Whats up with my pork??

[calebstringer]

OK, I put two boneless shoulders in the smoker last night at midnight.  smoker has held a steady 225-230 for the last 14 hours.  My internal temps are about 160 each...stoker is projecting ANOTHER 6 hours until done?  Ive had pork plateau before, but its taken the last 6 hours to come up 20 degrees!  Am I doing something wrong?

thanks

 

[daveomak]

If your therms are calibrated and correct, patience grasshopper.

 

[calebstringer]

yes they are calibrated, and the Im kewl with the patience thing...ive just never seen a shoulder go for 18-20 hours?

i mean, I do have 4 fatties to help hold everybody over.... :-)

 

[Bearcarver]

Are your thermometers working properly?

Are you sure it's really between 225˚/230˚ where the meat is?

When did you first put the meat probe in the meat?

Did you inject the meat ?

What smoker are you using?

We need to know these things, to know if you did something wrong.

Bear

 

[calebstringer]

Are your thermometers working properly?

Are you sure it's really between 225˚/230˚ where the meat is?

When did you first put the meat probe in the meat?

Did you inject the meat ?

What smoker are you using?

We need to know these things, to know if you did something wrong.

Bear

Are your thermometers working properly? Yes

Are you sure it's really between 225˚/230˚ where the meat is? The pit probe is just below and to the right of the Pork.  Pork is on the 3rd shelf, and the pit probe is hung from that shelf, just below

When did you first put the meat probe in the meat?   When I put the meat in at midnight last night.  internal temp at the time was 37* i think.

Did you inject the meat ?   Nope, just a good ole fashioned dry rub

What smoker are you using? Large Stumps clone that I built 3 months ago and have used several times

thanks for the responses! If i just have to wait, I will.  I just dont want to ruin my dinner! lol

 

[Bearcarver]

Are your thermometers working properly? Yes

Are you sure it's really between 225˚/230˚ where the meat is? The pit probe is just below and to the right of the Pork.  Pork is on the 3rd shelf, and the pit probe is hung from that shelf, just below

When did you first put the meat probe in the meat?  When I put the meat in at midnight last night.  internal temp at the time was 37* i think.

Did you inject the meat ?   Nope, just a good ole fashioned dry rub

What smoker are you using? Large Stumps clone that I built 3 months ago and have used several times

thanks for the responses! If i just have to wait, I will.  I just dont want to ruin my dinner! lol

The only thing I can see that you did wrong was probing when you put the meat in.

Then you said it was at 160˚ after 14 hours in the smoker.

Then you said it took it 6 hours to come up those last 20 degrees.

That means, after putting the probe in, it took 8 hours to go from 37˚ to 140˚.

The Danger Zone rule for injected or probed meat is, "In order to be safe to eat, you are supposed to go from 40˚ to 140˚ in no longer than 4 hours".

Your's took nearly 8 hours. Doesn't sound good to me.

Bear

 

[rdknb]

Yes I agree with Bear, you may have an issue taking that long to hit 140. 

 

[calebstringer]

I know it was close, but it was right at the 4 hour mark when It hit 140 according to the stokerlog.  Youre right in interpruting what I said.  I guess I typed it wrong though.  It hit 140 around 4am.  Then slowly crept up a few degrees until I got up at 8am and it was in the 145ish range.  Six hours from then puts us at current time where they both sit at  158.7 and 163 respectively.

Im not concerned about them being in danger...just confused as to why they are being so slow?

 

[Bearcarver]

I know it was close, but it was right at the 4 hour mark when It hit 140 according to the stokerlog.  Youre right in interpruting what I said.  I guess I typed it wrong though.  It hit 140 around 4am.  Then slowly crept up a few degrees until I got up at 8am and it was in the 145ish range.  Six hours from then puts us at current time where they both sit at  158.7 and 163 respectively.

Im not concerned about them being in danger...just confused as to why they are being so slow?

OK---If those times and temps are right, you should be OK, but in the future, in case you have another slow one, you might want to avoid putting a probe in for the first few hours in 225˚. Then sterilize the probe, and insert it.Then you don't have to worry about that Danger Zone Rule (if you don't inject it).

As for the time---How big are these shoulders?

I am still thinking maybe the smoker temp might not be as high as you think.

That does seem like a long time, but I had a 3.75 pound Brisket Flat take 9 3/4 hours to get done.

Hang in there,

Bear

 

[calebstringer]

They are about 9 and 8 lbs respectively. Got em in a two pack from Costco last night

 

[raptor700]

Sounds like everything is fine,

Just have to wait it out 

 

[venture]

Considering the size of those butts, I have seen those kinds of times before.

Good luck and good smoking.

 

[Bearcarver]

Yup---That's a lot of meat there---Hang in there---You're young yet!!!  

Bear

 

[calebstringer]

[quote name="Bearcarver" url="/forum/thread/107021/whats-up-with-my-pork#post_638231"]
Yup---That's a lot of meat there---Hang in there---You're young yet!!!  

Bear
[/quote]

Lol Rgr that. Thanks for your words of wisdom guys!

 

[calebstringer]

alright, after all my fretting and worrying, everything turned out fantastic.  Its been a long day, was up until 2am cooking this morning and dont have my pics in front of me.  Ill get my qview posted tomorrow am.  thanks everybody

Caleb

 

[raptor700]

Glad everything came out great for ya 

We'll be waiting for the Qview 

 

[SmokinAl]

Raptor X2

 

[Bearcarver]

Raptor & Al Plus one !

Your next one will be easier!!

Bear

 

[calebstringer]

uploading pics now.....  :-)

 

[calebstringer]

So the rundown of all that I smoked was:

started by firing the beast up at 8pm Saturday night.  It was up to temp in an hour or so, but I waited until 10 to start cooking.  First off was a stew pot with sausage in it to make a smoked gravy.  I like to use the smoker to brown it, then obviously finish it inside.

At the same time, I threw a bag of whole potatoes that I coated in EVOO and sea salt, and smoke them for 2 hours @ 225 for use in making potato salad the next day.  mmmmm If youve never smoked potatoes....do it now!

After all that was done, I threw in two boneless pork shoulders at midnight.  Each was given a healthy dose of my home made rub.  The two shoulders came in a single package from costco, with a combined weight of about 17.5 lbs.  I ended up pulling them from the smoker at 4pm yesterday which gave them a total smoke time of 16 hours.  Like I said before, Ive never had a shoulder, even that size, go nearly that long.  Anyways, I pulled them both out and they were still about 160 internal temp.  My plan then was to finish them in the oven because my smoker was at my house, and we were eating at my parents, and i didnt want to have to keep running back and forth.  Besides, after 16 hours, they already pulled in as smoke flavor as I would get. 

Oh, I smoke everything with apple and cherry, and a hint of pecan.

Heres the pork:

I ended up NOT putting them in the oven....when I took them out, they were so fall apart tender and juicy, and with being in the safe zone for temperature, i decided to chance it on it being good despite not hitting the magic 195.  So I foiled them, wrapped in towels, and let em rest for an hour.  By far the best pulled pork Ive ever made.  I was amazed....so awesomeness.  lol!

Heres a couple pics so that you can get an idea of the beast I built

The pork was on the third shelf with the pit probe hanging just below.

So besides all that that I cooked, I also had 4 fatties...2 pizza and 2 breakfast...

thats after they were being torn apart by hungry people...lol

and breakfast today...

and also  a rack of spare ribs, which were not the best, and I need alot more practice with em.

enjoy the qview, and Im all ears for tips/advice/pointers!

thanks!