Smoking tips for 13 pound bone-in pork shoulder?


 
J

Jim W.

TVWBB Fan
Update: I was overthinking it. Just going to treat it like the butts I've done before and expect it to take longer. Thanks.


Summary- planning to cook my biggest, most expensive piece of pork ever tonight and don't want to mess it up. This will mostly be for portioning and freezing with just a couple pulled pork sandwiches tomorrow whenever it is done. If anyone has tips or critique of my plan please let me know. Going to rub this morning and start cooking tonight.

My wife got me a big, beautiful 25 pound whole "Kurobata" pork shoulder from Snake River Farms. It looks great with good marbling and modest fat caps. It was expensive so I don't want to mess it up! While still frozen I cut two roasts from the lower end for later, leaving a 13 pound roast.

Any special tips or tricks to doing a big shoulder? It's been several years since I cooked a big chunk of pork, but never this big. Normally I was doing 7-9 pound boneless butts from Swift or other big brands. My normal procedure with my 18" WSM has been to use the "Renowned Mr. Brown" recipe and hold the smoker in the 225-240F range until internal temp of 170, then foil and either return to the smoker or oven at 250F until tender. I assume this will still work but take much longer. Planning to start cooking about 9pm, get it stable and sleep from midnight until 4am. Normally my WSM holds temp pretty well during this phase of the cook.

Should I inject brine or apple juice? I haven't injected before but do have a syringe. During the later stages of smoking I spritz with 3/4 apple juice and 1/4 apple cider vinegar.
 
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That certainly is a big chunk of Berkshire Black.
My go-to is:
> Apply favourite rub.
> Get the smoker prepped.
> Put the meat on the smoker, stick a probe in it and bring everything up together to desired cook temp.
> Don't look at it until +/-203IT. [I, like many others, don't wrap, mop, spritz or use a waterpan & get excellent results].
> Tend the pit as necessary. [You may need to refuel with such a large cut].

I'm sure others will chime in with tips, tricks & advice. Good luck.
 
I'm in with @TonyUK . Pork butt is one of the easiest things to smoke. About my only deviation would be to brine the butt (1 gallon of water, 1 cup sugar, 1 cup salt,) for 12-24 hours first. Trust in the process.
 
Jim W. said:
Thanks. I realize I'm overthinking this. @TonyUK and @JKalchik would you suggest cutting it in half (about 6.5 pounds=3kg each)? I rubbed it as is but the cut would be easy.
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Jim, I cook 11 to 12 pounders all the time. 2 pounds more isn't that much of a difference.
I'm with Kalchik on this one. Brine it for a day, dry it off, rub it, let it sit with the rub on for several hours, then smoke. Rest it afterwards, then pull.
For spritzing I use a mix of 1 part apple cider vinegar, 1 part apple Juice, and 2 parts water.
Happy munching.
 
My nervousness was partly about the size but mostly about the fact that it’s expensive and I didn’t wanna mess it up.

I rubbed it yesterday morning, rubbed again just before cooking, and put it in the WSM in about 830 last night. It’s now 16 hours in and about 185°F. It had a bit of a stall but I realized that lid temperature was down to barely over 200°F. I just added more charcoal to bring the smoker up to about 250°F.


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