Finally, a use for my old golf clubs. 
I’m doing the pork shoulder today, 12 lbs total, they look to be about 6.5 and 5.5 lbs. I’m smoking them with some madrona wood I got from a friend who had a tree come down in a storm. It was split to use as firewood, so I cut it with a chop saw into ~1 inch think pieces, then chopped that into chunks with a hatchet.
Rubbed the night before, one with a sweet rub, one with a spicy rub . . .
Turned after three hours at 225 . . .
You’ll get your finish pics 
Looks good! Pork shoulder is one of those classic BBQ cuts, and excepting chicken, is one of the few that hasn’t been artificially inflated in cost via demand. Brisket and ribs used to be “throwaway” cuts!
I smoked a meatloaf last night. Half hamburger, half pork sausage, and plenty (!!!) of spices, my wife says to make a “normal” meat loaf next time that isn’t so spicy! But its rather tasty.
On Labor Day I’m planning a bit of a luau, pineapple glazed pork ribs, some pineapple fried rice, pineapple rum drinks of some variety, fried pineapple and cream cheese wontons, fresh pineapple…maybe I’m giving away the theme! But have the works of Alfred Apaka on hand to add to the festive atmosphere.
Where are you? Damn, KC MO? Damn damn damn.
Going on 9 hours cooking, still not up to temp, almost to 160F. Ran out of gas on the first tank and took me a while to notice, the temp dropped quite a bit. Good thing I can hack bits off the end to feed the kids for dinner, and good we didn’t invite the neighbors, dinner is going to be late :) They can come over tomorrow for leftover pork shoulder when I do the chicken and maybe the brisket. I’m considering making pastrami from at least part of it, or maybe just corned beef. Too many choices . . .
9 hours…gas … smoking … I must be tipsy this is not making sense. :-\
you should let those get to 195-200 internal and then double foil and wrap in a towel and throw in an ice chest for an hour or two before pulling, if you have that long… if you don’t, i still wouldn’t pull them at 160 as you still have most of the fat unrendered at that point.
Yes with a pork shoulder… I would get the internal temp 195F.
Use temperatures between 225° and 275° (at the grate). Start your butt with the fat side down. After a few hours you may elect to turn it to balance the color. In a few more hours, turn it fat side down again. Plan on 1.5 to 2 hours per pound of cooking time, so a 7 pound butt may take 14 or more hours. Your internal target temperature is 195°, but some may be done earlier or later. The butt will hit a temperature plateau or stall at 160° to 170° or so. Each butt cooks differently. It’s a long smoke. RDWHAHB. ;D
It’s going fine, but it’s still going. I’m still getting used to the new grill (new as of yesterday). I learned the temp at the grate is a good 40 degrees lower than at the thermometer, so that isn’t helping. It’s delicious though, that madrona wood is really great - glad I have more. 13 hours, still not even close to 195.
I’ll be up for a while, so there’s no hurry now that we’ve eaten dinner. I’m definitely relaxed, not worried, having a brew or a few.
Here’s what it looks like as of 12 hours. You might be able to tell I hacked some off so we could eat it
How about pulling back on the shot a bit so we can see what you’re cooking on? Since it’s all new and shiny still…
It’s just a basic gas grill, similar to the old one but bigger. A Brinkman 9520, nothing fancy really, and on sale for $200 at Home Depot. It has 5 burners, which definitely helps with temperature control, the old one only had two burners.
A question for those who go by internal temperature: are you measuring the temperature when you remove it, or the temperature it reaches after it rests? How much carry-over cooking do you get?
I normally smoke a pork butt until it acts a certain way, sort of like you grill a steak until it feels a certain way. I look for it to pull apart easily (connective tissue broken down).
Connective tissue is mostly collagen. It starts breaking down into gelatin around 160F and keeps going until around 180F. If you mash, you understand how things change at different temperatures. But this isn’t as fast as a mash; it takes time. Fat also renders and bastes the meat.
Silverskin doesn’t break down; always trim it off before cooking.
I do more braising than smoking, but you use similar cuts of meat and the meat changes in the same way. It’s just that one way gives you flavor from rubs and smoke, and the other from searing and aromatics. But I check for doneness in the same way; try to pull it apart and watch how it acts. I guess I should take the temperature of the meat at that point to see what it is.
At what point does the meat start to dry out? Certainly protein contracts when heated and can push out moisture. Fat and gelatin melt and can drip off. What is the temperature trade-off between tender and dry? Like I said, I do it by appearance so I’d like to know what temperatures correspond to those points.
For pork I tend to do “by feel” as well but I get it to 180 internal as a rough guide. I’d rather verge on overcooked, and less moist, than undercooked. When pork (particularly ribs!) are undercooked (cooked in the sense of over 165, but not tender) they adhere to the bone and the stringy texture of the meat that invariably wedges itself in between teeth and gums is unappealing to me. But I’ve roasted pork ribs until you’d think they would be way overcooked, and aside from being a bit too fall off the bone, they definitely have stayed moist…just so much fat in them! I’d be much more careful with, say, pork loin, which will dry out if you look at it too sternly.
But for something like pulled pork, I usually am going to toss it with some kind of sauce anyway, so I’d rather it get fully done and tender (if a bit drier). I haven’t done pork shoulders in forever though. Lately its been mostly ribs, chicken (spatchcocked), steaks, and occasionally cured meats for the meat slicer (canadian bacon from cured pork loin and pastrami from corned beef).
I pull my butts off at 195 and double foil and wrap them in a towel and throw them into a cooler a couple hours before pulling.
+1
This final step of wrapping and placing in a cooler is a method employed by competition teams. I currently have a boston butt on my smoker and just foiled it at 145F and will pull it at 195ish. I will then wrap it with another layer of foil and put it in a cooler with a towel wrapped around it for a couple hours.
we could hang out…
BBQ and homebrew…what more can I ask for… :-\
True that.
Ah, alcohol infused bro-mance! :-*
Yes…we love you too. 
hahaha.