I have two roughly 8lb shoulders cooking on a weber kettle at about 240 F. They went on 7:15 am and at 10 am they were at 105 internal. I would like to be readt to pull at around 6 pm. i know every butt is different, but i'm curious to get thoughts on whether or not to crutch. i have cooked pork shoulder 3 or 4 times, but have never crutched before.
I usually wrap at between 150 -160. This past weekend I didn't wrap for the first time ever and I was disappointed by how dry the pork was. I pulled it off and wrapped in butchers paper for 90 minutes prior to pulling.
Won't be doing that again I don't think. I always get a super moist pork when I wrap
when i used the el cheapo smoker i crutched to get cook times down. on my drum it holds temp, so i don't care and usually don't crutch. and end up with amazing bark. That said I will crutch on two occasions only. 1. if i need cooking times to be quicker, or more predictable, ill crutch to power through the stall. 2. if i want to add a second flavor, i may crutch to introduce that second flavor. In both cases i will remove it for a while towards the end to get some bark back.
You'll be pushing it to have time to get it done at the 240 range without wrapping, and definitely won't have enough time to allow it to rest. Let it get to the stall and start looking good, then wrap that sucker up.
Weber Performer, Weber Jumbo Joe, Weber Smokey Joe (which I made into a mini-WSM), Weber Q 120 (which I converted to a portable flat top griddle), Oklahoma Joe offset cabinet smoker, Lodge hibachi, Pitt Boss Tailgater
Maverick ET 733
Favorite Cook - Sausage, any kind of sausage!
When I cook pork shoulder I put it over charcoal & wood for 4-5 hours (using my mini WSM or Arorn) then remove it, place in a stainless steel pan cover with plastic wrap followed by foil and finish it I off in a 350º oven (to an internal temp of 200º). Place it in a small warmed, ice chest till internal temp drops to 140º, pull and serve. Never had this system fail to create wonderful pulled pork. Of course it seems pretty hard to screw up a good pork shoulder anyway, now a whole chicken, that's a diiferent story for a different forum!
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