Pork Shoulder Didn’t Want to Cook

[excheffromchassc]

Please forgive me if this has been asked. I tried to read through and skim previous posts, but there are thousands…

I bought a Masterbuilt electric smoker about a month ago and once I felt I was ready, I smoked an 8# pork shoulder. Took about 14 hours or so at 225-250 degrees and it was delicious.

After that, I did a beer can chicken. Can’t remember how big the bird was, but I do remember the time it took seemed reasonable, based on what I had researched.

Yesterday I took a 10# pork shoulder and cut it in half. I felt like the amount of time it would take was more than I had, and so I cut it in “half” and ended up with a 4# chunk.

I marinated it in apple juice overnight, rubbed it with mustard and dry rub the next morning, and brought the smoker up to temp by 7am. I didn’t open the door until I thought there was enough of a “crust” on the pork so that spritzing wouldn’t blow the dry rub off. After that, I spritzed 1x per hour with a mix of ACV/water (15-20 spritzes) and tried to time the changing of the wood chips with the spritzing so I wasn’t opening the door constantly.

The pork seemed to stop cooking around 136 degrees. It stayed like that for a few hours and things only went downhill from there. By 10:30 pm the pork still wasn’t done and I gave up.

I have a digital, 2 probe thermometer which I use, one temp for the meat, and one for the smoker temp. I have 2 other digital thermometers that I also stuck into the shoulder periodically, and their temps matched the probe temp.

I’m at a loss. I was really disappointed. I ended up wrapping the pork in butcher paper once it hit 160, having read that that helps with the “collagen wall”, but nothing helped.

Please help me, I love my smoker

 

[bigfurmn]

Seems very odd. I have no good answer except what were you using to check the temp of the meat? Did you have a separate thermo to check the smoker temp?

 

[excheffromchassc]

Yes. I said I have a dual probe thermometer; one probe for the smoker temp, and one for the meat. I also used 2 digital thermometers to confirm the meat temp.

 

[smokerjim]

I'm not sure but between the brine and the spritzing that could slow your cook down.

 

[chopsaw]

You prolong the cook time with all the spritzing . Cools the meat . Not needed in an MES in my opinion .
Even if it's 90 degrees outside , you let cool air in the smoker everytime you open the door , plus the soak in apple juice . I've had small 4 pound hunks of pork take over 9 hours .

 

[excheffromchassc]

Thank you for the reply. However, a 4# shoulder shouldn’t still need cooking after 15 hours because of a little spritzing and marinating. It also doesn’t explain why I cooked an 8# after marinating it and it went well.

 

[normanaj]

I second what chopsaw and smokerjim posted.

 

[pineywoods]

Not sure I can actually answer your question but here's some things to consider.
Every time you open the door on most smokers you dump most or all heat out of the smoker so once every hour you were dumping most of the heat out of the smoker. A pork butt is pretty fatty and many don't believe "spritzing" does anything to benefit it.
Cutting a piece of meat in half does not usually mean half the cooking time. In theory it should be half the time but it usually is not.
Most meat we smoke will have a stall this is the fibers and collagen breaking down and the meat benefits greatly from it. If the stall is taking a really long time and you really need to get it done you can stab it a couple times with a large fork or something.
Some people use Parchment or "butcher paper" because they feel it allows the meat to braise but doesn't have much affect on the bark. If your wanting it done faster than wrap it in aluminum foil and seal it up tight this will allow it to braise better but you mostly likely will loose some or most of the crispy bark. Some like the crispy bark some don't so that often determines what if anything is used to wrap.
Pork butts and briskets take a long time many people will smoke at temps higher that 225 some go to 250-275 while others will go into the 300's personally I go with 225 and know it's going to take a long time. Something else people will do is smoke at 225-250 till about 160 then wrap and kick the heat up into the 275-300 area. Some will transfer the wrapped meat into the oven in the house once it's wrapped. Heat is heat once wrapped as it won't take on any more smoke though foil.

 

[excheffromchassc]

So I shouldn’t open the door to dump the ashes and add more wood chips? If opening the door is a no-no, how would we ever get the wood chips into the smoker? I said I was spritzing and changing the chips at the same time, so I just want to clarify. You’re saying 15-20 spritzes of outside temp liquid makes a 4# shoulder take over 15 hours to cook? Seems weird to me.

 

[chopsaw]

You’re saying 15-20 spritzes of outside temp liquid makes a 4# shoulder take over 15 hours to cook? Seems weird to me.

It causes evaporative cooling everytime the cooler air hits the surface of what you're cooking .
Same as you sweating on a hot day .

 

[pineywoods]

What type smoker are you using? 15-20 times opening the door and loosing more heat every second it's open while your spritzing and dumping ashes is certainly going to slow the cooking process. Probably about the time the smoker is back up to temp and the meat is back up to the temp it was before you opened the door your opening it again.

 

[TNJAKE]

So I shouldn’t open the door to dump the ashes and add more wood chips? If opening the door is a no-no, how would we ever get the wood chips into the smoker? I said I was spritzing and changing the chips at the same time, so I just want to clarify. You’re saying 15-20 spritzes of outside temp liquid makes a 4# shoulder take over 15 hours to cook? Seems weird to me.

Cutting a butt in half doesn't reduce the cook time by much as cook time is based on thickness of meat not width if that makes sense. Next time if you want to cut the time you should butterfly the butt. The guys have you covered on evaporative cooling although I'd think you'd understand that pretty easily being and executive chef and not be so standoffish by their answers. The mes has probably one of the worse recovery times from opening the door btw

 

[TNJAKE]

I'll also add every piece of meat is different and may not give you the same results as a previous cook. Many factors such as fat, weather, etc causes variables to change

 

[Brokenhandle]

Also search for mailbox mods...basically connecting a mailbox to your smoker and using an amnps to burn pellets. Should get at least 8 hours of smoke so don't have to open door or mess with chips. I'll post a pic of mine if I can find it.

I also use an Auber pid with mine.

Ryan

 

[schlotz]

The shear amount of temp loss due to opening the door to spritz is significant, and the time to recover is also a bunch. Do that 15-20 times and there is going to be a lengthening effect on the total smoke time. MBS works quite well if the door is kept shut and the mailbox mod is used, as in above.

 

[Bearcarver]

So I shouldn’t open the door to dump the ashes and add more wood chips? If opening the door is a no-no, how would we ever get the wood chips into the smoker? I said I was spritzing and changing the chips at the same time, so I just want to clarify. You’re saying 15-20 spritzes of outside temp liquid makes a 4# shoulder take over 15 hours to cook? Seems weird to me.

You already have a lot of good advice above, so I won't have to add much.
Since you're worried about how to get chips in without opening the door, yours must not be the Digital, with the side-loading device. You can take care of that, by getting an AMNPS for burning Pellets & Dust.
As for wetting things down 15 or 20 times, that's your biggest problem.
Every time you open that door it has to play catch-up, which could take from 10 to 20 minutes, depending on which Masterbuilt you have.
And if you have to do that a few times, at least Nuke the juices up to the temp of the meat, before you spray it.
Last thing is, Yes cutting a Butt in half will cut the time down, but it won't cut the time in half.
I'm not sure which smoker you have, but if it is a Digital Masterbuilt it doesn't need any humidity added. It already has plenty.
Follow the Link, below to anything you want to know about an MES Digital Smoker:
Just click on "Bear's Step by Steps".
All Kinds To Choose From.

Bear

 

[Marknmd]

Back when I was a n00B I would follow the recipe and cook at 225 all day and the darned thing wouldn't be ready by 9 PM. I'd put it in the oven at 225 F and we'd go to bed. Get up to pee and the kitchen smells wonderful. It's ready by morning. But it was supposed to be for dinner, not breakfast. Tried it again, same deal. So now when I'm going to cook at 225 F, I've learned to start at 225 F and then crank the temp when the protein temp stops moving which will be at some point when the smoker temp and protein temp difference is less than 100 F. Pineywoods touched on this above. As long as the cooker temp and protein temp difference is 100 F or more, even an unwrapped butt temp will happily keep moving, excluding a relatively reasonable stall. My butts come out nice and jiggly with a great bark. :-) And we get to eat at supper time. Good luck next time and don't forget to have fun.

 

[Inscrutable]

You’re saying 15-20 spritzes of outside temp liquid makes a 4# shoulder take over 15 hours to cook? Seems weird to me.

Yes! Others have said the below in different ways.

The ‘stall’ is when the energy input is offset by the evaporative cooling process. Until the meat has evaporated enough so that the input energy now outweighs the evaporative cooling, the stall will continue. If you dumped heat often (opening the door) and compounded it by applying MORE liquid to the surface (and cooler at that) you could prolong the stall a long long time.
You have to offset by putting in more energy (heat) faster and/or stop compounding the problem.
BTW, I started out doing these at 225, but I’ve found absolutely no difference in cooking at 250 (or as much as 265-275) except a dramatically shorter cook time. At the least bump a little just to power thru the stall a little faster and back off again once the temp starts rising again.

 

[bill1]

Large cuts of meat all "stall" like that. Just stick with it. And don't open the door...if you're lookin' you ain't cookin'. And at that point, doesn't hurt at all to raise your ambient cooking setpoint. But it only helps a little. The stall is still there.

 

[noboundaries]

Opening the door dumps heat needed to cook the meat. Minimize the open doors.

Spritzing "15‐20 times" every hour and opening the door was your problem. I'm going to guess the spritz was either cold or room temp. Cold or room temp spritz robs heat from the hotter meat (heat flows from hot to cold).

"Yeah, but my smoker was at 250°F." The cooler liquid will pull heat from the direct contact with the meat 25x's faster than it will from the hotter air (that's physics). Then that liquid, once it reaches equilibrium with the meat, 136°F in your example, will rob heat from the air faster than the meat can absorb it. That continues until the spritz has evaporated at 212°F.

Bottom line, physics always wins. Electric smokers have a limited supply of heat energy production available. Whatever you put in your smoker will steal available heat from your meat. Smoke dry. Don't spritz. And minimize heat dumps.