First time with boneless pork shoulder...

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Does it make sense that I might be stalled at 169?  Temp of smoker has climbed to 250, but IT has been at 169 for a while.  Again, I'm trusting the "cook to" temp...I'm planning on getting it to 200 before removing it and letting it rest.

Trust the process...
 
Sounds like you are on track. 

If this is your first PB, most of them will have at least a couple hour stall about 170.  As long as your smoker temp is in the 225-230 range it will work its way through.  I had one sit at 168 for over 4 hours one time, sure gets you wondering what is going on.  If it gets to be too long, foiling will speed up the process a little.

I did a 13lb PB that I smoked at 225 and it took 23 hours to get it to 205 once also, it was great, but took a while.  Every piece of meat is different.  Myself, I like to foil and let sit in a cooler wrapped in towels an hour or two before letting it cool down for pulling.

We also use the SoFlaQres finish sauce (listed on this site} mixed in after pulling.  I then put it back in the cold smoker starting up with more smoke in foil pans for about 20 min for some additional smoky flavor that we like. 

The neat thing about smoking is that you can experiment and come up with what works for you, your smoker, and your taste bud and .no smoke is ever exactly the same for me.  Real fun to experiment and see how it comes out.
 
I meant to respond to this earlier.  This particular ball valve isn't just a on/off.  It is adjustable, and given my experience today, it's doing a nice job keeping the temp down.  It's going to take me some time to really dial in the adjustments, but so far so good.

Kurt
 
The stall is when all the magic is happening. The meat is basically "using" the energy to break down. This is the turning point from being tough to being tender. There's a good post somewhere on here that explains the science behind the stall.

Patience young jedi
 
I meant to respond to this earlier.  This particular ball valve isn't just a on/off.  It is adjustable, and given my experience today, it's doing a nice job keeping the temp down.  It's going to take me some time to really dial in the adjustments, but so far so good.

Kurt
Once you get that ball valve set to your desired low temp, you can probably leave it there and use the smoker dial to increase temps as needed. I use needle nose vice grips on my side burner line when I need to simmer, but I can still open the valve and get a little more flame..
 
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The barbecue stall is a simple consequence of evaporative cooling by the meat’s own moisture slowly released over hours from within it’s pores and cells. As the temperature of cold meat rises, the evaporation rate increases until the cooling effect balances the heat input. Then it stalls, until the last drop of available moisture is gone.”



Some info I found on the internet. It explains why your temps do what they do.

I think this was a controlled test of a brisket.
 
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It's all good.  Now that the sun has gone down, my smoker has cooled off a little...back down to original of 232.  Pork is at 187 and slowly rising.  I plan to pull it off at 200 and let it rest.  It's a slow climb right now, but I'm willing to see it through.  I'm convinced that it'll all be worth it.  It's a 7-8 lb butt for those wondering.

Can't wait! :)
 
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I have all the confidence that it's going to be good..
 
Yep...this sounds like it's gonna be awesome! Thumbs Up

Hang in there...the hard work and patience is about to pay off!

Red
 
This is an adventure that started at 9:30 this morning.  Smoker is steady right now at 232.  IT of Pork is 196.  Almost there...probably another hour.
 
This is kind of an all in one reply...

It was boneless, so no bone to test with, but when I started pulling it apart, it really did kind of fall apart.  As it was 11:30/Midnight, I broke it up, pulled some (for a test sandwich) and put the rest in a bowl and put it in the fridge.  I'll be finishing pulling it today and see if I can take a couple pics.  I don't intend on incorporating sauce into the whole mixture, but rather per sandwich. 

Oh yeah...it was delicious. :)
 
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