- Nov 29, 2016
- 27
- 10
Good Morning Everyone,
I am not sure if this is the right section to post in but here goes.....
I recently attempted to smoke Pork shoulder for my Daughters 2nd birthday and I was expecting about 40 people. I own a Smoke Hollow Vertical propane smoker. My plan was roughly 1 hr per pound at 275 degrees. I have 5 chunks of pork shoulder all at about 8-10 pounds each.
Doing the math plus giving myself 1 hour to rest, 30 minutes to shred it for pulled pork sandwhiches and an hour leeway time to make sure it was done on time or early.... I def didn't want to be finishing up dinner too late into the evening. I figured I had to get the pork into the smoker about 12-13 hours prior to when I wanted dinner done. so now here is the issue I ran into.....
I had to start the meat at 3:00 A.M. and the date was November 12th in southeast Michigan, which happened to be the first decently cold day.
at 2:00 AM I fired up the smoker to get it up to temp and pulled the pork out to get to room temp. the outside temp was rough 30 degrees.
at 2:30 AM my smoker was only at 100 degrees so I closed all the dampeners and cranked up the temp on the smoker.
at 3:00 AM the outside temp was 33 degrees, and my smoker was at 175 degrees. I threw the meat in thinking it can start to smoke while I work on trying to get the temp up because I didn't want to be late.
at 4:00 AM the outside temp was still 33, and my smoker dropped to 150 degrees.
I spent the next 3 hours opening and closing the dampeners and trying different thermometers thinking something was wrong with the thermometers and everything kept reading the same right around 150 degrees. during this 3 hour stretch I was panicking and I was thinking I would have to bail on the entire thing and get pizza and subs.
7:00 AM the sun was starting to rise, the outside temp climbed to about 37 degrees, my smoker climbed to about 160 degrees.
9:00 AM the outside temp was about 43 degrees, my smoker was up to about 175 degrees. I finally decided to pull the plug, I fired up the oven, got the oven up to 300 degrees, threw all the pork into the oven till about 3:00 P.M. by this time the meat was up to the standard temp and turned out juicy and everyone loved it but during the oven process I spilled some juices and filled the entire house up with smoke so I would like to avoid using the oven in the future.
some other details you need to know. I do NOT own a garage, the smoker was in the back of the house, and it was not windy just chilly. My smoker is not insulated.
I do not want to think that I have to shut down my smoker during the winter months and in Michigan that can be several months. what are some tips, suggestions, advice you guys got for me to be able to smoke during the cold months that wont be a fire hazard. Thanks in advanced for anyone that can help me.
I am not sure if this is the right section to post in but here goes.....
I recently attempted to smoke Pork shoulder for my Daughters 2nd birthday and I was expecting about 40 people. I own a Smoke Hollow Vertical propane smoker. My plan was roughly 1 hr per pound at 275 degrees. I have 5 chunks of pork shoulder all at about 8-10 pounds each.
Doing the math plus giving myself 1 hour to rest, 30 minutes to shred it for pulled pork sandwhiches and an hour leeway time to make sure it was done on time or early.... I def didn't want to be finishing up dinner too late into the evening. I figured I had to get the pork into the smoker about 12-13 hours prior to when I wanted dinner done. so now here is the issue I ran into.....
I had to start the meat at 3:00 A.M. and the date was November 12th in southeast Michigan, which happened to be the first decently cold day.
at 2:00 AM I fired up the smoker to get it up to temp and pulled the pork out to get to room temp. the outside temp was rough 30 degrees.
at 2:30 AM my smoker was only at 100 degrees so I closed all the dampeners and cranked up the temp on the smoker.
at 3:00 AM the outside temp was 33 degrees, and my smoker was at 175 degrees. I threw the meat in thinking it can start to smoke while I work on trying to get the temp up because I didn't want to be late.
at 4:00 AM the outside temp was still 33, and my smoker dropped to 150 degrees.
I spent the next 3 hours opening and closing the dampeners and trying different thermometers thinking something was wrong with the thermometers and everything kept reading the same right around 150 degrees. during this 3 hour stretch I was panicking and I was thinking I would have to bail on the entire thing and get pizza and subs.
7:00 AM the sun was starting to rise, the outside temp climbed to about 37 degrees, my smoker climbed to about 160 degrees.
9:00 AM the outside temp was about 43 degrees, my smoker was up to about 175 degrees. I finally decided to pull the plug, I fired up the oven, got the oven up to 300 degrees, threw all the pork into the oven till about 3:00 P.M. by this time the meat was up to the standard temp and turned out juicy and everyone loved it but during the oven process I spilled some juices and filled the entire house up with smoke so I would like to avoid using the oven in the future.
some other details you need to know. I do NOT own a garage, the smoker was in the back of the house, and it was not windy just chilly. My smoker is not insulated.
I do not want to think that I have to shut down my smoker during the winter months and in Michigan that can be several months. what are some tips, suggestions, advice you guys got for me to be able to smoke during the cold months that wont be a fire hazard. Thanks in advanced for anyone that can help me.
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