Danger Danger Will Robinson !

[Will Squared]

My second cook and its a 9lb pork shoulder (no bone). I am concerned about the 40-140-4 guidelines.

I started at 8am (35' ambient temp- no wind)
I bumped it to 250'
At the 4 hour mark it was 130'.
I bumped it to 260' for 30 more minutes and got it to 140
At 140 I bumped it down to 225 which I will maintain for the remainder of the time.
It is 56' ambient temp now.

Close enough or not quite?
Cause for concern?

 

[markh024]

I had this concern once, and was promptly told by many not to sweat it since this is a whole muscle cut of meat. The 40-140 is more of a concern with the ground meats (ie: sausages, ground beef etc.) I think you'll be fine, as I am still here typing this.

 

[SmokinVOLfan]

I am on the you will be fine train. Especially if you didn't inject it. Whole muscle cut of meat and you were close enough. Good luck!

 

[Will Squared]

I will probably live to type another day as well...

The Shoulder was bone out and it looked a little like a massacre... I had to tie it up.

I don't know if it would qualify as a "whole muscle".

It has a huge "money muscle" ! ... and I should get lots of pulled pork.

 

[jfleming9232]

My second cook and its a 9lb pork shoulder (no bone). I am concerned about the 40-140-4 guidelines.

I started at 8am (35' ambient temp- no wind)
I bumped it to 250'
At the 4 hour mark it was 130'.
I bumped it to 260' for 30 more minutes and got it to 140
At 140 I bumped it down to 225 which I will maintain for the remainder of the time.
It is 56' ambient temp now.

Close enough or not quite?
Cause for concern?

Sounds like a plan to me!!

 

[SmokinVOLfan]

Post some pics of it after you get it done!

 

[jfleming9232]

Remember, guidelines are just that, guides. Except for bread, you gotta follow those recipes EXACTLY! :)

 

[Bearcarver]

My second cook and its a 9lb pork shoulder (no bone). I am concerned about the 40-140-4 guidelines.

I started at 8am (35' ambient temp- no wind)
I bumped it to 250'
At the 4 hour mark it was 130'.
I bumped it to 260' for 30 more minutes and got it to 140
At 140 I bumped it down to 225 which I will maintain for the remainder of the time.
It is 56' ambient temp now.

Close enough or not quite?
Cause for concern?

I agree---You should be fine. I read where it's actually more like 135° in 3 1/2 hours, but they made it 40 to 140 in 4---Easy to remember. So you're real close anyway.
If you don't inject, and wait a couple hours to insert your Temp probe, you don't have to worry about it, as long as the outside surface gets to 140° for awhile. Personally, I always wait until 3 hours in, because it's not going to be done near that soon anyway. I don't know where that time line is, but even 2 hours is long enough.

Bear

 

[Will Squared]

Right now I am about 7 1/2 hours in and it is sitting at 166. It is pretty cold today and the 560 is loaded up so I bumped up to 235.

I am going to be patient.

 

[Will Squared]

Remember, guidelines are just that, guides. Except for bread, you gotta follow those recipes EXACTLY! :)

I hear ya.
You are talking to an old Bagel Baker.

But that was like a hundred years ago...

 

[chopsaw]

I would agree that you're ok here .

The Shoulder was bone out and it looked a little like a massacre... I had to tie it up.

I don't know if it would qualify as a "whole muscle".

Whole muscle yes ,, intact no . Boned and tied you have outside on the inside . If that makes sense to you .

 

[Will Squared]

16 hours to reach 200' !

Long day !

 

[sawhorseray]

Well it's just after 1:30 in the morning here in AZ so you're either going to be a little late for dinner or be bellying up to a early breakfast. It's just never done till it's done. RAY

 

[Will Squared]

Yep.
The cook ended at midnight. I let it set in the kitchen oven until 1:30 then opened the Alum foil and loosely separated muscle and let it cool for another 30 min. It is on the top shelf of the fridge in a large SS Bowl.
All the mess is cleaned up.

I think it went so long because of the cold ambient temp. It got back down to 40' before it reached 200. The Smoker was filled up and I think the cold also sucked a lot of the heat away. It was raising steady but really slow. It was still only 185 by 11 so I bumped the heat up to 300 to finish it off.

16 Hours !

I was up by 6 am anyway.
Habits of a working man.
N. Cal here... Gold Country.

 

[sawhorseray]

I just moved to AZ from Elk Grove 7-8 months back, we used to like to gamble up in Jackson from time to time. Were you doing any spritzing? Opening the door to do that will add a ton of time. A lot of folks figure right around two hours per pound for butts. RAY

 

[Will Squared]

I am up in Oroville.
No I wrapped in foil at the 6 hour mark. but I didn't do any spritzing. I did a long tray of diced jalapenos so I was opening the door at times to stir but the 560 brought it back up real quick.
The texture of the meat was real nice. We are going to sealameal it up... just me & the wife.

I took one taste last night and think it is a little too salty.

I used around 14 oz of rub for the 9 lbs of shoulder. I let it dry brine over night. Maybe that was too much or too long. hmm...

 

[sawhorseray]

Yeah, that does seem like a lot of rub. Last butt I did a few weeks back I used Chef Jimmy's finishing sauce when it was done, adds a real nice touch. You may want to take some pics of your cooks, folks here love to see some video highlights. RAY

 

[gary s]

Like everyone said, your fine. I smoke winter and summer as long as your smoker is maintaining your desired temp the outside temp shouldn't effect the cooking time of your meat. Now if your smoker temp is up and down and struggling to keep the temp Yes it will effect the cook time.

Gary

 

[Will Squared]

My Dad always told me there are two ways to learn something...
The easy way...
or the hard way.

This cook I learned a lesson about Rubs.

If the first ingredient of the rub is salt...

just put it on lightly.

If the Rub is not too salty...

Put it on thicker.

The Save with this cook is my wife says that while the bark (real pretty btw) is way too salty, the meat is just fine. As I didn't give it a full pull I can just knock off most of the bark and call it good.

Whew !

 

[noboundaries]

I've been watching this thread since yesterday. When I saw the 8 AM start time and the chamber temp for a 9 lb butt, my internal clock knew it was going to be a great day of smoking experience. I'm down the road from you in Roseville and 40F is nothing to worry about. I've smoked well below that in my WSM. Wind, on the other hand, that's an issue, but we just had light winds yesterday. The foothills, where you are, get different winds than we do (Delta breezes) but that doesn't appear to be an issue.

16 hours for a 9 lb butt "bonded and tied" is pretty normal at the chamber temps you were using, although that is a little long for a wrapped butt. Once you wrapped it, you could have bumped the chamber temp way up to save time. Butts don't care about chamber temps. I do mine overnight at 225F (no meat probe) so I can sleep, then bump it WAAAY up in the morning (300F+) to finish after I wake up. I don't bother wrapping nowadays, but I used to.

You hit the nail on the head about the salty meat. 14 oz is a LOT, especially for the time it was dry brined. I usually do two 9 to 10 lb'ers at a time and use maybe 6-8 oz. The butts I buy are Hormel and they are enhanced so they require no dry brining. The boneless butts from Costco are not enhanced, so dry brining does enhance the flavor, but I'd still use less.

One of the greatest disservices the television personalities have done for the smoking community is they always show the rub being piled on anything they smoke. I want to taste the meat, not the rub. Less is more, IMO, but your 16 hours were great for lessons.