- Jun 6, 2014
- 6
- 10
Tried a Pork Shoulder for the first time yesterday, Saturday. 7.2 lbs, put into the preheated MES 30 at 10AM at 225° using Pecan wood, set it directly on the grate. Planned accordingly to follow Jeff's Pork Shoulder Recipe (http://www.smoking-meat.com/pork-shoulder-recipe). So I buckled up and then my nerves took over and I obsessivly tried to find every bit of information about the Stall as possible. My fear of the stall is multi-faceted. Being a pilot, a piss poor flight instructor once explained an aerodynamic stall so far from reality, I've never been able to get the word out of my head...but, I digresss.
2PM - 4 Hours into my project - IT is 140°, life is good.
4PM - 6 Hours into my project - IT is 140°, life is slowly more questionable. Am I the start, middle, or end of this stall issue? Better, yet, is this the stall?
7PM - 9 Hours into my project - IT is 155°, life is a great big carousel of progress.
9PM - 11 Hours into my project - IT is 165°, hmm....
9:45PM - 11 Hours, 45 Min into my project - IT is 165°.
I gave up. I finished it in the oven. If going by 1.5 hrs, this cut mathematically should've taken 10hrs, 48 minutes. I hate math, I subscribe to the when it's done, it's done approach. I was waiting for the temp to rise, patiently, I waited, but, as you can see I failed.
For the past few years, prior to buying the smoker, we were making delicious, wonderful pork shoulders in the slow cooker. Was so excited for the smoker, and still am...it's a reason to try another one and tweak how I work it. My questions though...
1) The times and temps described above, I was definitely stalled, right?
2) Between 9 and 9:45, was I too eager expecting to see a temp rise?
3) I didn't want to foil, based on info obtained at amazingribs.com, figuring this was my first one. I'm still up in the air about this one though. Was this a rookie mistake?
Thankfully, the final product was still positive, but, I'm just a little disappointed I let it get the best of me and I ran to the oven with my tail between my legs. The bark was great, the meat tasted amazing and overall was satisfactory.
Before and after:
2PM - 4 Hours into my project - IT is 140°, life is good.
4PM - 6 Hours into my project - IT is 140°, life is slowly more questionable. Am I the start, middle, or end of this stall issue? Better, yet, is this the stall?
7PM - 9 Hours into my project - IT is 155°, life is a great big carousel of progress.
9PM - 11 Hours into my project - IT is 165°, hmm....
9:45PM - 11 Hours, 45 Min into my project - IT is 165°.
I gave up. I finished it in the oven. If going by 1.5 hrs, this cut mathematically should've taken 10hrs, 48 minutes. I hate math, I subscribe to the when it's done, it's done approach. I was waiting for the temp to rise, patiently, I waited, but, as you can see I failed.
For the past few years, prior to buying the smoker, we were making delicious, wonderful pork shoulders in the slow cooker. Was so excited for the smoker, and still am...it's a reason to try another one and tweak how I work it. My questions though...
1) The times and temps described above, I was definitely stalled, right?
2) Between 9 and 9:45, was I too eager expecting to see a temp rise?
3) I didn't want to foil, based on info obtained at amazingribs.com, figuring this was my first one. I'm still up in the air about this one though. Was this a rookie mistake?
Thankfully, the final product was still positive, but, I'm just a little disappointed I let it get the best of me and I ran to the oven with my tail between my legs. The bark was great, the meat tasted amazing and overall was satisfactory.
Before and after: