I've got a bit of a concern - i've done a few pork shoulders recently - they've all been 4-5kg, but at 225F, they've taken about 20h to cook to 195F internal temp - this seems a lot longer than recommended on the web so am I doing something wrong?
Also, at a competition, if the turn is is 1pm, i'd be starting cooking a about 2:30pm on the Saturday - does that sound correct?!!?!?
Steve wrote:What are you using to measure your pit temperature because that sounds too long for the temps you're stating.
That's using a maverick et-732 - it did seem to be quite a bit different to the WSM thermo, maybe it's where i'm placing it? Temp wise, i try to keep it at 225f, but i guess it's around 215f a fair bit over night
Have just tested the calibration of the maverick and it seems to be calibrated properly - I have been clipping the probe to the bottom rack and cooking on the top rack - perhaps this is where i'm going wrong?
If you keep it 225f all though the night you shouldn't have a problem. I put mine on about 11pm-12am and normally have it on hold for a couple of hours.
A constant temp is the key, if you haven't got a guru, pitmaster or any other device, it's a case of staying up all night.
Do you think a +/- 10F fluctuation would cause such a dramatic increase in time? or do you think it's down to my pit probe placement - i've been looking at the probe and it seems to have been encrusted with the juices from the meat which can't help.
Where's the best place to put the temp probe would you say?
thesmokingpenguin wrote:Do you think a +/- 10F fluctuation would cause such a dramatic increase in time? or do you think it's down to my pit probe placement - i've been looking at the probe and it seems to have been encrusted with the juices from the meat which can't help.
Where's the best place to put the temp probe would you say?
I would refere to your hand book of your Q or your temp probe. On the Pro Q that I use. I put the probe on the bottom grate and the food on the upper grate. With heat rising I find this the best result for Pulled pork.
Put the probe on the same grate as the meat. And make sure the probe is clean. An encrusted probe will not give good readings.
Recently I have been cooking my pork butts at 275. For ones around the same size as yours (8 pounds +/-), I cook for 3 hours, then I foil them for 3 more hours. After that, I open the foil and start taking temperature readings every 30 minutes. At a comp this past weekend, I put them on at 4:00 AM and they were done right around 11:00 AM. Then I pulled them off the smoker, left the foil open for about 20 minutes, then wrapped them back in foil and towels and let them rest until turn-in time.
At Grillstock we put our pork in at 3:30am for a 3pm turn in. The smoker stayed at a constant 210F and the pork butt reached 195F by about 1:30pm (10 hours) or so. Your shoulder might be stalling for ages. Our shoulder stalled at 160F for over two hours in competition, so we had to foil it which seemed to push it past the stall. The butts we are cooking were fairly small, about 3kg. If we wouldn't have wrapped it, who knows hold long it might have taken.
