The Longest Pork Shoulder Smoke... ever...

[SixZeroFour]

Decided to smoke a pork shoulder yesterday, but since my wife had an evening appointment I asked if the butcher could cut one in half for me. It ended up weighing just over 5 lbs so fairly small but perfect for what I needed. I had setup the WSM ahead of time and essentially just needed to trim and season the shoulder before slappin' it on the grill.

Everything went exactly according to plan as it always does... let meat sit at room temp for about 20min, inject the crap outta the thing until it will take no more liquid, then allow to sit for another 20min. I then transfer the shoulder into a SS serving pan where it is dried off completely with paper towels. Next step is to coat the meat in EVOO and apply the rub - in this case I went with a mix of Simply Marvelous Sweet Seduction and Yardbird.

Now here's where things get bat shit crazy... I slapped the "mini" butt onto the WSM at 10am Sharp yesterday morning thinking I would be able to eat a late supper about 7 or 8 o'clock... at about the 5 hours mark it hit a stall at 164 Deg. and sat there for about 45min to an hour, then started creeping up again until it hit 173 Deg. Once it hit 173 it literally did not move for 2.5 hours!! By the time I got the meat off, let it rest for an hour, and then pulled and plated it was 2 AM!!!

I cannot understand the logic of how such a small piece of meat could take 15 hours on the Smoker!! 

I usually do up 7 or 8 lb shoulders and I don't think I've ever had a single one go past maybe 12 hours tops...

In the end it was well worth the wait!! The bark came out really nice with a bit or crispiness on the outside and the smoke really got in there nicely as well








Cheers for looking!

[chuck s]

Man that is awesome looking ...... nothing better ....
Now question for ya.... what makes it stall?

[mhiszem]

That looks so good. Crazy why it took so long. I assume constant temperature.

[1buckie]

"I slapped the "mini" butt onto the WSM at 10am Sharp yesterday morning thinking I would be able to eat a late supper about 7 or 8 o'clock... at about the 3 hours mark it hit a stall at 164 Deg. and sat there for about 45min to an hour, then started creeping up again until it hit 173 Deg. Once it hit 173 it literally did not move for 2.5 hours!!"

At what running temperature?

The "stall" comes at the point where moisture transformation happens......collagen is converting to gelatin......it takes time, but can be sped up to almost an indistinguishable level with a higher cook temp, say 300~325f

See Here:

http://www.scienceofcooking.com/meat/slow_cooking1.htm

[Troy]

There are some other stall theories out there. Some say its caused by evaporation of liquid cooling the meat rather than collagen converting to gelatin.
I think both are factors and no one has offered enough science to prove either....

That said, perhaps your extreme injection caused considerably more evaporatative cooling. All that extra liquid evaporating kept the temp of the pork from rising.

[mhiszem]

Now that would make sense.

[1buckie]

"Some say its caused by evaporation of liquid cooling the meat rather than collagen converting to gelatin."

Basically one & the same....

From the link:

140°F/60°C -- Meat suddely releases lots of juice, shrinks noticebly, and becomes chewy as a result of collagen denaturing which squeezes out liquids.

Medium -- Well Meats: Collagen shrinks as the meat tmeperature rises to 140/60 more of the protein coagulates and cells become more seggregated into a solid core and surrounding liquid as the meat gets progressively firmer and moister. At 140-150 the meat suddenly releases lots of juices, shrinks noticeably and becomes chewier as a result of collagen shrinkage. Meat served at this temperature is considered medium and begins to change from juicy to dry.
160°F/70°C -- Connective tissue collagen begins to dissolve to gelatin. Melting of collagen starts to accelerate at 160F and continues rapidly up to 180F.

Well Done Slow Cooked Meats: Falling apart tenderness collagen turns to gelatin at 160/70. The meat gets dryer, but at 160F the connective tissues containing collagen begins to dissolve into gelatin. With time muscle fibers that had been held tightly together begin to easily spread apart. Although the fibers are still very stiff and dry the meat appears more tender since the gelatins provide succulence.
NOTES: At 140°F changes are caused by the denaturing of collagen in the cells. Meat served at this temperature med-rare is changing from juicy to dry. At 160°F/ 70°C connective tissue collagen begins to dissolve to gelatin. This however is a very lengthy process. The fibers are still stiff and dry but meat seems more tender. Source: Harold McGee -- On Food and Cooking

***Starting at 140 & up to just past 180, the meat is "pushing" out liquid, part of that cools as the liquids release, so two aspects of the same thing............

[SixZeroFour]

Thanks guys... the smoker sat rock solid between 225 and 245 for most of the cook. All the extra injection makes the most sense to me... it really plumped up nicely

[addicted-to-smoke]

Epic-looking cook there 604, and what a marathon!

[austin87]

Yeah I am also on the injection as the likely cause the of the stall. That said, patience turned out to be a virtue - that pork looks awesome!

[OoPEZoO]

I would guess it had to do with the injection as well.  I can't imagine what else would have caused it.  I've had some pretty stubborn stalls over the years, but never one like that from a piece of meat that small.  Hell.....I've had the opposite happen too.  This last weekend I was smoking two 8lb butts.  I was planning on them taking about 12 hours.  It turns out the damn things never really hit a stall and were done in less than 8 hours.  Nothing like waking up at 7am thinking you have few hours to go on a cook and all of a sudden you are scrambling for foil, pans, and a cooler that isn't packed with beer.....LOL

The pork looks great

[jdefran]

Did you wrap it in foil at all? The beautiful bark seems to indicate no.. Wonder if that would have helped in either stall.

[chuck s]

one of the many things I really like about this site is the education and great discussions.... thanks to all for solid info!!  Bottom line I agree with @austin87 - "patience turned out to be a virtue - that pork looks awesome!"

[MacEggs]

That's some fine looking PP.  Too bad it took so long.  My advice ....

Cook it at a higher temperature like THIS, and it will power thru the stall, and you will be eating by supper time. 

[LightningBoldtz]

I never inject butts, I usually only inject poultry.