superbowl advice on a pork shoulder

[turbodog]

Hey guys, so I picked up a 9lb bone in boston butt from my butcher. Washed it, trimmed it, rubbed it and its in the fridge awaiting to be pulled and chow'd on superbowl sunday with a group of us. Last time i smoked a shoulder like this, it took right around 12 hours to get to temp, and another hour or so of resting afterwards.

given that the game starts around 3:30 west coast time, what would you guys do to have the best preparation possible for this?

I'm trying to find out from some more experienced smokers how they handle time constraints such as this. It's tough for me to pull an all nighter now a days, but will do what i gotta do to feed the masses. Thanks guys, any and all advice will be appreciated

 

[woundedyak]

Your cook time will depend on the fat in the shoulder. You can always foil once it hits the plateau and bump the temp up to 300+ to speed things up. If you finish early, no worries. Just foil,wrap in a towel and put it in a empty cooler. It will hold temps for hours. Good luck

 

[turbodog]

thanks for the reply,but  i'm actually just seeing what you do as far as staying up all nite and smoking, or waking up insanely early to get it going. I understand the proper cook times and all that, the question is more geared towards the method for dealing with long smokes and sleeping times. thanks guys 

 

[SmokinAl]

What kind of smoker do you have?

 

[turbodog]

i have a smoke hallow side burner. i burn sticks with charcoal and my smoker definately needs to be constantly monitored to keep an even temp throughout.

any advice?

 

[jrod62]

if you don't want to stay up all night watching it .

1) smoke it ahead of time and just reheat when game starts.

2) put it on, get 6 to 8 hours of smoke time then foil and stick in oven and get some rest.

3) start it at 6am and smoke it at 300+ the whole time. ( i will get yell at for that)

it will get done in 6 or 7 hours. I have done it both ways "low and slow" and "hot and fast"

4) start low and slow then bump it up to finish at hot and fast.

if you go hot just protect it in a pan with fat cap down and not to much sugar in the rub.

don't want the rub to burn.

hope I don't get kick out of SMF for saying "hot and fast"

 

[rhinoguy]

I would start smoking around 5:00 today.  Then toss it in the oven overnight and have a digital thermometer with an alarm on it. When the alarm goes off walk in the kitchen and turn the heat off.  It will stay warm in there until you are ready to get up and start the day.

 

[sprky]

Well what I normally do is set an alarm and get up every hour or so and check it. I have also done the strong coffee bit. Another thing I have done is smoke for 1/2 the calculated time, put in foil pan covered in 2 layers of foil with a liberal dose of my spritz in pan thrown it in oven set at 225 and let it go while I slept. The only difference I see doing it this way is the bark is not set as well. 

 

[jrod62]

Well what I normally do is set an alarm and get up every hour or so and check it. I have also done the strong coffee bit. Another thing I have done is smoke for 1/2 the calculated time, put in foil pan covered in 2 layers of foil with a liberal dose of my spritz in pan thrown it in oven set at 225 and let it go while I slept. The only difference I see doing it this way

is the bark is not set as well.  

my last butt i put in the oven to finish i did not foil and it came out with a real nice bark.
 

 

[turbodog]

thanks for your tips guys. I have a 9 pound boston butt so it looks like i'm gonna need around 16 hours of TOTAL time until serving. I neglected even thinking about throwing it in the oven, but i guess it really doesnt matter once its foiled, right? If that's the case this is quite simple, Throw it on the smoker in a few hours, let it go til it gets to 160, foil it and throw it in the oven. That would probably be at 4 am which is perfect because then i'll easily be able to go to bed knowing that the pork is fine. Do you guys throw it back on the smoker after it's been foiled, or will it just fall apart? I know when i do ribs, i like to throw them back on the smoker after i foil at a higher temp to get a good texture. Does this apply to pork shoulder? Thanks guys, go PATS!!