Hello folks. Saturday was a long day with an 11 hour smoke of a handsome 10 pound shoulder. My beautiful Weber Kettle had no trouble, with a few draft adjustments and using knowledge learned here on the forum (Thank you all again so much for sharing), maintaining a temp of 230 to 240 the entire time with just the one starting fill in the Slow and Sear 2.0. Topped off the water trough once at about 6 hours, and added cherry wood chunks as needed. Love my new Weber Kettle. Just love it.
Thing for me is this. I have some physical issues that prevent me from putting in 11 hour smoke days any more even with rests. The stall period is the bugaboo for me. It took 3 hours Saturday to push through that stall from 180 to 195, at which point it was getting dark, I was hurting pretty badly, and I had to call it a day. Just too worn out to bring the IT up to 202 on my Weber and had to finalize it in the kitchen oven.
I've never wrapped a butt because I like a crisp bark. Texture of my fare means a lot to me and my family and I don't want to lose the crunch. Presentation is everything for food I say.
Reading here and watching some videos I've decided to try the following approach next time, which will be maybe in another 3 weeks. This is a culmination of everything I THINK I've learned and I'd appreciate other's thoughts of things to watch out for. I love and appreciate continuing education.
I plan to:
Start the butt early as always in a hot Weber at 230 degrees.
Don't cheat and look more than each couple hours, when I spray mist the meat.
Get the IT up to 165 or so and inject my 50/50 vinegar and fruit juice injection.
Bring it to the stall, which in my experience begins at around 175 to 180.
Pull and WRAP the butt with half a cup of liquid.
RAISE the Weber temp to 275, maybe even 300 until the stall surrenders to my will (grin), maybe even reaching 197 or thereabouts.
UNWRAP the butt and crisp the bark back up as I lower smoke unwrapped up to 202.
Pull and wrap again, resting an hour before I pull the meat from the bone and spread it out for cooling and packaging.
Sure hoping that I can reduce smoker time to maybe 8 hours. Friends am I missing something here please? Will the bark crisp back up in a hot Weber and reach the magic 202 quickly after unwrapping at say 197 up to 202 like I'm hoping?
Thanks for any critiques. Don