So, I'm still fairly new to smoking but I've done a whole packer brisket once, ribs a couple of times, wings several times and had good luck with all of them. I'm using a gas Smoke Hollow smoker if that matters. This was my first attempt smoking a pork shoulder and I decided to try the Texas Crutch for the first time to reduced cooking time and get past the stall.
My smoker kept a fairly even 225-230 degrees despite it being a very windy day. When the meat reached 150 degrees, I wrapped the shoulder in foil and put it back in. I watched as the temp climbed nice and slow up to 186 where I took it back out of the foil and placed it back in the smoker to firm up the bark (I got this idea from several websites). Once I did this, the temp started dropping about 1 degree every two minutes for the next hour. It finally stabilized at 156... only 6 degrees higher than when I wrapped it!! What's worse was, now I had to go through the stall again! This time, though the stall happened at a higher temp (right around 180 if I remember correctly) even though I raised the smoker temp to about 235. It stayed at this temp for almost two hours and I got worried that my pork was drying out so I re-wrapped it and stuck it back in and was finally able to finish it. 8 lb shoulder took 18 hours!!
I use a Weber igrill to monitor temps in the smoker as well as the meat. I used two probes in the meat to make sure I was getting an accurate reading and have my analog door gauge calibrated to my Weber probes for redundancy. Sometimes I use two ambient probes on the igrill - one on two different racks just to make sure my readings are good.
I let the shoulder rest for about an hour and pulled it. It was actually pretty good and I got a lot of compliments on it but this does not seem to be how the cook should have gone! Has anyone out there had a similar experience? Is this what I should expect to happen? Is there a way to prevent this? Does anyone have a clue as to why this would have happened? A lot of questions, I know but I don't want to go through this experience again. I'll stick to ribs, brisket and chicken before I'll suffer through all this again!
Thanks!
My smoker kept a fairly even 225-230 degrees despite it being a very windy day. When the meat reached 150 degrees, I wrapped the shoulder in foil and put it back in. I watched as the temp climbed nice and slow up to 186 where I took it back out of the foil and placed it back in the smoker to firm up the bark (I got this idea from several websites). Once I did this, the temp started dropping about 1 degree every two minutes for the next hour. It finally stabilized at 156... only 6 degrees higher than when I wrapped it!! What's worse was, now I had to go through the stall again! This time, though the stall happened at a higher temp (right around 180 if I remember correctly) even though I raised the smoker temp to about 235. It stayed at this temp for almost two hours and I got worried that my pork was drying out so I re-wrapped it and stuck it back in and was finally able to finish it. 8 lb shoulder took 18 hours!!
I use a Weber igrill to monitor temps in the smoker as well as the meat. I used two probes in the meat to make sure I was getting an accurate reading and have my analog door gauge calibrated to my Weber probes for redundancy. Sometimes I use two ambient probes on the igrill - one on two different racks just to make sure my readings are good.
I let the shoulder rest for about an hour and pulled it. It was actually pretty good and I got a lot of compliments on it but this does not seem to be how the cook should have gone! Has anyone out there had a similar experience? Is this what I should expect to happen? Is there a way to prevent this? Does anyone have a clue as to why this would have happened? A lot of questions, I know but I don't want to go through this experience again. I'll stick to ribs, brisket and chicken before I'll suffer through all this again!
Thanks!
