Pork Shoulders - 11 hours and still only 165 internal temp

[EasyE]

I had my maiden voyage on my new EX-4 for Super Bowl Sunday. I put on two 9 pound bone in Boston Butts at 6 AM pretty much direct from the fridge. The SmokeFire had pre-heated to 225 and my initial internal read from the probe was 41 degrees. After 11 hours of cooking the internal temp only registered 165 degrees. I believe I hit the stall at around 160 and it sat there for a good hour and then started to creep up. The meat had great flavor and a nice smoke ring but was only sliceable. It was not nearly tender enough to pull.

Q - what did I do wrong? I thought 11 hours at 225 would have been more than sufficient to get near 200 so it pulled apart.
Q - should I test the accuracy of the stated temp for the Ex-4?

I found my EX6 gen2‘s temp probe is t accurate at all. Did the same for our Super Bowl meal but mine turned out great. Had to set the SF at 300 deg to get the temp inside up to 225 deg. Next time try putting an extra probe plugged into the control box and placing it on the grates inside the SF. I think you will find yours runs cooler than the SF is set at.

 

[JpsBBQ]

I’m a big proponent of putting the butt in a foil pan and wrapping the top. This captures all the renderings. Then pour off the renderings to a fat separator and reincorporate the seasoned juices to the final pulled product. It’s a whole other level. Flavor bomb.

 

[richfleek]

What @Wilkie said....

 

[JpsBBQ]

I found my EX6 gen2‘s temp probe is t accurate at all. Did the same for our Super Bowl meal but mine turned out great. Had to set the SF at 300 deg to get the temp inside up to 225 deg. Next time try putting an extra probe plugged into the control box and placing it on the grates inside the SF. I think you will find yours runs cooler than the SF is set at.

Mine runs a different temps left to right and top to bottom racks. I like it because I can move things around or place larger cuts in the hotter areas.

 

[Yoda]

I have had same issue with pork butts. Both times they didn't get done till almost midnight and had to throw a burger on for dinner. I will be starting them at midnight from now on and hope they will be done by dinner time.

 

[notquitestr8t]

I can only repeat what others have said. I had the same problem with a SMALL roast. Likely the probe was reporting an incorrect temp. As mentioned, a good instant read thermometer is a good investment.

 

[JpsBBQ]

Just bump your temp if it's not getting done. heck, you can bump the temp to 300 + if needed. Once wrapped, it should climb steadily and predictable. There is no need to cook Butts at a low temperature except to draw out the cook for timing purposes. I sometimes put them on at 225 at night just to make sure they don't get done too early. then in the morning i bump the temp to 250-275 depending on the IT of the butts. Wrap and either leave at 275 or bump to 300. they can also rest for hours and hours, so there is no reason to not pplan on being done 2-4 hour before you'd like to eat.

 

[jcdeclue]

Lots of good advice but I’ll go ahead and share mine. First, I never wrap pork shoulders. I’ve had some stall but they eventually push through. 225 is ok for the first few hours. After 5-6 hours they won’t take any more smoke so turning the temp up is ok. I just did two shoulders on my EX6 (very first cook on it) and I think my smoker temp ended up at 325 or 350 when I took them off. Still took about 12 hours but after a couple of hours to rest, they pulled like butter, were moist and tasted great.

 

[PatrickE]

Yeah, as others have already said… I learned my last couple of cooks to bump up the temp 25 or 50 degrees to push through the stall. I don’t think it’s cheating.

 

[PEF42]

If you are having problems with the glow plug it’s likely due to it not being properly seated. I distinctly remember thinking this is gonna be a problem when I assembled mine. It seems like it’s seated but it’s not really have to apply a decent amount of pressure. Just trying to help. They should last years. If they aren’t lasting years then they aren’t seated and are shorting themselves out.

can you elaborate? do you mean upon installtion, putting it into the bracket, or actually into the weber?

 

[JpsBBQ]

can you elaborate? do you mean upon installtion, putting it into the bracket, or actually into the weber?

The glow plug in mine came loose and I had to snap it into a receiver. Once I got it seated (snapped in) properly I’ve had zero issues.