Craziest Stall I've Seen on a Pork Shoulder

bigguy136

I put on a 9.5 lb pork shoulder last night about 6:30. My alarms were going off for too hot, too cold all night even with my Stokers and I was working with the dixie wheel figuring I had too much of an air leak from my original felt gasket failing (9 months on it). At 2:00 AM, I was down from 225° to 210° and couldn't get it to go back up. I figured I would get the wiggle rod out (pouring rain all night) and when I did that, I saw my fan unit was still sitting to the side where I left it when I was cleaning out the ash before starting (my draft door is on the back side so I didn't notice). Okay, put the fan in place and get some sleep. 20 hours into it, here is what I have. When I saw the dip 4 hours into it, I figured that was my stall but 9+ hours at 170°??? 20 hours into this, time for some extra heat.

SteveWPBFL

Cooked a boneless manually last night. By morning it was 174 and for the next two hours it acted like it wanted to stay there so increased dome temp from a rock solid 220F to 250F and drove the internal meat temp to 199F and pulled it.

So perhaps it is inherent in the meat heat transfer at those conditions and the way to attack it is once IT reaches 170F and levels off you set the controller to increase dome in 5 or 10 degree increments until you start getting a similar rise in IT.

Can you do that?

SteveWPBFL

And you did more than what I just said and it didn't work! Hmmm!

bigguy136

I thought a 9 hour stall was a little odd. Here is the finished product.

Duganboy

It happens.  I've done countless number of pork butts over the years.  Wed night I put one on at 8 pm at 225 with my DigiGuru.  Went to bed at midnight and it was 160 on two different probes.  Got up at 8 am and it was 164.

This but was 10.9 lbs and took almost 20 hours to get to 200 degrees.  It is done when it is done and this one was perfect.

Chubbs

Did a butt yesterday. 9.2 pound bone in. After 14 hours it was at 198 and 30 minutes before the Derby so I pulled it. It was incredible. It was in the 170 for 5 hours. Went from 178 down to 171. These thi gs are all over the place and they are done when they are done. Good eats though. Yours looks solid.

Duganboy

How many beers was that Chubbs?

The Cen-Tex Smoker

Did a butt yesterday. 9.2 pound bone in. After 14 hours it was at 198 and 30 minutes before the Derby so I pulled it. It was incredible. It was in the 170 for 5 hours. Went from 178 down to 171. These thi gs are all over the place and they are done when they are done. Good eats though. Yours looks solid.

ah, look who's up from his little nap. Did you make to your own party yesterday? When you start at 3:30 am, it has to make for an interesting day. 

The Cen-Tex Smoker

Sorry, bit of a hi-jack there. Disregard (not you Chubbs- I want the dirt)

Chubbs

How many beers was that Chubbs?

Put down an 18er yesterday and a 12er on the golf course today. My liver hurts. Drinking water right now. Having first baby in July so trying to get em in now I guess. )

The Cen-Tex Smoker

How many beers was that Chubbs?

Put down an 18er yesterday and a 12er on the golf course today. My liver hurts. Drinking water right now. Having first baby in July so trying to get em in now I guess. )

Nice dude. Well played. If you think having babies make you drink LESS, you are out of your mind.

Good luck

ribnrun

My last butt was a Walmart special, thing was injected. It stalled out for over 8 beers (5 hours). My theory is that it had lost of water to evaporate out with all the crap they injected. It was still good, but the last cryovac I buy from Walmart.

Chubbs

I have to drink a **** ton to even go into Wal-mart.

lousubcap

I have to drink a **** ton to even go into Wal-mart.

I also drink a ****-ton and won't go to WW-but I applaud your style. The kid will be a game changer-and in a good way til they become "all knowledgeable"...and it happens sooner than you would think.  Congrats!

Jrod72

My first shoulder on the egg. 7.5 lbs bone in. I started out at 230 temp and keep it solid for hours. Went to bed for a few hours and a some point hit 300 temp. Kicked it back down. For a total of about 12 hrs then check for first time. Internal meat temp was 210-212. Outside was a little chared. Even an over cooked shoulder tasted better on an bge than I have ever eaten! Next time will have better success I'm sure. I love my bge and have gotten my neighbors attention on both sides of me.

MrCookingNurse

This new knowledge of cooking to temp and the good ole stall sure makes me think about people that just smoke a but a few hours never check a temp and don't know anything about the stall... It's obviously prolly "safe" to eat but now I know why it doesn't taste that great

IrishDevl

Chubbs, I am sure you look great being in your last trimester, but I would probably cut the beer intake down to 10 limit with your kid on the way. It will just put additional pounds on including the baby weight that you will just have to work off after you give birth.