( smoking Pork shoulder and a Brisket ) help needed

[EaOutlaw1969]

We started defrosting the pork shoulder first so it was ready for the rub down session first. My Wife opted to put it in a foil covered pan rather than wrapping it in plastic wrap for fear of the rub getting rubbed off of the shoulder, I did not see any reason to argue so that is how it is in the fridge.

 

[EaOutlaw1969]

 

[EaOutlaw1969]

Let the fun begin!! Today's smoke session I will have to lean on the temperature gauges that I installed and the OEM larger door gauge because my digital temperature probes are in the meat. I am shooting for 225 degrees. From past sessions I know the temperature at the food in the center of the smoker seems to run a shade hotter than my gauges at the food zone. So I will be trying to keep all three gauges around 220ish

 

[EaOutlaw1969]

 

[EaOutlaw1969]

A few shots of my back yard ( what a view I have to put up with )

 

[SmokinAl]

Love that smoker!!
Al

 

[EaOutlaw1969]

Love that smoker!!
Al

Thank you for the modest price of the smoker plus modifications I made so far I couldn't be happier with it.

 

[EaOutlaw1969]

 

[EaOutlaw1969]

3 hour updated pictures above, The smoker has been a steady 225 +or- 5 degrees. at the 2 hour mark I added more water to the water pan via the small access door in the back of the main chamber ( I used a 2 liter coke bottle which fit in the opening great ) Every hour I have been spraying the pork Shoulder down with the Wife's homemade solution.
I was kind of thinking the Brisket would be wet with drippings from the Pork shoulder yet at this 3 hour mark when I opened the main chamber both pieces of meat were dry looking so both got a nice soaking with the solution.
Temperature of the pork is 127 the beef is 141,I think things are going great so far. I was worried the beef would look a bit soggy but my worries were unfounded.
Does anyone think I should have been more aggressive with the smoke? to me it looks like oven baked food with not a lot of smoke coloring. I thought it would be darker and redder by now.

 

[gmc2003]

Your fine especially at 225* the color will come. Grab a few sixers as your probably in for a very long day. Relax now, and if were me I'd lay off on spritzing so often. Each time you open your smoker(depending on its recovery time) you may be adding a half hour or more to the cook.

Let it ride and keep us updated.

Chris

 

[EaOutlaw1969]

Your fine especially at 225* the color will come. Grab a few sixers as your probably in for a very long day. Relax now, and if were me I'd lay off on spritzing so often. Each time you open your smoker(depending on its recovery time) you may be adding a half hour or more to the cook.

Let it ride and keep us updated.

Chris

Thanks I forgot to mention I only have been spritzing through the smoke stack and only getting the top of the pork shoulder. I opened it up at the three hour mark to inspect the brisket The Pork I can see clearly through the smoke stack.
I do not plan on opening the smoker at all for the rest of the cook, but every two hours I do add hot water to the pan through the very small pan access door. which cools it off slightly but it recovers quickly.

 

[EaOutlaw1969]

8 hour update the pork shoulder has past the brisket in temperature at 155 the Brisket which is on a lower rack than the Pork is 151.
Until I got close to the stall period the Brisket was at a higher temperature. I am thinking this has happened because the juices from the pork are dripping on the brisket making the stall worse for the brisket.
I am still very happy with the Smoker and the propane conversion it has been very steady this whole time. once I got the temperature dialed in I have not had to mess with it at all. It is looking like this is going to be a 10-12 hour cook.

 

[motocrash]

It is looking like this is going to be a 10-12 hour cook.

Yep,at least.
Good to hear you're diggin' your setup man

 

[EaOutlaw1969]

Close to the 12 hour mark with no crutch both the pork and brisket are close to the same temperature the brisket is back in the lead by one degree at 164 what a torturous smoke this has been the smell is killing me.

 

[EaOutlaw1969]

just over 13 hours and the meat is still on the smoker, the smell is amazing torture that I have endured all day long.
The sad part is I see no end in sight, target temperature of the brisket is 203 and it is just now up to 170 We decided because it has taken so long that we would use the Texas crutch and just wrap both the Pork shoulder and beef brisket in aluminum foil. I wanted to save the bark on both but to do this without wrapping it in foil would take way too long considering how long both have to rest then cool off enough to refrigerate.
Time for some coffee it is going to be a long night.
It was late and we were not prepared to wrap these so I did not have any broth warmed up so i just stuck both in the foil and will be hoping they still turn out OK. I was in a hurry to get these back in the smoker cause my Wife was ready for bed and she needed to help me get these out of the smoker. I can handle the wrapped meat by myself which another reason we opted to cheat some. Below is a picture of the pork butt I did not have time to get a picture of the brisket but it also looked amazing.

 

[EaOutlaw1969]

 

[motocrash]

If it'll make life any easier,since they're wrapped,just put'em in the oven.

 

[EaOutlaw1969]

If it'll make life any easier,since they're wrapped,just put'em in the oven.

I have the smoker set and going steady so I do not mind finishing off in the smoker. I did pull the water pan thinking that would help things along. I just pulled the beef brisket when the temperature was at 203 I wrapped the brisket with a towel and now it is in a cooler. The Pork Shoulder is at 179 and slowly climbing.
I was planning on letting the pork rest for 1 hour then I was going to pull it to help speed up cooling it down ( plus I can get a nibble or two in without the Wife knowing). :)
What is driving me nuts is why this brisket took so long I only opened the door at the 3 hour mark and the temperature recovered quickly.
My Wife used to cater BBQ and she said she never smoked a Pork Shoulder longer than 12 hours and never had to use a temperature gauge setup like we have now. I have had her pulled pork before and maybe once or twice did we pull it too soon where it was hard to pull. (probably opening the smoker too much for basting back then )
I am wondering if my wife trimmed down the fat or removed any silver skin from the brisket if she didn't could that account for the extra cook time? ( I never saw it when she was prepping it thinking to myself mistake number one ) All I can say what I have seen here everything looks crazy good but the time line is throwing me off.

 

[tallbm]

I have the smoker set and going steady so I do not mind finishing off in the smoker. I did pull the water pan thinking that would help things along. I just pulled the beef brisket when the temperature was at 203 I wrapped the brisket with a towel and now it is in a cooler. The Pork Shoulder is at 179 and slowly climbing.
I was planning on letting the pork rest for 1 hour then I was going to pull it to help speed up cooling it down ( plus I can get a nibble or two in without the Wife knowing). :)
What is driving me nuts is why this brisket took so long I only opened the door at the 3 hour mark and the temperature recovered quickly.
My Wife used to cater BBQ and she said she never smoked a Pork Shoulder longer than 12 hours and never had to use a temperature gauge setup like we have now. I have had her pulled pork before and maybe once or twice did we pull it too soon where it was hard to pull. (probably opening the smoker too much for basting back then )
I am wondering if my wife trimmed down the fat or removed any silver skin from the brisket if she didn't could that account for the extra cook time? ( I never saw it when she was prepping it thinking to myself mistake number one ) All I can say what I have seen here everything looks crazy good but the time line is throwing me off.

Hi there and welcome!

Honestly this all sounds about right to me. You just put about 11 pounds of meat in your smoker. At a smoker temp of 275F running unwrapped and not opening the door at all I experience just over an hour a pound before brisket or pork butts are tender and therefore done. You are smoking at a smoker temp around 225F so yeah it would still seem to me that you things are about on track with a while to go.

Another thing you have going on is that you have the meat on 2 different racks. The temp at the different racks is likely different. It could be that the brisket on the lower rack is absorbing most of the initial heat and doing some deflecting of airflow and heat so that the pork butt doesn't get as good of a blast as the brisket is getting.

This kind of smoke will tell you a lot about your setup and is unfortunately just one of those learning lessons we all kind of encounter at some point or another.
You picked 2 cuts of meat that actually don't care what temp they are smoked at so in the future you can definitely bump up the temp to 275F or higher even if you wanted and you will get the same or even better results.

Once you get this kind of smoke figured out and what a rough timeline looks like, start planning a smoke like this to END at least 4 hours earlier than when you plan to eat. If it ends 4 hours early then you just double wrap in foil, wrap in 3 bath towels, and leave on the counter and 4 hours later it will be piping hot to serve and eat!
If you don't actually finish 4 hours early then you have 4 hours of buffer time to hopefully finish the smoke before becoming late. Either way you generally come out a winner :)

I hope this makes sense and the info helps some :)

 

[EaOutlaw1969]

Hi there and welcome!

Honestly this all sounds about right to me. You just put about 11 pounds of meat in your smoker. At a smoker temp of 275F running unwrapped and not opening the door at all I experience just over an hour a pound before brisket or pork butts are tender and therefore done. You are smoking at a smoker temp around 225F so yeah it would still seem to me that you things are about on track with a while to go.

Another thing you have going on is that you have the meat on 2 different racks. The temp at the different racks is likely different. It could be that the brisket on the lower rack is absorbing most of the initial heat and doing some deflecting of airflow and heat so that the pork butt doesn't get as good of a blast as the brisket is getting.

This kind of smoke will tell you a lot about your setup and is unfortunately just one of those learning lessons we all kind of encounter at some point or another.
You picked 2 cuts of meat that actually don't care what temp they are smoked at so in the future you can definitely bump up the temp to 275F or higher even if you wanted and you will get the same or even better results.

Once you get this kind of smoke figured out and what a rough timeline looks like, start planning a smoke like this to END at least 4 hours earlier than when you plan to eat. If it ends 4 hours early then you just double wrap in foil, wrap in 3 bath towels, and leave on the counter and 4 hours later it will be piping hot to serve and eat!
If you don't actually finish 4 hours early then you have 4 hours of buffer time to hopefully finish the smoke before becoming late. Either way you generally come out a winner :)

I hope this makes sense and the info helps some :)

Yes what you said made a lot of sense.
I would consider ramping up my smoker to a higher temperature for future smoke sessions but it will require more tweaking perhaps a different burner or regulator, I can get to 225-250 and have a reasonably nice blue flame with some orange tips to the flame and no black soot on my cast iron pan for the wood chunks with the current setup, going higher temperatures the flame wraps around the cast iron pan, the flame is still blue but I will get some yellow tips and it will leave a little black soot on the pan. at higher temperatures I think it is starving for air a little.