9#+ pork shoulder smoked in 6 hours

A few weeks back, our daughter was to come over for a meal. Wife picked up a “pork roast” the day before. Saw the package, but didn’t check the cut or weight. All I knew was that it was to be smoked by me. At ~1150, I decided to check it out and and get some rub on it while the smoker got started. Pulled it out and discovered it was over 9# and bone in – I thought it was ~4-5 and boneless as it was just the 3 of us for dinner.
Had the “oh crap” when I realized that we were eating ~6pm. I was envisioning eating at 10pm, which was not good. I quickly spiced it up and rubbed my mix in thoroughly. It hit the smoker at 1200 – 250F setting. I pulled up some of the “hot and fast” recipes, but they all seemed to use 275F and my smoker has settings of 250 and 300 – no 275. I let it smoke for 2 hours @ 250, then turned it up to 300 and headed off to a vet appointment. I usually do not let stuff sit in the smoke w/o checking every ~15 minutes.
Got back 2 hours later and checked the roast – it looked good but didn’t want it to dry out so I wrapped it in foil and turned the smoker back down to 250.
Checked the internal temp 1.5 hours later and it was 180. By 6pm it was 195 and I shut it down! Let it rest 20 minutes and pulled out the bone.
I was worried it would be dry or overcooked on the exterior portions. I was wrong – very moist and juicy with great flavor as well! My wife and daughter said it was the best they have ever had.
I will be using this method going forward – beats the 9+ hours it usually takes when I cook at 225-250F.

I did 2 butts near the same size yesterday. Mine went on at 10:00 and were done by 5:30. That was the shortest cook time one was ever done. I did set the Temp at 300 for the first 4 hrs and then wrapped them and lowered to 250. To me they turned out just as well as the ones I’ve done at lower temps and cooked far longer.

Honesty it’s pretty hard to mess up a pork butt unless you go way over internal temp. Sounds delicious either way.

I, too, have been experimenting with faster cooks. Low and slow and you have to get up early and still not have enough time to let it rest for as long as it should. I’m just kind of over dedicating so many hours to sticking around the house monitoring smoker temps, etc.

I just wish there was a way to speed up brisket.

Wi-Fi thermometer. I rarely sit around for the smoker anymore unless I want to drink beer all day.

Ripjiggen wrote:

Wi-Fi thermometer. I rarely sit around for the smoker anymore unless I want to drink beer all day.

Ya a Wi-fi thermometer would be great. I plan to get one this year. Even without one I don’t sit around my smoker. Sun.I put the butt on and went fishing. This last one at 7 hr. Was the shortest one ever. If I had wanted to fish longer, I would have cooked it at a even lower temp.

Ripjiggen wrote:

Wi-Fi thermometer. I rarely sit around for the smoker anymore unless I want to drink beer all day.

I have one, but it’s more about not being home to address a flare up or temp drop. So I have to stick at home, which is making the faster cooks attractive. On days when I know I’m home all day, slow is good, but still means I have to get up early in order to have it ready by dinner.

I really want to start experimenting with smoking overnight so I can pull it and let it rest with plenty of time before lunch or dinner.

I realize all of these problems go away with electric and other smokers with temperature settings.

I do must of my smoking at 300 now. Brisket, pork butts, etc. The meat can only take on so much smoke so cooking it longer to get to temp doesnt really have any advantage so getting it done sooner is better.