Pork shoulder troubles

[illinois-smoke]

So I did my 1st shoulder on my vertical charcoal yesterday. It was about a 5# piece boneless and started out fine. At about 6 hours I stalled at 160. No worries right, so I let it go for another 4 hours and still had only gotten to 180. Finally broke down and foiled even though I did not want to. Almost and hour later it had only gotten up to 184.......

I was running at 250-275 the entire time so my question is that when I went to pull it I noticed a huge vein of fat and gristle.

Could that be my temp issue? 

 

[dirtsailor2003]

Yes if your probe was in that fat you may have been getting false readings.

 

[SmokinAl]

It's always good to double check the meat temp with an instant read therm in several places when you think it's done, or possibly not reading correctly.

Al

 

[hb99]

Ahh, "foiled" by the old stall are we?

I agree with SmokinAI, you really should check your temps at several points along the meat. 

Naturally, the outer edge of the meat will read higher and should drop the closer you get to the center of it.  3-4 readings near the center will give you an indicator of the area not quite done (at the time of the reading).

Lately, I've been foiling between 147 and 149. If I do it like the pro's and add apple juice I heat it up first so it doesn't drop the temp of the meat (cold added to hot = warm).  I found it breezes right through the stall.

If you want to be a "non-foiler" then IMO, you could always remove the foil after cutting through the stall.

I've had boneless (netted) butts that had fat/gristle that did not render even though the meat was done. "Done" being a relative term.  I now don't pull any of my meat off until it reaches 205-207, except for the ribs which are fall off the bone (aka "over done" by many).  Being in our 60s and 70s were not "hard bark" people (old teeth)...and the family never complains (people getting free meals rarely do).