Have had a 14.5" WSM for a few years now. Just recently got the digiq fan/controller and today was my first smoke with it. Loved the digiq, but the pork took WAY too long to smoke. Started this morning removing the pork shoulder from the cryovac packaging, patted dry, covered with rub. It was a small shoulder, ~6.25lb according to the label. Had a chimney of charcoal dumped in the bottom, some water just off the boil in the pan, a couple chunks of apple and hickory in there, and had the cook started at 7:30AM. Checked on it through the morning and had the temp rising as expected. Sometime around noon or 1:00 checked and say that I was around 160F and figured it was in the stall. No sweat, this isn't my first BBQ. Then all afternoon, I expected it to pick up and finish off, and it never did. Smoker temp stayed stable at 225F the whole time. Had to add water and charcoal to keep things going. Finally, around 11PM (15.5 hours!) and still hanging around 185F, I was running out of charcoal, wrapped it in foil and put it in the oven. Lost some temp in that process, but recovered before long. Now over 17 hours combined cooking in the smoker and oven and it's at 193F. Going to pull it out, wrap it up and put it in a cooler overnight.
Not the first time I've had the smoker take longer than expected, but boy, this seems excessive. This had been in the freezer for a while (definitely over a year, maybe two?), but I didn't expect that would be an issue.
Now that I've used the digiq once and feel comfortable with it, the next big cut of meat will definitely go on the smoker the night before. But, has anyone had THAT long of a time to smoke that small of a pork shoulder?
Not the first time I've had the smoker take longer than expected, but boy, this seems excessive. This had been in the freezer for a while (definitely over a year, maybe two?), but I didn't expect that would be an issue.
Now that I've used the digiq once and feel comfortable with it, the next big cut of meat will definitely go on the smoker the night before. But, has anyone had THAT long of a time to smoke that small of a pork shoulder?