Tempeture jump

[benrubidario]

Hello. New to the forum. Have only been smoking meats for a few months and have decided to smoke a pork shoulder today (it's 10 degrees here in NJ, great decision). Have the smoker going at a nice 228F. My question is in the first hour the meat went from room temperature to 127F, will it slow down? Every where I read it says that this 9 pound shoulder should take about 10 hours, but at this rate I will reach 195F in no time. Rookie question but can use some opinions. I assume it will slow down.

[Texas-Hunter]

That does sound like a good jump in temps.. Check your probe to see if you are deep enough in the shoulder (middle) and be sure if it is a bone in you are not touching the bone..

[Mark R]

That does sound like a good jump in temps.. Check your probe to see if you are deep enough in the shoulder (middle) and be sure if it is a bone in you are not touching the bone..

What TH said!
It will prolly "stall" at about 150-155° for a couple hours so I wouldn't worry.

[Richtee]

And honestly..with a jump like that in an hour..you SURE on the pit temps? I guess on your meat probe as well? That seems pretty wild for an hour...

Oh..and welcome to Smoked-Meat!

[HawgHeaven]

It does sound a bit strange to rise that much in an hour. As was said earlier, make sure your probes are properly placed and your thermos are accurate. What are you using to monitor temps?

[RowdyRay]

Not sure what smoker you're using. If you're relying on the stock thermo in the door, they are notoriously inaccurate. You may be running a lot hotter than you think you are. Try to place an accurate temp probe in the chamber.

And they do like to "stall" in that 150-160 range. Seen stubborn ones sit there for 3-4 hours before climbing.

[SmokinOutBack]

from another New Jersian. There's something off for sure, can't see a 9 pounder doing that, especially with these outdoor temps.

[mulepackin]

If they aren't, calibrate your thermo's.

[benrubidario]

Thanks. After first hour and a half opened the door to spray it down and add more wood chips. Adjusted the meat temperature probe and it dropped back down to 100F. Now it seems to be going at a normal pace. As an FYI I am using a masterbuilt upright smoker. Got it for the holidays so this is only my second smoke on it. Thanks again for the advise.

[Mark R]

Dat mo betta!

[Doug S.]

from Utah

[DDave]

to the forum.

Probably not a bad time to point out that . . .

You SHOULD NOT insert thermo probes into your meats before the surface of the meat has attained 140°+ because of the possibility of carrying contamination into the meat. Of course, if you have injected or otherwise penetrated the whole muscle meats, it don't much matter. You willl want an IT of 140°+ within 4 hours.

But a whole muscle "virgin" hunk does not require this. Besides, why do you care about IT till the meat is at least half done? Perhaps for statistical purposes, but other than that... wait

http://www.smoked-meat.com/forum/showthread.php?t=15708

Not trying to start another raging food safety debate. Just thought I'd throw that tip out there.

Dave