Butt Smoke Marathon

[SkunkedAgain]

I got a typical 6.75lb pork shoulder from Rainbow last week. I slathered on yellow mustard and then a healthy pile of rub and let is sit for a day. On Friday night I put it in the smoker at 10pm. It went all night in the 200-225 degree range. In the morning I turned up the heat so it was running around 230 degrees. By 10am it hit 150 IT and dropped down to 145, so I figured that it hit an early stall. I increased the heat to 275 degrees to power through the stall a bit. All afternoon and evening it stayed in the 150s though. I went to bed on Saturday night at 10pm and it was at an IT of 167. When I woke up at 6:30am on Sunday it was only at 171! I double checked the IT with a backup digital thermometer and confirmed the temp. I let it go until about 10am, an IT of 176, and then wrapped it in foil and threw it in the cooler for 2 hours.

The meat was great, tender, and great bark. Does anyone have ANY clue why I could smoke it for 34 hours and not get the IT above 176? My last 6-7lbs pork shoulder hit an IT of 200 after 12 hours, but did not have yellow mustard under the rub.

Any thoughts?

[OnAFly]

Faulty thermocouple in the smoker?

There's no way it should take 34 hours to smoke.

[McGurk]

Agreed- check the thermometer. Boil some water and see if it reads 212 or so. Also, I like to know the temp at the grate by the meat and you can add some mods to figure that out. You already have a digital thermo, but is it one with a 3' wired probe? If so, stick it through a small hunk of potato of wood with a hole in it and set it on the grate by the meat, and close it up to see what you have at the grate.

Otherwise get a 12" long "turkey fryer" thermometer, and using the boiling water confirm that it is close to accurate. Then get a small threaded brass fitting (I used a "Watts A-218" fitting available in the gas line fittings dept of a hardware store) and mount it so the probe will sit about 1" below the grate where the meat will sit. Drill it out with a 1/8" bit, and insert the probe. It will go in and out tightly, but the probe will sit where you want it to without wiggling around. I mounted 2) in mine, one for each grate. The fitting looks like this:

Here is my build thread with pix about halfway down the first page showing what I did.

McGurk's UDS build

[SkunkedAgain]

I've got a cheap Masterbuilt smoker from Menards, but I've got a Maverick dual probe. The grate thermometer was pretty consistent with the cheap dial thermometer mounted in the cabinet door all throughout the 34 hours. However, it's a good idea for me check it in the boiling water test. I'll do that tonight to confirm.

[Farley]

You should always get the meat up to 140 within 4 hours. Otherwise you run the risk of bochulism.

[SkunkedAgain]

I don't think that's true with whole muscle....internet old-wives tale

[updecreek]

Never rely on the door temp on the cheap smokers. I have a oven temp gauge hanging on the grate itself. Smoke for 5-6 hours finish in the oven. double wraped in foil and bring internal temp to 195 degress. then pull it out and let it rest at least 2 hours the longer the better but if your hungry. In a cooler is best. But anywhere works just let it rest.

The Mechanics Of Letting Meat Rest

In the book How to Cook Meat, authors Chris Schlesinger and John Willoughby state that as meat proteins are heated during cooking, they coagulate and squeeze out some of the moisture inside their coiled structures and in the spaces between the individual molecules. The heat drives this liquid toward the center of the meat. In the book CookWise, author Shirley O. Corriher reveals a bit more detail: as meat proteins cook, they begin to shrink. Up to 120°F, the proteins shrink in diameter only and there is little moisture loss, but above 120°F the proteins also begin to shrink in length, which really puts the squeeze on moisture. By 170°F, most of the moisture will be squeezed out of a lean piece of meat.

As meat rests, this process is partially reversed. The moisture that is driven toward the center of the meat is redistributed as the protein molecules relax and are able to reabsorb some moisture. As a result, less juice runs out of the meat when you cut into it. Willoughby claims that if you cut into meat right away, almost twice as much liquid is lost than if you let it rest before carving

[McGurk]

Another thought... Never smoke at a temp close to your desired end result. If you want 200 int temp, it will take forever to get there if you are smoking at 200 deg. I like pork smoked at 250-275 the whole run, as it takes a lot of heat to get through the stall with little difference in change of int temp during that few hours. Here is a graph that shows how a typical reaction to around 250 deg smoking temp, with a display of int temp over time:

3 hours to get to 150, and another 6 hours to get to 160, with the last 3 hours to get it to 200 or so. A couple hours of rest time, and pull away! It is important to get that int temp over 140 sooner than later, as stated, and I hope your Mav thermo is reading low. I don't think you can tune a cheap dig thermo, but I might be wrong.

[SkunkedAgain]

I just did the boiling water test. I tested both the IT and grate thermometers on the Maverick and then my digital meat thermometer from the kitchen. All were at 212 when the water boiled.

Here is a condensed summary of my log from the smoke:

(ST = Smoker Temp at grate)

(IT = Internal temp)

3/8 10pm - Pork Shoulder put in smoker

3/9 2am - SM=190 ; IT=88

3/9 7am - SM=217 ; IT=129

3/9 10am - SM=250 ; IT=149

3/9 2pm - SM=248 ; IT=147

3/9 6pm - SM=282 ; IT=163

3/9 11pm - SM=262 ; IT=169

daylight savings +1hr

3/10 8am - SM=241 ; IT=171

3/10 9:15 - Pork removed from smoker with IT=176

Pork wrapped in foil, blanket, newspapers & put in cooler until 11:30am

11:30am - perfect bark and fall-of-the-bone, moist, tender meat

Why did this take so long but never got to the right internal temp? Could it have just been an odd pork butt? Could I have used too much mustard and rub, somehow creating a barrier? My two previous smokes of similar weight took 13 and 15 hours respectively.

[OnAFly]

Ahhh I know what it was. DST threw it off!

Might been the most colagen packed butt ever. Never had one go that long.

[Slabineye]

Great Tips reading trouble shooting post!Does anybody have a opinion on the type of smoker to buy for the first timer Gas Or Electric? Willing to spend 500

[delcecchi]

Great Tips reading trouble shooting post!Does anybody have a opinion on the type of smoker to buy for the first timer Gas Or Electric? Willing to spend 500

I like my Weber Smokey Mountain, but since that is the only one I have had, I have nothing to compare it to.

[Alagnak]

I'd go gas all day if you plan on doing much smoking year round, or larger jobs. If you're an occasional user and can get away with one of those smaller digital insulated ones I'm sure they're nice too.

[otterman91105]

I always smoke my pork roast's at 225. Yea it's seems wierd that the temp would not come up quicker. Must be a bad temp gauge. Seems like most of the time the temp gets to 160 pretty quick.

[OnAFly]

Slabineye - Depends on what you want out of it. Lots of guys on here have Masterbuilt Digital Smokers and they do just fine in temps down to about 20F, then you need to heat up the thermocouple before it will start.