37th Q: Pork Shoulder Roast without Bone with Speck & Raw Pork Sausages [pr0n only]

[This is not your pork!]

That's the cook from 16th March which I wasn't able to post before. Unbelievably it was still snowing mid of March, and we had a fluent change from Winter directly to Summer since then, Spring seems to be overrated anyway... :crazy:

For that cook I tried a different kind of raw pork sausage as well, and the pork shoulder without bone with speck without foiling. But look for yourself, I'll comment at the end of this posting:





































The sausages were good, although the thinner one didn't look quite that nice after the procedure.

The pork shoulder roast was an EPIC FAIL, because it completely dried out. It looked and smelled so good, but was inedible. I do not have any idea what went wrong, and it's another example for my series of failure when smoking something without foiling.

Is it me?
Is is my WSM?
Is is the meat?

What the hell has to be done to produce an excellent product without using foil?

There has to be a mystery to it which I still wasn't able to solve. :sad:

 

[ErikH]

What temp were you cooking at? What temp was the shoulder when you took it off?

 

[This is not your pork!]

It is hard to recall details more than a month later. Grate temp should have been around 350°F and I waited till IT 195°F or so. The pork's speck was facing downwards, and during the cook it looked just fine. IT throughout that piece of meat was also at or below 195°F at the end. It was resting in the oven afterwards.

Using my Thermapen already indicated that something was wrong, because it just didn't go in like butter.

I really need a success with doing something without foil, but tomorrow's cook will include foil to not mess it up again.

 

[nastynotch347]

When I'm probing the "butter" feel has always been just above 200* I don't cook to a certain temp but usually check before it comes off.

 

[ErikH]

I'm thinking you are cooking too hot. I think if you go for 275-300F at the grate, you should be able to go without foiling. I never foil my pork shoulders, but I usually go low and slow at 225F and live with the fact that I'll be chained to the smoker for 10-14 hrs.