Good morning. I smoked a 3-pound pork shoulder roast yesterday and had some issues. I'm hoping you all can help. I have a new Cajun Injector electric smoker and the instructions that came with it leave a lot to be desired. I covered the meat in a rub the night before, wrapped it in plastic and put it in the fridge overnight. First thing yesterday morning, I plugged in the smoker, added my wood pellets, and put the roast into the smoker. It was about 34 degrees outside, with very little wind. The smoker came with a digital meat thermometer and the temperature of the meat registered at about 36 degrees when I started. I set the smoker for four hours at a temperature of 225 degrees. Needless to say, four hours was not long enough. We never opened the door of the smoker at all. I added additional wood pellets through the chute about two hours into the process. After NINE hours, the meat was still only registering an internal temperature of 155 degrees. At that point, we took it off and finished it in the oven. The meat tasted great but, even after finishing it in the oven, it did not have that shreddable texture I expected it to have. I have since been told that I should have let my meat sit out on the counter for at least an hour to bring it up to room temperature and that I should not have put the meat in the smoker until it came up to temperature, which took about an hour. Even if I had done that, though, I don't think the meat would have been done in four hours. The smoker temperature stayed at 220 to 225 throughout the cooking period, but the meat just wouldn't get done. Is it too cold outside to use the smoker? Is there anything else I should be doing? I really hope you all can help me. I would be sad if I have to wait for warm weather to use my smoker. We raise our own grass-fed bee, pork, and chicken and are really excited about smoking all kinds of things. Thanks for your help.
