I prepared the BGE for a long low cook on Saturday morning at around 7:30 AM. I quickly prepared the pork shoulder by injecting it with apple juice, water, and pork rub. I then added the pork rub all over the shoulder. I didn't let the shoulder rest at all since I felt that the cook would already be rushed. So, I put the pork shoulder immediately onto the BGE when it stabilized at 225°. This was at 8:30 AM.
As time ticked by, the temperature of the shoulder was slowly rising until it reached 150°. That's when it hit the plateau. It stayed at 150° for several hours.
During this time, the temperature of the BGE was staying stable at 250° but it did creep up to 300° at one point. Even though I barely have to touch the BGE, I did have to adjust that small spike in temperature to get it to fall back to 250°. I actually wanted to cook at 225° but I felt that 250° was acceptable.
I also had apple juice and water in a drip pan sitting on top of the plate setter. This could be the reason why the shoulder was sitting at 150° for hours. I have read pros and cons online about including water in the drip pan and one con was that the plateau can take longer. I feel that I just gained first hand experience in this.
After breaching the plateau, the shoulder continued to climb in temperature at a steady rate and it wasn't long after that it hit the targeted temperature of 190°. In the future, I may try to raise the target temperature to 195° as suggested by some recipes.
Once the temperature reached 190°, I took the shoulder off the BGE and let it rest for about 30 minutes. I took the shoulder off at 10:30 PM. I was expecting about an 8 hour cook and it actually lasted 13 hours! Wow! I was expecting 1.5 hours to 2 hours per pound and used the lower end of that to calculate out the expected cook time. Next time, I think I'll use the higher end to calculate the expected cook time so that I'm prepared for a longer cook.
The last step was to pull the pork into sandwich sized pieces. Since it was so late, we missed out on the dinner window and this was going straight into the fridge for a meal the next day.
Overall, I feel that the cook was a success but this was not as good as my last two meats. There are some adjustments that need to be made. One thing though, the BGE was able to easily handle a 13 hour cook at 250° without refueling and I still have charcoal left over! I am very pleased to see that I can plan > 13 hour cooks in the future! This gives me hope that I can execute an ~18 hour cook for beef brisket! I also feel safe enough with the BGE now that I can catch a few hours of sleep during a cook. This will help me tremendously with having the meat ready for a designated meal.
Adjustments for next time (pork shoulder):
- Prepare shoulder the night before a cook (with rub and injection)
- Possibly brine the pork
- Start cook at night and wait for a stable temp on the BGE. Catch some Zzzs.
- Plan for longer expected cook times
- No water in drip pan for cooking pork shoulder (Does this extend to beef brisket?)
- Target temp from 190° to 195°?
