Beef Shoulder Enchiladas w Oakridge Habanero Death Dust

[Jlems]

Man this cook took a long time. I mean, a three pound shoulder took 10 hours. TEN! I have no idea what that was about (If someone knows, please share!)but here’s how it went:
-Oakridge Habanero Death Dust and SPOGOS rubbed
-On the cooker 6 hours at 230-250 until IT 160
-Butcher paper wrap three hours at 270-280
-Rest one hour and pull, mix up with Herdez hot salsa and wrap in flour tortillas. Top with homemade Ancho and Guajillo enchilada sauce And a little asadero cheese, bake for 20 mins at 350.
This was good!! I’ll need to try shoulder again though. Not exactly tender without some help.

While the beef was initially a little dry, when mixed in the final meal was spectacular. Shout out to Oakridge, the rubs are fantastic.

[WilliamKY]

Never seen a 3lb shoulder. Bizarre it took 10hrs at 230-250. Still your cook looks delicious. Might want to check your gauges.

[Jlems]

Never seen a 3lb shoulder. Bizarre it took 10hrs at 230-250. Still your cook looks delicious. Might want to check your gauges.

Thanks! Was labeled a “shoulder roast” but ya this made no sense. It stalled at 170ish like a larger cut would. With three chamber gauges I know that couldn’t be off. One of those things where I’ll probably have to do it again to check ;)

[sudsandswine]

HDD/SPOGOS combo eh? May have to give that one a whirl sometime I feel like getting crazy. Looks good!

[Stingerhook]

Darn fine Justin.

[Jlems]

HDD/SPOGOS combo eh? May have to give that one a whirl sometime I feel like getting crazy. Looks good!

Sometimes crazy is all that’s left! Probably a 3:1 ratio HDD to SPOGOS. Still quite spicy. Would like to try it on a brisket. Ribs even.

[ShadowDriver]

That looks great, Justin.

I've joined in the SPOGOS wagon train as of late - loved it on ribs last weekend.

I'd be interested in following suit with a combo of SPOGOS/HDD in the near future.

Killer enchiladas, man. Keep the great ideas coming.

[SMOKE FREAK]

Sometimes a chunk of cow is just stubborn. It's up to us to be more stubborn...10 hours is a test of your BBQ dedication. Well done.

[RickAllen]

You didn't mention an internal temp while cooking in the wrap. In order for connective tissue to dissolve it needs around 195 degrees or higher. These are the only problems that I can think of that would cause such a long cook on a smaller piece of meat.

1. Your smoker looks huge compared to what you cooked. Was it possible that the grill temp was only 250 for a very small portion of the actual cooking chamber? Was it only 250 on the end where the heat is comming from the fire box? Or was it 250 at the end of the chamber by the vent pipe? The more stable temp in an offset like that is toward the end, not by the fire box.

2. Was your meat frozen before you cooked it? One of the most common causes of meat taking this long to cook is that it was not properly thawed in the center of the meat before cooking. This can also be why the center of the meat was still chewy if you cooked it to the proper temp.

Advice:

*measure the grill temp at different parts of the cooking chamber. If you read Franklins book and notice where his temp gauges are, they are at the vent pipe end of the chamber, the coldest part of the cook chamber. This is why many people do not use large smokers for small cooks. The temptation when using a large offset for a small cook is to use less fuel. But you can't. You have to use the same fuel to get that entire cook chamber to the right temperature. Instead, for small cooks, they use a barrel or WSM smoker where the heat rises directly vertically and not horizontally like a off set cooker.

* measure the meat temp all over the meat, not just in one place. If you have a problem with meat being tough then you need a better gauge of the temperature. Take 4-5 readings at different points, not just one reading that you guess is around the center or thickest part of the meat.

** the reason that a smaller piece of meat almost takes as long to cook as a larger piece of meat is because overall weight is not the only thing that matters. Instead it's how thick the heat needs to penetrate. Think about it like this, a 5 lb piece of meat may be only 5 inches from the center to the surface. Whereas an 8 lb piece of meat may still only be 5 1/2 inches from center to surface. In essence a meat that weights twice as much is not twice the distance from center to surface. Instead it's more like 1/3rd more the distance from the center to surface or less.

[Shiz-Nit]

Never seen a 3lb shoulder. Bizarre it took 10hrs at 230-250. Still your cook looks delicious. Might want to check your gauges.

Food looks wonderful

But I agree with the above I would pull my gauges and check them. Most of them have an adjustment on the back side or at least all mine do, I check mine by doing the boiling water test.

Im at work and can not use sound in the office so I hope this vid is not bad as I have never listened to it before but it appears to show you just how I check mine.

One of mine last year was off 75*

https://www.bing.com/videos/search?q=how+to+check+and+adjust+grill+guages&docid=608009731124235117&mid=391CEAC64BAD120993DC391CEAC64BAD120993DC&view=detail&FORM=VIREHT

[rovster]

Looks great. That HDD is spicy. My wife loves it dusted on ribs but I can see how it would be great with enchiladas!

[Jlems]

You didn't mention an internal temp while cooking in the wrap. In order for connective tissue to dissolve it needs around 195 degrees or higher. These are the only problems that I can think of that would cause such a long cook on a smaller piece of meat.

1. Your smoker looks huge compared to what you cooked. Was it possible that the grill temp was only 250 for a very small portion of the actual cooking chamber? Was it only 250 on the end where the heat is comming from the fire box? Or was it 250 at the end of the chamber by the vent pipe? The more stable temp in an offset like that is toward the end, not by the fire box.

2. Was your meat frozen before you cooked it? One of the most common causes of meat taking this long to cook is that it was not properly thawed in the center of the meat before cooking. This can also be why the center of the meat was still chewy if you cooked it to the proper temp.

Advice:

*measure the grill temp at different parts of the cooking chamber. If you read Franklins book and notice where his temp gauges are, they are at the vent pipe end of the chamber, the coldest part of the cook chamber. This is why many people do not use large smokers for small cooks. The temptation when using a large offset for a small cook is to use less fuel. But you can't. You have to use the same fuel to get that entire cook chamber to the right temperature. Instead, for small cooks, they use a barrel or WSM smoker where the heat rises directly vertically and not horizontally like a off set cooker.

* measure the meat temp all over the meat, not just in one place. If you have a problem with meat being tough then you need a better gauge of the temperature. Take 4-5 readings at different points, not just one reading that you guess is around the center or thickest part of the meat.

** the reason that a smaller piece of meat almost takes as long to cook as a larger piece of meat is because overall weight is not the only thing that matters. Instead it's how thick the heat needs to penetrate. Think about it like this, a 5 lb piece of meat may be only 5 inches from the center to the surface. Whereas an 8 lb piece of meat may still only be 5 1/2 inches from center to surface. In essence a meat that weights twice as much is not twice the distance from center to surface. Instead it's more like 1/3rd more the distance from the center to surface or less.

Man do I appreciate you guys and this forum. Thank you for the additional considerations. I'm pretty overkill on gauges actually, with a teltru on the door FB side, teltru on the door top/center, and digital FB grate and stack grate. This was certainly a "dense" piece of meat though, so the thoughts on thickness makes a lot of sense. I might start back with my egg soon for stuff like this, but the darn offset is just so much more fun! :grin:

[RickAllen]

Man do I appreciate you guys and this forum. Thank you for the additional considerations. I'm pretty overkill on gauges actually, with a teltru on the door FB side, teltru on the door top/center, and digital FB grate and stack grate. This was certainly a "dense" piece of meat though, so the thoughts on thickness makes a lot of sense. I might start back with my egg soon for stuff like this, but the darn offset is just so much more fun! :grin:

Offset smokers are notorious if they are not made correctly. One of the best books I have read so far on the subject is Franklin's BBQ book. He explains all the problems of a traditional offset smoker and what to do to either modify your offset or make due and compensate for it's issues. He mentions everything from baffles and bricks in front of the fire box port to alterations in the vent stack. If you like using the Offset then I highly recommend reading this section of his book.

[Jlems]

Offset smokers are notorious if they are not made correctly. One of the best books I have read so far on the subject is Franklin's BBQ book. He explains all the problems of a traditional offset smoker and what to do to either modify your offset or make due and compensate for it's issues. He mentions everything from baffles and bricks in front of the fire box port to alterations in the vent stack. If you like using the Offset then I highly recommend reading this section of his book.

His book is incredible. I'm surprised the pages aren't falling out of my copy by now! Might look at some of those easy mods again just to see what results I might find.

[Jlems]

And he can take his sweet time building those Franklin pits. I don't need any additional temptation.

[RickAllen]

One more thing that you probably already know but I'll state it anyway for others who may not is that when the temp gets to 195 after the wrap probe it with your hand held temp probe in many places (as we talked about before) but check for resistance to the probe. It may be tempting to take it off the cooker at 195 knowing that carryover will bring it up to 200 or 203 anyway, but don't do that if you are getting a lot of resistance. Instead leave it in the smoker until 200 or 203 and check for resistance again. Often just that little bit more on the cooker will finish it off. Sure it will get higher than you really want with carry over. But there are other techniques that you can do to slow down or prevent very high carry over temps. One trick is to pour out most of the liquid when you do finally take it off the cooker. It's the liquid that will retain a lot of the heat and enable more carryover. So by removing most of it during the rest phase you are enabling the meat to stabilize faster. There will still be more liquid being removed from the meat during carryover so you don't have to worry about there not being any liquid for re-absorption during the rest phase. As well, you can do different levels that you feel comfortable with like only pouring out 50%, 70%, or 90% of the liquid etc.

[SmokyDick]

I gotta find a good source of meat, stores around here have no good cuts of anything.

[Jlems]

Highly recommend Franklins book on steak as well. Another well thought out, beautifully designed and organized book.

[jermoQ]

That looks like a tasty meal! I like Oakridge, BUT the HDD can only go on my food for the most part. No one else in the house likes food too spicy. Me. I go heavy on HDD when I cut the tips off of spare ribs and have a good treat!

[Steve68]

Looks amazing! Making me hungry.

[Big George's BBQ]

That looks excellent