Pork shoulder - not so pleased with the result

[BIGBECDADDY]

I love all the input. What we know about "the stall" is that it is created by moisture on the outside of the protein. The more we spritz and open the cooker the longer the final product is going to take. LOW and SLOW means patience and maturity (two things I struggle with). Whether you inject or brine I still believe in wrapping either just before or during the stall (somewhere between 155-165 degrees) as was stated, making clean up easier, collect your drippings, prevents over smoking. However, if you do take any of the above suggestions please take them one at a time and document (journal results). I would always use a drip pan under proteins and depending on cooker I find water pans useful in correcting hot spots as density of water keeps temp flux to a minimum.

[Dutchness]

It must have been a Boston butt in my case it had the shoulder blade it in

[Koy Schoppe]

I had a similar issue this past weekend. I bought what was labeled as Boston Butt to throw onto the KBQ, but ended up being a picnic I believe. The bone had a big ball socket end and there was very little fat inside. Flavor was good, but real dry. I whipped up some "pulled pork finishing sauce" and let is soak over night. Next day it was really good. Ended up using it to make enchiladas with later in the week. Those were really good as well.

[Dutchness]

First off I agree it doesn't look like a good piece of pork to start with. In my opinion it is fine to cook for 16 hours as long as the meat has enough fat to go the distance, And there is enough moisture to thru the entire cook.
When I do pork butts, I like them with a good amount of fat. 225 for 16 to 18 hours with lots of moisture. Smoke up until the stall. Keep it simple. Just my opinion sir.
Pitmaster Brian.

Doesn't look good how? Do you mean not enough fat or something else?

Voodoo I used two thermometers, thanks for sharing your thought anyway.

Everyone seem to ignore my comment about the reverse flow plate being to close to the food rack. I think this could the problem. Too much heat radiation upwards into the meat, even though you would think the temp at the grates is the temp at the grates with the RF plate positioned where it is.

I am currently building a new smoker and I can't wait to try it out. It should let me know me know if I was right or not.

[Voodoo]

One other thing. If this is happening to you wrapped or unwrapped (dry), could it be your thermometer? Pork butts are usually forgiving (as you can tell from all the various techniques out there), but over cooking one will definitely go south. Need calibration?
Just throwing that out there.

[Brian Welti]

First off I agree it doesn't look like a good piece of pork to start with. In my opinion it is fine to cook for 16 hours as long as the meat has enough fat to go the distance, And there is enough moisture to thru the entire cook.
When I do pork butts, I like them with a good amount of fat. 225 for 16 to 18 hours with lots of moisture. Smoke up until the stall. Keep it simple. Just my opinion sir.
Pitmaster Brian.

[CeramicChef]

fuzzydaddy - I've never wrapped butts, brisket, ribs, etc. when cooked in my kamados and that's 20+ years of BBQ. I never wrapped before that and that was another 20+ years on stick burners. I've never gotten so much as a single complaint.

[fuzzydaddy]

In my BGE, I cook pork butts at ~250, unwrapped and no water. I don't open the lid until they are ~195 IT to check for tenderness. I used to cook at ~225 but the only difference I found is 4-6 less hours of cooking.

In my 22" Kettle + SnS, I cook them at ~225, unwrapped and 1 fill of water in the SnS.

Both cooks average 12-14 hours for ~7-8 lb butts. I always have cooked 2 at a time.

I wrap for my faux cambro 2 hour hold. The bark is softened by the hold. Family is very happy which is what matters. With that said, eventually I will try wrapping during the cook.

[Dutchness]

Thanks for all the great replies!

This was the first time I have tried it unwrapped. I hated the bark. Texture and flavor wise. So definitely will start wrapping again next time.

I remember smoking pork necks before and one part would be juicy and one part of the piece of meat would be on the dry side. I didn't pay enough attention if this were the bottom and top part of the meat. But I have strong feeling my RF plate being somewhat close to the food grate has something to do with it.

Can't wait to for my new smoker to finish and try it out and will also figure something out about my current smoker. I did baby backs last night. Beautiful flavor but the meat was dry. I really think it's a smoker issue. Will experiment tomorrow again with some new ribs

Thanks again for all the informative replies.

[fuzzydaddy]

Thanks CeramicChef for sharing your method!

[Spinaker]

badf00d If I was using jus the KBQ. I throw it in fat side up, and wrap at around 175 F-180 F. Again, I don't use any water pan. I put a pan in the KBQ but just to catch the drippings and make that whole clean up thing much easier. Typically, I put my butts in the freezer about an hour before I throw it in the KBQ to get that temp down as far as possible to promote smoke ring formation. Other than that, I just keep the door shut as much as possible, run "clean" smoke and let it do it's magic. Don't Spritz, mop or mess with it. Just let the smoker do its thing. Then wrap when the bark is to your liking. You won't have to worry about the meat drying out in the KBQ. Most of the time, when people have dried out meat, Its the meat itself that is to blame or they have severely overcooked it. As Meathead says, "Garbage in, Garbage out" Just let your smoker work for you. To many variables can make things worse. Start with a simple system, master it. Then you can add things to impart different flavors and techniques. Let me know if you have anymore questions.

[badf00d]

Since I had similar results to Dutchness, but I used sous vide and KBQ, how would your advice above differ for me if I went all KBQ?

[chudzikb]

I wrap somewhere between 150 and 165 internal temp. Depends upon how much I am paying attention. I use a mixture of apple juice, bbq sauce and minced garlic. The juice that comes out of the foil wrap is pure gold. That stuff added to the pork before reheating makes it all good. Everyone has their own way of doing things, take some tips and try different methods and see what works for you. You will sort it out quickly.

[Spinaker]

You got it man. No better way to do it!!

[Strat50]

I agree with Spinaker here. After the first couple hours, wrap that bad boy. I do mine a bit different, as I come from a different cooking tradition, however enclosing (wrapping) the pork in foil will help a lot.