We had a get-together with work friends this past weekend and I made some pulled pork. Picked up an almost 10 lb. picnic since porkbutts are going up in price. Put the shoulder on right before 4 pm Friday afternoon using Apple and hickory chunks on the WSM, no water in the pan (I used my home concoction rub of pepper, garlic powder, onion powder, paprika, cumin, chili powder, and a healthy dose of brown sugar).
I reloaded charcoal around 8:30 pm, around midnight, 4:30 am, and again around 7:30 am. Up through the evening the pork temp was climbing steady. From midnight thru the morning I seemed to working through the stall. No big, I’ve had this happen before. My issue was when I checked in the morning, the pit temp was barely hitting 200 despite opening all three vents and adding new charcoal. The meat temp was hanging in the 160-170 range that it had been since around midnight.
I was getting concerned that my Royal Oak charcoal was junk as I had seen some of the recent reviews. I’ve always had good smokes with Royal Oak, but the meat was stalled and I couldn’t get the pit temp to save my soul. Finally I started to get the pit temp to come up around 250-275 mid-morning and we were back in business.
The meat finally came off at 2:15 pm and was pulled at 3.
Sorry, no more pics as it was a busy day prepping and entertaining. The pork was delicious, juicy, and earned great reviews from the guests. I thought the long stall was the charcoal pooping out at first, but now that it’s all over, I believe it was more a case of one huge piece of meat that just was eating up the heat through the stall. Any other thoughts or input would be appreciated, but that’s my guess. Thanks for looking/reading!
I reloaded charcoal around 8:30 pm, around midnight, 4:30 am, and again around 7:30 am. Up through the evening the pork temp was climbing steady. From midnight thru the morning I seemed to working through the stall. No big, I’ve had this happen before. My issue was when I checked in the morning, the pit temp was barely hitting 200 despite opening all three vents and adding new charcoal. The meat temp was hanging in the 160-170 range that it had been since around midnight.
I was getting concerned that my Royal Oak charcoal was junk as I had seen some of the recent reviews. I’ve always had good smokes with Royal Oak, but the meat was stalled and I couldn’t get the pit temp to save my soul. Finally I started to get the pit temp to come up around 250-275 mid-morning and we were back in business.
The meat finally came off at 2:15 pm and was pulled at 3.
Sorry, no more pics as it was a busy day prepping and entertaining. The pork was delicious, juicy, and earned great reviews from the guests. I thought the long stall was the charcoal pooping out at first, but now that it’s all over, I believe it was more a case of one huge piece of meat that just was eating up the heat through the stall. Any other thoughts or input would be appreciated, but that’s my guess. Thanks for looking/reading!
