My First Time......All kinds of wrong

[bluewolf]

This is gonna be kinda lengthy (Sorry)

Materials:

1 New Pit Boss Lexington pellet smoker (properly burned off)
1 bag of Pit Boss natural Hickory pellets ( not fully used)
1 4.4 pound pork picnic roast ( straight outa the fridge)
Jeff's book


setting: Sunday at noon I put the roast on,the temp of the smoker was I don't really remember but was in the 200's
probe properly placed in the thickest part of the roast.
On page 48 it says for picnic 225-240 1 1/2 hours per pound with the final meat temp of 205, well my rig dial is in increments of 25 so I started with the temp set at 250. and speaking of temp am I supposed to go by the temp on the digital display which has a probe on the inside of the chamber or do I follow the gauge on the outside of the chamber? cuz when the digi read temp at 250 the gauge only read about 190

for my roast it should have taken about 6 hours well it didn't reach 196 till about 9 oclock and I didn't lift the lid at all till 6 at
time the digi read 181 so hubby told me to turn up the temp so I went up to 300 for the last 3 hours
Hubby started b*tchin that it shouldn't be at 205 it only should have been at 160's blah blah blah so I took it off...

It looked wonderful smelled great but didn't fall/shred apart like pulled pork is supposed to it was kinda dry
on the outside and the inside kinda shredded but it was more like eating pot roast texture.
It tastes good but could have been alot better

should I have somehow added moisture int he chamber there is no place underneath the grid to put a pan of water
as the shield underneath is convex not flat and it is also at an angle to drain the grease out

I just don't know.......I am not a happy smoker right now.. I am very disappointed
here are some pics sorry about the quality my photography skills are REALLY rusty...
well the pics will have to come later I misplaced them, photo import to the 'puter skills are
alot rusty too

 

[bluewolf]

Yeah I know my time stamp is off a year,, I fixed it

 

[recoush]

Congratulaions the first time run is an accomplishment , you dont mention, but it looks like you have some kind of probe temperature sensor was that in the meat or were you reading the built in gauge for the tmeperature the built in are very misleading and some of the cheaper temp sensor are not very reliable i would suspect the temperature sensor maybe water to steam lot of suggestions and variations on that one You are doing great so far! Keep on with your experiences thats how we learn by doing.

 

[zwiller]

We've all been there... Hang in there! The cook time is hard to estimate and that is one of the reasons why I never eat food same day I smoke it. I think your hubby is wrong and it does in fact need to be 205F but admit sometimes it can be pulled lower. A little confused on your temps questions but I would use the chamber probe temp and not the smoker temp. Sounds like it could be off if I am reading that right.

 

[chef jimmyj]

First off Congrats for diving in. Did Dear Hubby spend hours reading posts here on Smoking PULLED PORK? YOU most certainly sound prepared. Cooking a pork shoulder to 160 is Old School for Sliced Pork that needed lots of gravy. Now, sliced pork is eaten at 145 to 150 or cooked until the fat and collagen breaks down to make the pork juicy again at around 190°F. You just panicked, pulling the meat too soon.
Times and Internal Temps (IT) are guidelines. The meat is done when it's done. Done means, when you poke the meat with a probe or skewer, it slides in with no resistance, everywhere you poke it. Another good indicator is, the bone wiggles or even pulls out. Water offers little benefit at low smoking temps. At 300°F+ it helps keep the surface from getting too hard. Try again with a Pork Butt. They are more forgiving and follow the above Guidelines and you will be happier.
The built in therm is typically not accurate or of little value. It does not accurately show what the temp AT the Meat is. Monitor Smoker temp a few inches away from the meat and monitor the IT to now when to start probing or wiggling. I and many, find 2 hours per Pound at 225 to 250 is a more consistent timing guideline. Or, as the leared Zwiller points out. Skip the guesswork and cook ahead...JJ

 

[SmokyMose]

At least you didn't burn it! Hubby was just hungry. It needs to go over 200 IT to pull right, however I've never done a picnic. Isn't that a type of Ham? Don't trust that factory therm. Take it off and replace it with a hood ornament or something and get a good digital remote for the inside at grill level (I use a piece of 2x4 with a hole drilled in it) near the meat and try again. 250 should be good to cook at, but I usually go 260 to 280, mainly because that's where my smoker is happy.
Hey it turned out better than my first go :-)

Dan

 

[noboundaries]

Congrats on your first lesson in smoking. Kind of like learning to drive. Getting it right the first time is rare. With smoking, the devil's in the details.

14.4 lb picnic, and you said it should have taken 6 hours at 250F to reach 205F internal temp at 1 1/2 hours per pound. 1.5 x 14.4 lbs is 21.6 hours. So, maybe auto-correct or fast fingers gave us an incomplete picture of the actual smoke.

Chef JJ has you covered on the meat temp. 160F is an old school holdover from the days when all pigs were farm raised, not corporate clones. 160F killed off the trichinosis that is literally no longer found in the megafarms. Lean cuts are juicy and tender now at 145F. Well exercised cuts(picnics, butts, aka shoulders) have to cook significantly longer to get juicy and tender (read about collagen). If taken off too soon, they taste dry and tough, which is the opposite of lean cuts of loins and chops which get dry and tough when cooked too long.

So, nice adaptation cranking up the chamber temp. Your digital gauge on the inside of the smoker will be more accurate than the gauge on the lid. The thread below might help.

The final lesson in your first smoke is never smoke against a clock deadline. ALWAYS give yourself a several hour to a day buffer with big, tough meat cuts. Big, tough meat cut finishing times are much less predictable than smaller, leaner cuts.

If you hadn't been against the clock and hubby's stomach, your 205F meat temp would have given you exactly what you wanted.

Actual Temperature in Your Smoker and Common Smoking Misconceptions

Good morning Smoking friends. As an schooled engineer with experience in trend analysis and quality assurance, I've noticed a lot of comments over the years about differences in smoking times and temperatures. With the trend toward more and more technology in smokers, and there's absolutely...

www.smokingmeatforums.com

 

[thirdeye]

The cooking time per pound isn't always a constant, and is less predictable on smaller roasts, but on the good side, you were monitoring the pit and meat temp. Make sure your grate thermometer is at least 3" away from the roast to avoid any false readings. And make sure your meat probe is not in a fat pocket or close to a bone, again to avoid false readings.

A picnic (or a butt) needs to be 185° or 190° internal to be sliceable or chopped. It will be higher than 200° internal to be pullable, but it might not immediately be pullable the minute the internal hits 200° +, it may have to cook itself tender. Your roast spent quite a long time with low pit temps, and that likely had a drying affect. I smoke a lot of butts at 240°, but I use a forced draft controller, other wise I cook at 250° to 275°.

Had your post been something like "I have a 4.4 pound picnic shoulder, how should I smoke it?", my answer would been:

• Prepare your smoker for a 250° minimum pit temp, and verify that temp with a second thermometer.
• Season the roast with a minimum of salt & pepper, or any BBQ rub you like
• Injection is optional, but 4 or 5 ounces of lightly salted apple juice will really help with moistness, be sure to get deep around the arm bones
• Smoke for 2 or 3 hours, watching the color, and spraying with at least water (or apple juice) after the first hour.
• When you get good color, or an internal of 150°, double wrap the roast in foil, adding a few ounces of apple juice before sealing.
• Return the roast to the pit, or your oven, bump the cooking temp to 270° and cook for two hours, then check for tenderness.
• Continue to cook until it probes tender and is over that 200° internal.
• Rest for at least an hour, then dive in.

 

[pops6927]

The photo you provided is of a shank half of a ham. Was it a fresh ham or smoked ham? That would explain why it was dry as it had already previously been cooked, at least partially.

 

[thirdeye]

The photo you provided is of a shank half of a ham. Was it a fresh ham or smoked ham? That would explain why it was dry as it had already previously been cooked, at least partially.

You know, at first I thought the same thing, but that would be quite the mix-up for the butcher shop or store to make. A cut from one end of a hog being labeled a cut from the other end. Look at these picnic shoulders... I think the OP just bought a shorter cut than the 7 or 8 pounders that are more common.

 

[GaryHibbert]

Hi Blues. JJ has covered most of the problems, and since I'm not a butcher (like POPs is) I'll just leave the cut of meat alone.
The next time you want pulled pork I recommend (as previously mentioned) you just get a pork butt. They're unbelievably forgiving and it's almost impossible to mess them up.
Now PP sammies is one of my all time favorite meals.
I just give the butt a good coating of my pork rub, wrap it in plastic wrap, and leave it in the fridge overnite. When I'm ready to cook, I preheat my MES to 240ish--anything real close is fine if that's where my smoker wants to sit that day. When the MES is up to temp, the butt goes in with a digital therm meat probe inserted. No water dish, just the butt and smoking pellets. Then I just sit back and relax. I monitor the cook chamber temp with the second probe on my digital therm to keep the cook temp at 240ish. When the butt goes into the smoker, that's the last time I see it until the meat probe tells me that I've hit the stall, usually at around 165* IT. Then I pull the butt out and, with the meat probe still inserted, I double wrap the butt in tin foil. A lot of people add some foiling liquid at this time. I generally just add a bit of water for steam. The foiled butt goes back into the smoker and I raise the cooking temp to about 260 to 270*. At this point I stop adding smoke--it just refuses to go through tin foil. LOL.
When my meat probe hits an IT of 205* (that's the magic number for me) I probe the butt in multiple places. If it probes easily and the bone wiggles nicely, it is done. The butt comes inside and is unwrapped. I then just tent it and let it cool down enough that I don't burn my fingers while I pull it. The meat will be TENDER and JUICY. Guaranteed!!!
Now, how long the smoke is going to take is another question all together. Like already said, the meat will be done when the meat is done. My wife, Miss Linda, has long ago accepted the fact that when I'm smoking meat for supper, there are only 2 truths. One--supper will never be early. Two--supper will almost ALWAYS be late. It all depends meat.
So. Don't give up. Keep trying. You really will be glad you did.
Gary

 

[bluewolf]

Wow!!!

I guess I did better than I thought I did now I don't feel as bad about it

Thanks Everyone I will try to do some clarifying on the questions...

Nobounds : it was 1 4.4 pound pork picnic roast

Zwiller if I understand correctly I should use the digital thermometer that plugs into the smoker and not the dial on the chamber? or did you say I should get a separate thermometer to place in the chamber? or use both

Pops: it was not previously cooked

Third eye: yes that is exactly what I had only mine was 4.4 pounds instead of 7-8

Recoush it was the probe that plugs into the smoker


AND, I will most definitely use a butt instead of a picnic next time

Thanks again everyone!!!

 

[chef jimmyj]

While a therm attached to a smoker controller should be accurate. Anything Ananlog, needle and dial, on the door or cover, is likely worthless.
Having a third party therm that has, at least, two probes,Smoker Temp near the meat and the IT of the meat, will be added insurance. Inkbird, an SMF Sponsor, puts out nice equipment and is either running sales or contests, all the time. I have a 4 probe unit, smoker temp and up to 3 meat IT's, that works great...JJ

 

[JWFokker]

Needed to be cooked longer. Low to mid 200s will take forever to finish a pork shoulder if you don't wrap it in foil or butcher paper. 275-300 will get past the stall without wrapping. You'll know it's done or close to it when the bone(s) get loose when you wiggle them. It's not unusual to hit around 205 internal on shoulders for pulled pork.

 

[Dr. Dobbins]

You did almost everything right, you have to get to at least 195 internal temp, otherwise you well get chewy pork that doesn’t fall apart. The Lexington is hot on the right side. It is usally 25 to 50 degrees hotter than the digital temperature indicated on the controller. When smoking on it use the left side of the grill. I usually use external temperature probes for the meat and grill temps. The controller temp isn’t accurate and the dial gauge is only good for an idea of what the temperature is. The Lexington is a cheap grill, and watch out for auger fires, it happens on mine more than I would like. Also I like to use about 2 hours per pound, for estimating cook times. However it is a hit or miss as larger cuts smoked seem to always take longer than estimated.