Please help! I may have ruined my pork shoulder


 
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FredDeGrandisJr

New member
First off, thanks to the site admins for approving my application so quickly! I have been lurking for a few weeks now and just purchased my 18.5 WSM cooker this past week (and yes, I clicked the link on this website
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I was ambitious last evening and decided to christen the WSM with an all-nighter Mr. Brown shoulder (boneless). I started the cooker up and got it to temp with 4 chucks of mesquite. After adding the water and applying the cold meat to the cooker (at 11:30pm), I was golden and in the 250s range). The smoker was going very well and I decided to call it an evening at 2:30am EST. I was a bit nervous before doing this as I don't have much experience with charcoal as I use a Weber Genesis grill, although things seemed to be going well in the beginning.

I set my alarm for 7:30am, but got up before that to check out the smoker. When I went outside, my smoker was down to 160ish
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I ran inside (ok, I walked) and grabbed my probe thermometer and the shoulder was holding at 142F. I quickly added more lit charcoal from the chimney started and the cooker temp moved back up to the smoke range quickly and the meat soon followed. After scouring this forum and reading several posts, I continued to cook the shoulder and added some ribs to the bottom grate in case I decide to pitch the shoulder.

Both the ribs and shoulder are still cooking. The shoulder is at 180F as of 3:00pm ET this afternoon. My question is

1) Should I pitch the pork shoulder and count this as a newbie mistake? (FYI-it is boneless and as far as I am aware, it never dropped below 140F as I measured 142 prior to adding more fuel.

2) Are the ribs ok to eat as they were below the potentially tainted meat

Thank you for any guidance you can offer. If I have to pitch the shoulder, I may run to costco and pick up another couple for tomorrow
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Best regards,
Fred
 
Keep going!

Nothing should be "tainted".

142º is above safe and the surface meat was closer to 160º

And it's not probable for a WSM "going well" in the 250º's to fall off to 160º rapidly. Even if it started losing heat as soon as you walked away, assuming a linear fall, it would have been under 200º for just 2 hours.
 
Thanks for your help Travis!

The shoulder is at 188 and I am getting ready to pull this off of the cooker and give the ribs the "tear test" since they have been on for about 4.5 hrs.

I feel a bit sorry for any of my neighbors that had their windows open last evening
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Fred, if your neighbors are like mine, they love the smell!!!! They are probably wanting to know when dinner is? Overnighters can leave one sleepless. I check every hr or so, overkill but I just can't sleep that long with the smoker -a-smokin.

Mark
 
I agree with Mark. How could anyone hate the smell? They probably liked it if they didn't close their windows.

Fred, if you're that worried about it you have an open invitation to come smoke next to my house anytime you want.
 
142º is above safe and the surface meat was closer to 160º
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Correct.

130 is actually the top of the Danger Zone (measured with a tip-sensitive digital therm please, not a bimetal analog), not 140 as is too often repeated.

With intact meat cuts one is most concerned about surface temps in terms of safety because that's where potential pathogen growth is most likely to occur.

Boneless roasts are only considered intact if they're laid out slat for cooking, not rolled or rolled and tied. Still, those interior portions need to fall to below 130, and be below for some time, before one needs to be concerned.
 
I did a 9lb'er over the holiday weekend and ran into similar problem cause of wind. I just opened the door of my 22.5 and added more lump, she went back to normal, took a little longer to cook but it was super tender and shredded with two forks.
 
How did it taste? I would think that 4 chunks of mesquite would be a little over powering. Maybe not. I'm just a miser when it comes to smoke wood, especially mesquite since its so strong.
 
Originally posted by FredDeGrandisJr:
It was fantastic! ... the shoulder was amazing.
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Great!

But ... *dayum* ... you're going to have a devil of a time duplicating THAT cook method!
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Fred,all our basting brushes are silicon. The long ones I use for grilling and smoking,and the short ones for kitchen use. The work great and clean up is easy. Chuck 'em in the dishwasher!
 
been grillen for yrs and my brushes wore out a couple yrs back maybe less and I bought one the silcon brushes and lovem ! No bristles to fall out there easy to clean and cheap enough if you look around ! I got a nice long one at Wallyworld last week for $4.00 and it may be better than my $12.00 one from a fancy bbq store
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