"Second Stall" - Pork Shoulder on OTG Kettle/Smokenator

[Mike Prince]

I've had this happen on every butt that I have cooked on my OTG/Smokenator setup. I have nice steady temps the whole cook, and get the expected stall between 150-160F (yesterday it was at 156). After a few hours the temps start to go up, then in the mid to high 170's I get what appears to be a secondary stall which is very stubborn.

Last time this happened I finished in the oven, last night my wife was baking so that was not an option. So I wrapped it in foil when it stayed at about 180 for quite a whlle. I pulled it off of the grill when it reached 198, it came out great.

My real question is, is this "second" stall common? Once I wrapped it, it came up to temp pretty nicely. Had plenty of fuel in the Smokenator and grill temps stayed nice and stable in the mid-230's. Wrapping was an easy solution, and I didn't mind doing it, but the prevailing advice I see here is usually to avoid wrapping. It was wrapped for probably the last 60 minutes of the 12 hour cook (for a 6-ish lb. butt), maybe a bit more.

As an aside, also prepared Meathead's Grown-up mustard sauce for this cook, and it was a winner!

Obligatory pictures are below!

[Huskee]

I ALWAYS wrap my pork butts, there are many who do not. And yes, a second stall is very common when not wrapping. This is why I wrap- to use less fuel, and to avoid getting up at 4am to start a pork butt! I still get bark, lots of it. Here's what I do and I feel this system works well: I cut my butt(s) into roughly 3lb chunks, mini butts. Then I dry brine all those surfaces, and add my rub. The extra surface area from cutting them gives you more salt penetration and more seasoning, more bark on the finished product, and MUCH less cook time. Finished product tastes better from more seasoning & bark, and it takes less time since you're in effect doing a few small butts, which to your smoker is no different than doing one small butt time-wise.

Here's an example of the smaller butts. one might be 4lb, another 2lb, but the others are about 3.

Give it a try next time!