Gonna try a fast cook of pork shoulder...

[whistlepig]

Maybe I missed it but "shoulder"? A butt? What cut? It doesn't really matter thou. I don't wrap anything. 250-275 works very well for pp and brisket

 

[tallbm]

My main concern is having it run over, with guests here.

I know last time, at 225˚F it took almost 21 hours for a shoulder just over 8 lbs. The stall was REALLY long.

From what I was reading on the internet, it looks like (roughly):
1.5 to 2.0 hrs/lb for 250˚F
1.2 to 1.4 hrs/lb for 275˚F
1.0 to 1.2 hrs/lb for 300˚F

For my 9 lb shoulder, that gives (with 4 hour safety margin):
250˚F => 13.5 to 18 hours (17.5 - 22 hours)
275˚F => 10.8 to 12.6 hours (14.8 - 16.6 hours)
300˚F => 9 to 10.8 hours (13 - 14.8 hours)

Thinking of a few options...

A) 300˚F, start 5am, have 12 hours time. Giving about 1-3 hours margin.
B) 275˚F, start at 11pm Friday, having 18 hours time. Giving 5-8 hours margin.
C) 250˚F, start at 8pm Friday, having 21 hours time. Giving 3-7 hours margin.

Option A may be tight on time if it indeed takes that long (sounds like people are seeing 8-9 hours, so may be OK).

Option B seems like it will have loads of time and I'll definitely be holding.

Option C also seems like it has plenty of time (given it took 21 hours at 225 before, for an 8 pounder).

I guess another option is to start at 250˚F (when?), and then increasing to 275/300 in the morning. I'm just not sure when to start, when to decide to increase.

Thoughts? Any other ideas?

Option B sounds like the best bet with your numbers.
A 4-5 hour rest is done no problem.
You can then hold in the oven at it's lowest setting for hours 6-8 or 7-8.

Plus you get to sleep through most of it and have alarms wake you up if need be. So you get it going well and then wake up with not much time left to worry about it. I only do overnight smokes of my pork butts and briskets. Hell sausages too since 20-40 pounds of sausage meat can take some time.

 

[paleoman]

Maybe I missed it but "shoulder"? A butt? What cut? It doesn't really matter thou. I don't wrap anything. 250-275 works very well for pp and brisket

Well manufacture's (Swift) label says "pork shoulder butt". Store label say "pork butt bone in".

 

[schlotz]

If you want dinner around 5pm put the butt in at 6am. Start at 225º for 1 hour then bump to 275º and run it for 5 more hours. There will have been plenty of smoke applied at this point so you have a decision. You can either bump to +300º and run wrapped in foil or bare. Other option is wrap in foil, place in an alum pan and into an oven set to 310º. Either case make sure you have a reporting thermometer in the butt (not touching the bone). Mostly likely the butt will hit 200-205º in approx 3 more hours. Remember every piece of meat can be different. Butts can have a mind of their own when it comes to getting done. Note: using foil helps ensure the timing but does soften the bark a bit. Flavor will still be great. Hopefully sometime around/after 3pm it will be done. Now put it in a cooler with towels until dinner time. The 1.5-2 hour rest completes the final rendering process and good eats are ready for all.

 

[sandyut]

Maybe I missed it but "shoulder"? A butt? What cut? It doesn't really matter thou. I don't wrap anything. 250-275 works very well for pp and brisket

that is the only way I roll as well. works like money every time. I do 275 always on butts and and briskets. I also am a believer in never wrapping

 

[paleoman]

This was my last pulled pork smoke @ 275. I did two butts at the same time on my Masterbuilt 560. I'm getting ready to smoke a couple of more butts because I only got 1 pound left.

PULLLED PORK X2	BUTT #1	BUTT #2	START TIME	TIME	INTERNAL TEMP	RUB
SET SMOKER TEMP@ 275	9.84 POUNDS	8.71 POUNDS	6:00 AM	6:00 AM	40/40	SM SWEET SEDUCTION, SM CHERRY, MUSTARD
				10:30 AM	149/152
				11:00 AM	157/160
				11:30 AM	160/162	FOILED AND IN OVEN @ 275 DEGREES
				2:30 PM	208/206	PULLED FROM OVEN

Great info!

 

[paleoman]

If you want dinner around 5pm put the butt in at 6am. Start at 225º for 1 hour then bump to 275º and run it for 5 more hours. There will have been plenty of smoke applied at this point so you have a decision. You can either bump to +300º and run wrapped in foil or bare. Other option is wrap in foil, place in an alum pan and into an oven set to 310º. Either case make sure you have a reporting thermometer in the butt (not touching the bone). Mostly likely the butt will hit 200-205º in approx 3 more hours. Remember every piece of meat can be different. Butts can have a mind of their own when it comes to getting done. Note: using foil helps ensure the timing but does soften the bark a bit. Flavor will still be great. Hopefully sometime around/after 3pm it will be done. Now put it in a cooler with towels until dinner time. The 1.5-2 hour rest completes the final rendering process and good eats are ready for all.

Interesting idea. So, roughly 9 hours, in a 11 hour window. I assume the lower temp start is to get more smoke? Is you expectation that after 6 hours, it would be at the stall, and hence the increase to 300˚F?

Your proposal sounds like a (better) variation on the option A (300˚F with 12 hours time, starting at 5am), which was the original "5 hour smoked pork butt" recipe that I was basing this run on.

I'm narrowing down the plan to either starting early and going with a 300˚F (or variation like above), or starting late the night before and going with 275˚F knowing I'll have a long hold period. The former with a 12 hour window, the latter with an 18 hour window.

 

[schlotz]

Interesting idea. So, roughly 9 hours, in a 11 hour window. I assume the lower temp start is to get more smoke? Is you expectation that after 6 hours, it would be at the stall, and hence the increase to 300˚F?

Your proposal sounds like a (better) variation on the option A (300˚F with 12 hours time, starting at 5am), which was the original "5 hour smoked pork butt" recipe that I was basing this run on.

I'm narrowing down the plan to either starting early and going with a 300˚F (or variation like above), or starting late the night before and going with 275˚F knowing I'll have a long hold period. The former with a 12 hour window, the latter with an 18 hour window.

Yes the first hour provides additional smoke. Yes after six hours the butt is usually at the stall window. If going overnight you need a reporting thermometer that can activate an alarm on your phone if the temps drop.

 

[whistlepig]

Meijers has shoulders (or butts if you will) on sale. I picked up (2) ten pounders this afternoon. They are rubbed and in the fridge right now. Planning to put both of them in the smoker at 12:00 PM @ 275 and hopefully they ready to pull around 8:30-9:00 PM.

 

[schlotz]

Why cut that timing so close? Start 'em 2 hours earlier then let them rest when done in a cooler with towels. Every butt can be different when it comes to getting done. Plan for extra time and if not needed the extra rest does nothing but continue to help improve the results.

 

[millerbuilds]

For what it is worth, I bump the cook temp from 250 up to 280-290 after wrapping (when I wrap). I prefer a slower cook without wrapping, but many times, time is not on my side.

- Jason

 

[sandyut]

Meijers has shoulders (or butts if you will) on sale. I picked up (2) ten pounders this afternoon. They are rubbed and in the fridge right now. Planning to put both of them in the smoker at 12:00 PM @ 275 and hopefully they ready to pull around 8:30-9:00 PM.

Why cut that timing so close?

yeah, I would start at 8am, if they are done early just cooler them or wrap tight in foil and toss in the oven. 8-9 hours for a 10LB butt cook, start to pull sounds real tight to me...

 

[tallbm]

Just making sure it is not lost that an unwrapped pork butt the entire cook will take longer than a pork butt that gets wrapped at some point.
Also, wrapping earlier vs later also affects the time of when a wrapped pork butt will finish. Be sure to not wrap too early or you get pork roast instead of BBQ.

Reiterating these points as multiple plans with multiple approaches and temps are being kicked around. It's easy to lose track of the pros/cons of the various approaches.

I am flavor above all so I don't wrap a pork butt, HOWEVER on cuts like a beef chuck that can dry out I wrap...HOWEVER I only wrap at about 180-190F because it has gotten the max flavor I can get before it potentially starts dry out. Wrapping for me at this point is still not giving me the "pro" of time saving, it's giving me the "pro" of flavor due to meat not drying or burning up on me.

I'm not saying be like me, I'm just stating to consider your overall goal and then apply the best approach or practices to hit that goal versus getting lost in all the possibilities which may or may not get you to your ultimate goal. That's it for my rambling in this post now :D

 

[paleoman]

OK. I made a decision...

The options on the table were:

A) 300˚F, start 5am, have 12 hours time. Giving about 1-3 hours margin.
B) 275˚F, start at 11pm Friday, having 18 hours time. Giving 5-8 hours margin.

Since I'm having guests, I'm chickening out on option A, although I do want to try that approach (just not under pressure).

I'm planning on putting on mustard and rub, wrap in plastic, and place in fridge around 2pm. At 10pm, I'm going to setup the smoker at 275˚F, with cherry pellets, a probe to check ambient temp, and a probe to monitor the pork (I have 6 probes, but I don't think I can set one for ambient low temp alarm and others at regular target temp alarms - may use the Traeger probe just to have some visibility of pork temp).

In the morning, I'll continue monitoring. When it seems like it hits the stall, I'll make a decision as to whether to wrap or continue as-is, based on the bark and time remaining.

When it hits 205˚F, I'll remove, wrap, and place in cooler with probe to ensure > 140˚F, until about 30 minutes before meal time, when I will remove, shred, and prep to serve.



I'll post photos, and the temp marks I'm hitting. When I have time w/o commitments, I'll try the 5-hour recipe process to the T.

Thanks for the tips, ideas, and suggestions everyone!

 

[schlotz]

Sounds like a good plan. Waitin' to see the results

 

[sandyut]

Should work, one last note: the final IT does not determine doneness. Probe done is done. 205 should be pretty safe, but could be done sooner or later as well.

 

[paleoman]

At 2PM, I applied rub and wrapped for fridge...

 

[whistlepig]

I smoked 2 shoulder butts today. Both were 10.5 pounds. Give or take a couple of ounces. Both in the smoker @ 275 at 11:00 AM. At 4:00 PM one butt was 155 and the other 165. Took both out of the smoker, put them in an aluminum foil pan, foiled them, and put them in the oven at 275. One of the butts hit 205 at 6:00 PM but the second butt was only 195. I pulled the 6:00 PM butt out of the oven. It wasn't until 9:30 PM that the second butt hit 205. I thought that second butt was never going to get done! When I shredded them the butt that took the longest was much leaner that the first one. I don't know if that had anything to do with it or not. The main thing is that my freezer is full of vacuum sealed pork now.

This is the first long smoke I have done with my new Thermoworks RFX. Very pleased with it.

 

[paleoman]

Here's the status...

10:00pm started up smoker, set to 275˚F, inserted two probes into pork set for 205˚F, have another one set for temp range 100-350˚F. Placed in pan, on a rack.

10:20pm started smoking. Outside temp was 39˚F. Went to bed, with phone nearby so that I could spot check, if I happen to wake in the night.

02:15am probes 136˚F/144˚F (~4 hours)
03:22am probes 153˚F/156˚F (~5 hours)
05:30am probes 165˚F/169˚F (~7 hours)
06:50am probes 171˚F/176˚F (~8.5 hours). Starting my day.
07:30am probes 174˚F/181˚F (~9 hours)

Seems to be going fairly quickly (more towards the 1.2 hrs/lb vs 1.4 hrs/lb of estimates.

Since I have until 5pm, I decided to lower the temp to 225˚F (yeah, would have been better to do that early and bump up, but I didn't want to stay up much later). I took a look at it, and it seems like it is coming along nicely. Forming a crust, nothing too hard yet, so not drying out.

Spritz'ed with apple juice (just because I had some), and quickly took a picture, so it didn't cool down more:

 

[paleoman]

I need to plan what to do, as it will likely come out early. For starters, I'll wrap in foil and towels, and place in a cooler, with a probe so I can make sure it is above 140˚F.

The oven will be in use the last 1.5 hours before dinner, with side dishes, so I'm thinking of maybe...

Let it get to 160˚F (?), unwrap, weigh with and without bone (just for stats), shred, portion into meal sizes (save 2.5lb for this meal with 5 people, and then 1-1.5 lb portions for the rest), and then place this meal portion into ziplock and sous-vide until dinner (temp? 170˚F?).

Any thoughts or alternatives?