[thirdeye]

Originally Posted by KSims1868

I have had my pork shoulder (9 lbs) on the UDS for about 14 hours.
It was at 174* an hour ago, and now it is at 172*.

I added a whole chicken about an hour ago to the rack. Did the chicken pull some of the heat out of the pork shoulder?

My UDS temp is about 240* and holding strong.
Why would the internal temp of the pork shoulder be going down?

It happens a lot, it's just that most folks either don't notice it or don't really monitor the internal temp until the last several hours of the cook.

The reason behind the drop in meat temp is basically because the energy from the heat is going into the conversion process instead of into the meat. Think of it this way, the flow of liquefied collagen & fat is stealing heat (energy) out of the meat. As the conversion comes to an end, the heat starts going back into the meat, and the internal begins to rise.