Todays Pork Shoulder plan

[matt r]

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• matt r
• Oct 19, 2014

Todays pork shoulder. Has been marinating overnight, and has been sitting out on the counter top for about an hour to hit room temp as the MES30 warms up to 225. Rub on this baby is brown sugar, salt, paprika, pepper, chili powder and garlic powder. I'll be using hickory today, and plan to bring the swine up to 195-200 IT, foil it, and let it rest. Brown rice and salad to go with it, and maybe some tortillas.

Wish us luck!!

 

[jrod62]

I'm not a fan of "sitting it out to get to room temp". The 4 hours to hit 140 degrees rule starts when you take it out of the frig.

 will check back later see how its going.

 

[matt r]

 
I'm not a fan of "sitting it out to get to room temp". The 4 hours to hit 140 degrees rule starts when you take it out of the frig.

 will check back later see how its going.

whats that rule? Never heard that!

I thought bringing the meat to room temp was the way to go...lots of guys seem to recommend doing it. What am I missing?

 

[noboundaries]

Yep, if there's one old wive's tale I'd change about smoking it is leaving the meat out on the counter to "come up to room temp."  Take it out of the fridge when the smoker is ready.

That said, the roast above looks great, rub sounds good, hickory is great on pulled pork.   Looking forward to more pics.

 

[wade]

 
whats that rule? Never heard that!

I thought bringing the meat to room temp was the way to go...lots of guys seem to recommend doing it. What am I missing?

Hi Matt

You do not need to bring the meat up to room temperature. Providing you are using a thermometer and are cooking by IT then taking the pork shoulder out of the fridge just as you are lighting the smoker would start to take the chill off. Providing the joint has previously been handled correctly and it is cooked to the required temperature, taking 4 hours to bring it up to room temperature is unlikely to to cause any food safety problems. It is not good food hygiene practice though and is unnecessary.

If you were to compare the IT of the meat sitting on the kitchen table whilst you bring it up to room temperature against monitoring the IT when putting it straight in the smoker still chilled, you would find that the meat in the smoker very quickly reaches room temperature (and above) - in much less than 4 hours. At the same time the heat on the meat surface is also beginning to kill any surface bacteria immediately. 

If you are cooking by time then it makes sense to know the starting temperature of the meat to ensure the desired result is achieved however this is best calculated starting from the meat being chilled. When cooking by IT this isn't generally required as cooking times can be adjusted accordingly. The one exception I would make is when cooking Blue beef steak. This needs to be cooked with the meat starting at room temperature - believe me, I have sent a lot of bad blue steaks back!

 

[wade]

.

 

[jrod62]

Here a link to check out..got to chef jimmy's reply. He explans it pretty good http://www.smokingmeatforums.com/t/107989/can-someone-explain-the-4-hour-rule-i-am-new-at-this

 

[matt r]

Good advice all the way around, guys. Much thanks to you all. Theres so much to know!

 

[gary s]

You already got some great advice, keep us posted and the pictures coming 

Gary

 

[matt r]

What a day! Spent about 3 hours going store to store to find a Maverick Remote Probe. Finally found one, after 6 stores and a half tank of gas. Got home and the pork is looking good. IT is about 185, so I have a little ways to go

Looks awesome, though! Pics soon!

 

[wade]

 
What a day! Spent about 3 hours going store to store to find a Maverick Remote Probe. Finally found one, after 6 stores and a half tank of gas. 

Great choice of thermometer Matt

 

[matt r]

OK, just pulled it. Now, the smoke seemed to stall a bit at 185, give or take. So I added a few more chips, and then about 15 minutes later the temp reading on the new Maverick read 215IT!

So...Its out, and its resting and here is how it looks:

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• matt r
• Oct 19, 2014

Gotta admit, that looks awesome! Im hoping that its good. The Mav temp showing a jump so quickly makes me nervous, but man, the thing seems as ready as its ever gonna get! Its all in the taste, so I will report on that asap!

 

[matt r]

 
Great choice of thermometer Matt

I hope so, Wade. Everyone around here seems to feel the same way you do so if I cant take you all's advice, whos advice can I take?

"you alls"?? Im from Long Island, NY!! Why am I talking like this?

 

[matt r]

Well, it was really good! A bit on the salty side, so I may reduce the salt a bit next time. But...it didn't fall apart. I don't know what Im doing wrong, other than not cooking it long enough. I think I need to get used to the Maverick too...the temp seem to fluctuate quite a bit, and to make a jump from 185 to 215 in a matter of minutes doesn't seem possible. Oh well...sure tasted good, either way.

next up, Id like to try some ribs, or beef roast.

 

[wade]

 
Well, it was really good! A bit on the salty side, so I may reduce the salt a bit next time.

Was this a rub recipe that you were following or one you created yourself? I find that many rub recipes use way too much salt for my liking and so usually cut back on the salt content - and sometimes the sugar content too. After you have tried a number of different rub recipes you will soon be able to gauge how much salt you personally like and adjust the ingredients accordingly.

When making rubs this is OK to do, however if you are making a wet or dry cure then it is essential that you do follow the ratios of the curing ingredients precisely.

 

[crazymoon]

Matt,Looks like a good smoke! Maybe your probe was hitting the bone in the shoulder?

 

[matt r]

 
Was this a rub recipe that you were following or one you created yourself? I find that many rub recipes use way too much salt for my liking and so usually cut back on the salt content - and sometimes the sugar content too. After you have tried a number of different rub recipes you will soon be able to gauge how much salt you personally like and adjust the ingredients accordingly.

When making rubs this is OK to do, however if you are making a wet or dry cure then it is essential that you do follow the ratios of the curing ingredients precisely.

It was something that I created, basically equal parts salt and Brown sugar, about a cup each, and then ancillary spices to taste. I like the brown sugar, but maybe will cut back to a 1/2 cup salt.

 

[matt r]

 
Matt,Looks like a good smoke! Maybe your probe was hitting the bone in the shoulder?

Maybe...would that be the culprit?

 

[badmoont2]

In regards to bringing the meat up to room temp: Since smoke penetration stops at about 170 degrees putting the meat in at a cooler temperature should allow more time for smoke to penetrate.

 

[wade]

 
Since smoke penetration stops at about 170 degrees 

I have seen various numbers mentioned over the years on various forums about the temperature at which meat stops absorbing smoke - however so far I have not seen anything that convinces me that it is not just just an urban myth. There are some great papers out there that have chemically explained the smoke ring and at what temperature this stops forming however the diffusion of smoke into meat protein is somewhat different. I have noticed from my own cooking that there is a peak time (about 3-4 hours) beyond which additional exposure to smoke seems not to to significantly increase the smoky flavour (purely subjective) however I would not be surprised that if we kept a piece of meat in the smoker below 170 F that it would not perceptibly absorb any more smoke flavour after the same time either.

I would have expected that if it was the meat temperature that was the important factor for stopping smoke penetration then, as the surface of the meat would reach more than 170 F quite quickly when smoked at 240-250 F, the smoke absorption should slow down very rapidly almost as soon as the meat was put in as the thickening outer ring of heated meat rose above 170 F. Yes putting the meat in chilled would initially delay this - but not for long.

Does anyone out there have any credible source that demonstrates that there is a temperature at which smoke stops being absorbed - other than re-quotes of other peoples posts claiming that it does? If so then this would be a fascinating paper to read. I am genuinely curious about this. I am currently skeptical however would love to be educated if it is actually the case.