsight, I should have wrapped them separately. I did a single package. At 12:00 the shoulder was at 185. WSM ran out of coals and. I put it on the gas grill. At 1:30 it was just about done, but there was a ton of water in the butcher paper which weakened the bark.


So. I did not expect to cook this long, especially since I cut them up into roughly 1 pound pieces. Two things may explain this:
* Pit probe reads too high. Placing it at the top grate in the hot zone overestimates the temperature the meat actually gets.
* Cutting up pork only marginally helps. Calculations like x hours per pound are not that useful. Rendering the fat takes its hours no matter if its a 2 or 5 pound piece.

But the wrapping in butcher paper stumped me. I heard it would let the steam escape and protect the bark more. Maybe I just underestimated the doneness on my pork, and it still carried a ton of water. I. E. I wrapped too early.
 
Lots to say here. I'll try to keep it brief.

Placing a pit probe can be tricky. I often use multiple pit probes - two, sometimes three, all placed in different places. They all read differently. So I use the average temp.

Pork butt always takes longer than one thinks. And resting for a bit after it's done doesn't hurt, either.

About a year ago, I ran across a new video which advocated cutting up a pork butt like you did, putting it on an offset smoker, and cooking it that way. He said it cooks quicker, it's still moist, and you get max bark over all. I never tried his strategy, and now I cannot find his video. But in theory, your idea of cutting it in pieces to speed up the cook makes sense.

I've learned long ago to follow what I call the 100 degree rule. That is, keep the cooker temp at IT plus 100 F. This will keep the temp moving up after the stall. Otherwise, the cook will go on forever.

Re wrapping, wrapping is not necessary on a pork butt. Nonetheless, I would wrap at about IT 180 because otherwise, in my experience, the bark can actually be too hard - the meat is soft, tender, juicy, but the bark chunks and bits are too hard. So I wrap at 180. It also speeds the cook along.

Re achieving a moist (or not dried-out) brisket flat, there are at least a dozen tricks and strategies. But even accomplished brisket cooks will sometimes dry out a flat.

Good luck
 
I don’t wrap, use a water pan or plan on any serious “finished time” unless I’ve built in at least three hours fest on the “back end” consequently I am a big fan of the overnight “get some sleep” style.
The massive Kurabota shoulder we had last weekend went on at about 21:00 and came off about 13:00 so, with a feeding frenzy slated for 16:00 which got bumped to almost 18:00 the long rest worked out perfectly.
There is an old saying in the barbecue world…
“It will be done when it says it’s done!”

You can’t rush this stuff, size will fool you, try to do a small piece and it might take forever, a big one might be done before you expect it just as easily. Live and learn,, enjoy the fruits of your labors as you learn.
Cheers.
 
When troubleshooting most anything I like to minimize the corrections I apply at one time.
For me cooking a brisket took a while before I was consistent with putting out a nice tasting jelly chunk of meat.
To a lesser degree pork shoulder was a cut I didn’t master until a few cooks.

Me I’m still learning and I experiment with some ideas I see here.
That said I am still a bit hesitant to do a hot and fast brisket like I have seen some do when the method I use works.
 
That does seem like a long time for one pound chunks...shoulder can take much hotter temps without any discernible difference in taste/texture. Cranking your heat up to 275-300 could be a good strategy here to get it done faster and allow for a rest.

Even to get through the stall faster, you can crank the heat for a bit and then bring it back down.

For wrapping in butcher paper, make sure to wrap it tight. I have wrapped loosely before and the results are not as good. I like to wrap later in the process for pork shoulder, around 180-185.
 
Found it! He cut up his pork butt and smoked it at around 300 F on his offset and it still took about seven hours just for the chunks to hit 175-180 F. Then he also added lard, covered it, and cooked it another two hours at 300 F. So that makes nine hours total! Not a huge time savings. But he claims it's a great technique and produces great pulled pork.

 
Thank you, that was a really good sanity check. My biggest chunk was about the same size as his. And it still took seven hours. But the overall I was in the same ballpark.

Pork shoulder seems to take its time, even when you cut it up.

I did not know pork shoulder could take higher heats. I am going to try this when we are winter grilling.
 
Another trick to keep in mind. Like @Mark_E mentioned above, you can’t ever count on pork butt getting done on time.

In some instances, when I’m up against the clock, and it’s not getting up to temp I want on the SNS, I throw it in a crockpot or oven for the last couple hours. Works pretty well.

I never wrap, as I prefer the real smokey bark, so sometimes it is tricky to judge exactly when it’ll get done. But I always leave 2-3 hours of buffer just in case. So had I been in your shoes, I’d have had them on the pit at 4am or so.
 
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