27 hours was not what I had planned for. The Easter on the farm festival turned out to be just as disappointing as the Christmas on the farm for different reasons. The 18 pound pork shoulder (13 pounds after trimming) dry brined for 16 hrs and MMD rub and into the smoker at 17h00 Friday afternoon with the expectation of being ready at around 9h00 Saturday morning at the latest. Oven temp was constant between 225 and 235. Somewhere between 22h00 and 24h00 the meat hit the stall 150f. My next IT temp check was 2 hours later 02h00 and then every hour thereafter. The meat was still at 150f at 06h00. I needed to get home to take a shower freshen up and collect a few items for the day while my son kept an eye on the oven temp. I got back at around 08h00 and checked IT of pork, had moved to 160f and my brisket had overcooked (leave that explanation for another time). With the gates opening at 9hoo I was not near ready to having anything to serve. Pulled pork on a bun topped with an egg was to be my breakfast sell. Long story short we started packing up at the end of the day 16h30 and the meat was still in the cooker IT at 170f. I wrapped and finished at home in the oven leaving a total cook time of around 27 hrs. One of the outer muscles was probe tender 183f before wrapping and delicious.
Some of my after cook thoughts
I have not taken temp readings in my vertical oven at different levels namely lower, middle and top areas to determine temp differences. My thermometer reads the temp in the center of cooking chamber. The butt was on the upper grid near to the outlet. I’m thinking maybe the temp in the top area is or was lower than the middle where the thermometer is. The distance from thermometer to where the meat was is about 11 inches.
Could the size of the butt have been a factor as I have previously smoked butts in the +- 8 pound range and they have taken from 8-12 hours. I have never crutched anything in the past and thinking this was possibly necessary given the butt size.
Maybe should have cooked at slightly higher temp but dispelled that idea given everything I’ve learnt from AR site.
Had water trays throughout cook and spritzed. Maybe spritzing as well wasn’t the right thing to do.
I used drip trays that I formed from foil that allowed 2 or 3 inches of space all round for heat and smoke movement. I placed a drip tray under each of the three racks that the meat was on. In my previous smokes I have only used 1 drip tray on the lowest rack for all the meats above.
Have decided will not be cooking a Butt of that size again.
Some of my after cook thoughts
I have not taken temp readings in my vertical oven at different levels namely lower, middle and top areas to determine temp differences. My thermometer reads the temp in the center of cooking chamber. The butt was on the upper grid near to the outlet. I’m thinking maybe the temp in the top area is or was lower than the middle where the thermometer is. The distance from thermometer to where the meat was is about 11 inches.
Could the size of the butt have been a factor as I have previously smoked butts in the +- 8 pound range and they have taken from 8-12 hours. I have never crutched anything in the past and thinking this was possibly necessary given the butt size.
Maybe should have cooked at slightly higher temp but dispelled that idea given everything I’ve learnt from AR site.
Had water trays throughout cook and spritzed. Maybe spritzing as well wasn’t the right thing to do.
I used drip trays that I formed from foil that allowed 2 or 3 inches of space all round for heat and smoke movement. I placed a drip tray under each of the three racks that the meat was on. In my previous smokes I have only used 1 drip tray on the lowest rack for all the meats above.
Have decided will not be cooking a Butt of that size again.
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