First butt disaster

[tank]

So I got up early this morning around 5 am. Got my pork shoulder out and let sit for a while at room temperature. I ended buying a picnic pork roast. I believe it is the lower section of the shoulder. Anyways I got my smoker up and running and held a steady 225 going up to around 250 and maybe dropping to a low of 200. I didn't open the smoker up until an hour or so in and then only every other hour. Anyways I think the internal temp hit 140 at about 4-5 hours in. Can't remember for sure. After that it went up to 150 or so and then stalled. I expected this. 5 hours later it was sitting at about 155. 3 hours later it was sitting at 158. At this point I took it from the smoker and wrapped in foil and will finish in the oven. Anyways I checked my thermometers before starting and they seemed fine. It was a cold day today around 30F or below. No wind. Do you think the pork will still be safe to eat? Any idea why it took so long? Did I buy the wrong cut of shoulder? Any thoughts would be helpful. Very frustrating day.

 

[TulsaJeff]

Sounds like it was above the danger zone for the stall so I would say it is completely safe. I would wrap it and put in the oven and not even worry about it again until it hits 200°

I have had weird things happen like that.. some of them still unexplainable like my spare ribs that got done in 3 hours at 225-240 degrees. It was windy and cold but nothing more than that.

The danger zone, by the way, is 40°-140° and is the temperature at which bacteria grows and flourishes.

It is normal for pork butts/picnics to take 5 or more hours to top the 140° mark.

 

[pit 4 brains]

Hmmm.. . yeah, you have to cook them for quite some time. I've had to ramp up my fires to around 300 towards the end to get them done (when the bones extrude from the meat). You can cook it too fast if not carefull and it will be impossible to pull. One thing you can do is de-bone and tie before smoking.

 

[mballi3011]

Well you heard the man. He told you what to do and I have to agree with Jeff.

 

[pineywoods]

What Jeff said, just put it in foil it and take it to 200 in the oven

 

[thunderdome]

Can I ask what kind of smoker?

Today we tried to smoke a couple whole chickens and beef tenderloins, and my co-worker brought his Brinkman Gourmet Electric. The red one.

Anyhow, this took ALL DAY to get the chicken to 165. We put it on @ 8 am and took it off @ 3 with the thicker pieces not even being done.

We had it in the shade and it was abnormally cold. We carried it out to sunlight at about noon, and that helped quite a bit.

BUT those brinkman lids let a good amount of that cool air in it seems like if the air is movin at all. I could hold my hand on the lid and it wasn't even slightly warm. Whereas the cooking chamber (where the water bowl is) was extremely hot)

 

[codymcgee]

you know I have the same smoker. I've been hearing a lot of stuff like that but I think as long as you have something to knock the wind off it a little it works fine...I've used mine in below 30 weather and my temps are always fine.

 

[tank]

I have a perfect flame propane smoker from lowes. I had a thermometer right next to the meat and it was sitting pretty close to 225 the whole time. I ended putting the pork in the oven at 250 and it took another 6 hours to get it up to around 190. I then took it out and pulled it. It wasn't to bad. Maybe a little "hammy" tasting but pretty good. I will have to repeat this. I feel a little down that it didn't work that well. Maybe next time I will try another part of the shoulder and try something smaller.

 

[chefrob]

first off.......scary thread title!

i have the same smoker with minor mods and with you being on the east coast it might have struggled with the cold and the larger cut of meat. that being said, it sounds like you were o.k. with your time in the danger zone. one of the mods that i did as to use charcoal as a heat source as well as gas.....i like to be prepared.