- Sep 10, 2017
- 2
- 10
I'm fairly new to smoking. I have successfully smoked the large pork boneless shoulder butts from Costco in the past, but I am having trouble with some bone-in Boston Butt Pork Shoulder Roasts from my local grocery store. I have done three in the past week (4-7lb range), and all turn out fatty, chewy and tough - definitely far from the "fall apart tender" that I achieved with the Costco cuts.
Before I go into my process, these butts are not vacuum-sealed, rather they come wrapped in plastic wrap on a foam tray, as most grocery-store meat is packaged. When I get home, I wrap them tight in heavy-duty foil (still inside their grocery-wrapping) and freeze them. When I want to cook, I defrost them in the fridge 3-4 days before the cook.
Cooking process: I basically follow this to a T (http://www.smoking-meat.com/may-28-2015-tasty-and-tender-smoked-pulled-pork).
I rub with mustard, apply Jeff's BBQ Rub, and toss on the Traeger at 225. After about 6-8 hours, the meat tends to be around 170, at which point I employ the Texas crutch - I wrap them in foil, toss in some apple juice, seal the foil up and finish in the oven at 240 until my thermometer reads 205 internal temp (about 2-4 more hours).
After reaching 205, I take out the shoulder and let rest for 30 mins or so. When I go to pull the shoulder, the bone is hard to get out, 50% of the meat is entangled with fat so I can't even separate it without great effort (and on top of that, it is so dry, tough and chewy that it probably belongs in the trash anyway), and the "good" meat that I can salvage is chewy and tough.
My issue is, when folks seem to get tough, chewy, fatty pork shoulder, it is because they cooked it too hot or did not let it get up to at least 190 degrees. My cooks all lasted around 12 hours, AND I waited to get to 205 internal (checked by my Maverick and my instant-read thermometers). Also, I followed the SAME process to make KILLER shoulder with the Costco cuts.
So what is my issue? Did I get bad, low-quality meat? Or did I mess up by not properly vacuum-sealing the meat before freezing (I did NOT notice any freezer burn)?
Any help would be appreciated, as I have two more of these cuts (there was a great BOGO sale) and am going to take them back unless I can figure out what I did wrong.
Before I go into my process, these butts are not vacuum-sealed, rather they come wrapped in plastic wrap on a foam tray, as most grocery-store meat is packaged. When I get home, I wrap them tight in heavy-duty foil (still inside their grocery-wrapping) and freeze them. When I want to cook, I defrost them in the fridge 3-4 days before the cook.
Cooking process: I basically follow this to a T (http://www.smoking-meat.com/may-28-2015-tasty-and-tender-smoked-pulled-pork).
I rub with mustard, apply Jeff's BBQ Rub, and toss on the Traeger at 225. After about 6-8 hours, the meat tends to be around 170, at which point I employ the Texas crutch - I wrap them in foil, toss in some apple juice, seal the foil up and finish in the oven at 240 until my thermometer reads 205 internal temp (about 2-4 more hours).
After reaching 205, I take out the shoulder and let rest for 30 mins or so. When I go to pull the shoulder, the bone is hard to get out, 50% of the meat is entangled with fat so I can't even separate it without great effort (and on top of that, it is so dry, tough and chewy that it probably belongs in the trash anyway), and the "good" meat that I can salvage is chewy and tough.
My issue is, when folks seem to get tough, chewy, fatty pork shoulder, it is because they cooked it too hot or did not let it get up to at least 190 degrees. My cooks all lasted around 12 hours, AND I waited to get to 205 internal (checked by my Maverick and my instant-read thermometers). Also, I followed the SAME process to make KILLER shoulder with the Costco cuts.
So what is my issue? Did I get bad, low-quality meat? Or did I mess up by not properly vacuum-sealing the meat before freezing (I did NOT notice any freezer burn)?
Any help would be appreciated, as I have two more of these cuts (there was a great BOGO sale) and am going to take them back unless I can figure out what I did wrong.
