Crazy shoulder cook today

unoriginalusername · July 2018

picked up a 7 pound bone out shoulder last minute yesterday driving by a new butcher for lunch today vs serving our guests frozen burgers got vetoed real quick once I learned that was the plan... did a quick salt brine and let it ride uncovered for 12 hours in the fridge before it was time to go on the egg

the last few that size cooked really fast so I put it on the egg just after 12:30 and it was up to temp and stable around 1am. Fell asleep outside, woke up at 2 and it was exactly where I left it so I went inside for the night until the morning.

I came out expecting it to be done and ready for the cooler before church and to my surprise it was as firm as it was in the fridge and IT was only in the mid 150’s... with people arrriving for lunch in a few hours I wrapped it in foil with some apple cider vinegar and cranked the heat up from 235 to 350 and left for church hoping it made progress fast.

When we got home it was 194 but still probing firm and the bark wasn’t as dark as I wanted so I uncovered and put it back in with a piece of wood and let that ride for about half an hour.

With lunch in an hour now it was still not probing right at 200 so I re wrapped it in butcher paper and put that in a foil pan covered with foil for another 30 and then let it rest in that setup before the moment of truth 30 min later.

To my surprise it might be the best shoulder I’ve ever done, the tenderness was perfect as was the flavour and bark. No idea how to replicate it though as this one was all over the map lol