First time smoking pork shoulder

[bigbassnutt]

Bought a 9 pound bone in pork shoulder at the local meat market and tried to do the reverse math to see when I would have to start the process to have it done by 6pm Saturday. Did a brine for 12 hours, applied rub and got in the smoker at 4am Saturday morning. Did a ramp up to 225 and had a pan of apple juice for moisture. Used about 4 1/2 ounces of hickory and apple mix. Smoker came up to temp and held it like its supposed to with the auber. I did notice my maverick temp was always about 9 degrees different than the auber. The meat probes were about 3 degrees different from each other. The location of the box probes were right next to each other. I had planned on about 11 hours to get to internal temp of 198 but after 17 hours I was still only 170, so I bumped it up to 245 and it got to 190 around 11pm and said it was close enough.  I let it rest for half hour, ok 20 minutes, it was late lol. The end result was very tasty bark, a little tough. The inside meat was tender and juicy and pulled pretty well, but didn't have a ton of flavor. I am thinking the bark got a little tough due to bumping up the temp towards the end. Any suggestions on what I should do differently or is it normal to take that long? I don't mind the wait, just hadn't planned on it and my dinner guest was really hungry lol.

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[DivotMaker]

Mike, the pictures look great.  Curious:  Have you done an autotune on your Auber, and exactly where did you have the Auber probe placed?  Also, as I'm sure you've read on here many times, 2 hours per pound on a butt is not unusual.  You said the Auber and Maverick probes were 9 degrees different, but which way?  Was the Maverick higher or lower?

My first thought is it's a probe placement issue.  This is the main reason I like the fixed-installation probe. 

In planning a large cut like that, you can figure it at 2 hrs per pound.  If it's done earlier, it's easier to hold until dinner time than to speed-cook one that isn't ready.

[bigbassnutt]

Haven't done an autotune yet. I had both probes on the same rack as the meat held with clips side by side so that shouldn't have been an issue. I like the idea of a permanent mounted probe just didn't want to start drilling on my new smoker quite yet.  I will keep in mind the longer time for the next try, much better to have it done early! Gonna try ribs again next weekend. The maverick was reading the higher temps on the smoker probe and the meat probe, just a few degrees different on the meat probe.

[DivotMaker]

Interesting...I thought you would have said the Maverick read lower.  No, then, sounds like you just had one of those stubborn butts that took a good 2 hrs/lb.  Happens.  Have to remember, meat is made by animals, and no 2 are alike (just like us).  Cooking "guidelines" are just that.  When you cook by internal temp, like we do, you can only guess on time sometimes.  Welcome to the unpredictable world of Q!

[DiggingDogFarm]

It's important to note that the set temperature isn't the cooking temperature....the actual cooking temperature (due to evaporative cooling) depends on the relative humidity in the smoker and is usually (almost always) lower than the set temperature.

That's the main reason folks often see such a variation in cooking times.

As far as the Maverick reading different....that seems to be very common in these types of smokers.....you'd think that because of the insulation that the temps would be much more even....but due to tight quarters and the way heat funnels around what you're smoking (and water pans and the like)...there are varying temps in the smoker.

In the end, it all works out.

I've ran hundreds of hours of tests to better understand what's going on in these smokers.




~Martin

[NDKoze]

I always put my butts in at 11:00pm-12:00am. This usually give me enough time for those stubborn smokes. If they get done early, just turn the smoker down to 140 two hours prior to serving time. Then a 2-hour rest and you are golden.

I don't have an Auber yet. But I think the auto-tune would help as well.

[DivotMaker]

Great point about the evaporative cooling and humidity, Martin.  Of course, that determines the length of the stall, too!