Pork shoulder stall question

I have three 5 pound shoulders that I threw on the smoker at 5:40 PM last night. By around 10 PM, we hit 140. I loaded up some more lump into the wUDS and went to bed with my ET 732.

At 1:45 I was at 288 grill temp and 161 meat temp. I got it down to 232 and holding.

Now at 6 AM, I am still in the stall. Different shoulders have different temps varying about 10 degrees, but generally around 150 to 162

I have to leave for a graduation in an hour and 15 minutes and pretty darn sure I wont be anywhere near 190+ by then. I wont be back until noon, so around 6 hours from now.

If I load up the basket and take off, I'm worried I'll over cook it. But lets face it, there's no way it'll be done in the next hour. I need to make a decision because it can take me an hour to stabilize temps after I load up the lump.

What would you guys do?

ButtBurner said:

at this point I would put them in the oven at a low enough temp to get you through

I dont know why you are cooking them at 225, I usually do them about 250- 275 and they dont take near that long

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i was aiming for 250 but i was tired and a little hung over. Once I got the temp to stop fluctuating, I called it good and went to bed.

Oven is what I was thinking. Should I tent it in a pan with some liquid? How hot you think? What's the danger in me crutching it for the next 6 hours at 225 in the oven?

Shoulder's are my nemesis. Not sure if its the weather or whatever but a single 5 pounder at 260 took me 11 hours on two separate occasions. That's with stable temps for 95% of the cook.

ButtBurner said:

does you oven have a timer on it?

maybe you could set it to cook for a few hours then shut off?

I dont know about foiling it or not, depends on the bark. I have cooked them through before (but not to pulling temp) put them in a covered roaster in the fridge overnight then finished them in the oven the next day

they are pretty forgiving

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It does and I was thinking the same.

Wifey suggested I pull and put in the fridge. Then crock pot it for the rest of the day.

Bludawg said:

You should have left it at 288 or let run up to 300 you'd be in relaxing & those butts would be hanging in out waiting for the party to start, instead of asking about a stall.There is no stall at a higher temp. and over all cook times diminish by 2/3, Butts are forgiving Pull 'en wrap 'em and put them into a 275 deg oven and set the timmer for hrs until shut down, yo can stay away for up to 5 hrs and they will be ready to pull when you get back.

BBQ RULES FOR SUCCESS


YOU CAN NOT COOK GREAT BBQ ON A CONSISTENT BASIS BY COOKING TO AN INTERNAL TEMPERATURE OR BY TIME ( XXX MIN PER LB) YOU MUST COOK BY FEEL! For Brisket it must pass the poke test(probe like soft butter in the thickest part of the Flat) Ribs pass the Bend Test, Pork Butts when the bone wiggles loose. These are the only reliable methods to ensure that your cook will be a success. There is one exception to these rules and that is Poultry which must achieve and internal temp of 170 deg in the thickest part of the thigh and 165 in the breast.

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While I agree with you, I am also a beginner and also don't have the luxury of time to fark around. I use time and temp as a guideline so that I can plan. Trust me, if I had all day today to mess with it, I would have thrown it on at 250 last night and let it go until it was probe tender. As the situation lies, I am in a bind. I probably should have left it at 288 or 300 but that's the advantage of hind sight. I had no idea I would have stalled at 160 for 5 hours.

Update...

I put them in the oven at 235 using the crutch method. Came home and they were probe tender. Checked and they read 199, 205, 206.

Next time, I will do it at 275 the whole way and see what my baseline will be.