Slow cooked pork shoulder not so tender

[Just Joe]

So i took a bonless pork sholder, put a sweet mosquite rub on it. wrapped in in tin foil, thru it into the over at 275 for 5 hours. internal temp was about 160ish when i took it out. i let it rest for about 20-30 min, and when i went to tear up the meat it was difficult. the meat didnt "fall apart" like it should have. the bottom of the roast, the part that was touching the pan did but that was only about an inch of the roast, the rest was still tough. Juicy, but tough. what did i do wrong? what could i do differently? should i use a bone in roast instead.... HELP???? Thanks

Just Joe

[c oliver]

The advice I received from Will Owen and others calls for an internal temp of 190. 160 is done but all the fat and connective tissue won't "do their thing" at that point. I use boneless and bone-in, no problem. For a complete recipe, see the following:

http://chowhound.chow.com/topics/582610

[baseballfan]

I have had better luck using the slow cooker. The meat just falls apart after about 8 hours on the low setting. You can do a rub or use your favorite BBQ sauce if you want something wetter.

[Indirect Heat]

Second that. When I smoke pork shoulder - 225-250 for more like 8-10 hours. Your pork shoulder was "done" but not done. Safe but not tasty. Cook it longer.

[The Professor]

I think you didn't leave it in the oven long enough...also, I would not have wrapped it in foil. I've done pork butts (both boneless and with bone) in the oven, uncovered on a roasting rack starting at 350F for 15 minutes and then reducing the heat to 250/275F for 4-5 hours, and have always ended up with very juicy, easily shredded meat. At that point I don't even bother taking the internal temperature...when it's easily shredded there's really no question that it's done..

[c oliver]

Yes, but it can go TOO long, hence the testing. But I'm pretty addicted to my meat thermometer for roasts.

[fourunder]

I always recommend slow roast, low temperature of 225*....

Boneless roast usually takes 7-8 hours.

Bone-In roast (large) usually stays in for 10-11 hours, sometimes longer. When you can pull at the meat and it comes off easily is how I tell if it is done or not...but I would agree with the higher temperature of 190* if using a thermometer.

[saffrongold]

I made the Mayan Pibil Pork from a recipe on the Chowhound site and cooked a 2 lb. piece of meat for 3.5 hours at 300, let it rest for .5 It was cooked in a dutch oven, wrapped in banana leaves and turned out very moist and easy to pull apart.

[alanbarnes]

The only thing you did wrong was that you didn't cook the meat long enough. I suspect your oven thermostat may be the culprit - 275 for 5 hours should have done the trick.

You can get good results with a pork shoulder from so many cooking methods. Bone in or bone out, wet heat or dry heat, crock pot or dutch oven or smoker or grill, temps anywhere from 200F to 350F, each method has its place. But regardless of the cooking method, if you pull the meat when the internal temp is 160, most of the collagen is going to remain intact. It's springy and elastic, and holds muscle fibers together. Muscle fibers held together by springy, elastic stuff = tough meat.

You need to get a higher internal temperature. Anywhere between 185 and 200 is good. The heat will convert the collagen into gelatin. The meat will fall apart, and will be unctuous and lip-smacking good.

[Beaker]

You need to cook longer, at a lower temp... think 220 degrees or so for at least 8 hours. Might be longer. www.amazingribs.com has an excellent article on cooking pork shoulder.

[sbp]

Listen to C Oliver and Alanbarnes and forget all these "X temp" for "Y hours." Pork shoulder needs time and temperature. You MUST get an quick read or remote thermometer and take internal temperature.

The collagen doesn't break down till about 185, and the meat would get dried out at anything over 210. Since every roast has a different density (no 2 pigs are exactly alike), you can't really go by "250 for 10 hours." Also, cranking the heat up high and taking the internal temp up to 185 really quickly doesn't work either.

So set your oven/grill/smoker at somewhere between 200-300, and let it cook until it's done -- reading somewhere around 190. This may take 7 hours, it may take 10 hours. When it's done, take it out of the oven, wrap in foil, and let rest for a hour.

If you do this, the pork will be fall apart delicious.

[ricepad]

There's a lot of good advice here, but one thing missing: Beer. Not only do you need to take more time, you're gonna need some beer.

[fourunder]

Not only do you need to take more time, you're gonna need some beer.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Is that for the roast.....or for consumption while waiting for the roast to finish cooking?

[ricepad]

Hey, ya gotta do *something* while you're tending the meat! Not all of us are lucky enough to live next door to the Swedish Bikini Team!

[Just Joe]

Thanks for all the advice. I have a gas oven and the lowest the temp goes is 260, anything less than that the flame goes out... so next week ill try it again... let yall know how it goes. Thanks again

[c oliver]

260 is going to be fine.

[Fritter]

I would suggest getting a Polder thermometer. They work just as well for foods in the oven as they do on the grill or smoker. The problem with a regular probe thermometer is that they do not help you track where you are in the conversion process. When you take a temperature and you get 180 degrees that does not help much unless you are pulling your product and checking temps frequently. With pork shoulders the temperature will steadilly rise until you hit a plateau where the conversion starts. Then the temperature will drop and may stay well under 180 for several hours. Essentially the longer you can make that process take the better. When I do 6-8 pound butts at 220 they take over 20 hours with the conversion process alone taking several hours. Your time will be faster than that in the oven but it will vary (cook temperature, roast size ect). What a polder thermometer will do is allow you to constantly see your internal temperature. They run $30ish on average. If you feel your oven is too hot you can always prop the door with a wooden spoon.
Your cooking time in my experience will be very similar irrespective of whether you use a bone in or a boneless roast as long as they are of similar weight. The bone does not affect the time of the conversion process but it does add flavor.

[Braswch]

How abou for a 14 pound boneless shoulder?
If I put it in a roasting pan, so I set it in the botton of the pan itself, or on the rack that came with the pan?

Also, do I cover the pan in foil? or leave it uncovered.

so just put meat thermometor, put temp at say 325 and wait till it hits 190? would that work?

[fourunder]

For a boneless shoulder, I would go for the 160-170* mark at most.....bone-in roasts need the additional time for the connective tissue/collagen to become gelatinous. Wrapping the roast will have a steaming effect at the 325* temperature and the roast will cook faster....I prefer to dry roast at a lower temperature and longer time if possible. Rack or no rack, depends on whether you want even browning and more uniform cooking. Low temperature roasting, a rack will help, but not as important as in higher temperature roasting in my opinion, where you want more heat circulation to hit the bottom of the roast, otherwise, it will cook unevenly.

[ricepad]

Whether boneless or bone-in, you're still going to want to hit 190F. The presence or absence of the bone doesn't change the magical melting temperature of collagen.

[fourunder]

My boneless pork shoulder roasts never have the magical connective tissue and fats....both are always trimmed out before being rolled and tied.....:-) The trimmed out bone and magic is used for the soup stock pot.

Many recipes will recommend 160* as the mark to look for, but some will even go as low as 145*. to each his or her own I suppose.... some like bite...others don't.

http://culinaryarts.about.com/od/beef...

[sbp]

You can't "trim out" all the collagen and fat. While ligaments and tendons are certainly mainly composed of collagen, what makes a pork shoulder tough is the presence of collagen IN the meat itself. Taking the bone out of a cut of meat doesn't make the meat instantly tender.

Same goes for intramuscular fat. Just as with a prime steak that has extensive "marbling", you can't trim intramuscular fat from a pork shoulder. You won't get optimal tenderness at 160-170; somewhere in the 180's to 190's is needed (though I can't give you an exact temp because every roast has different density and composition).

[scubadoo97]

There is debate as to what effect the bone has on cooking times. Some say it holds heat and helps cook the interior of the meat. Harold McGee says the bone is pourous and so acts as an insulator resulting in the opposite effect. I would personally take a pork shoulder to 190-200 internal. I don't cook large hunks of meat by time I've seen too many variable times to get to that end point. As an example I had a small 4 lb corned beef brisket flat take 10 hrs in my smoker set at 230*F to get to 200* F internal. Other larger ones have cooked faster at the same set temp.

[sbp]

On cooking times, yes, the bone has some effect (I'd say insulating -- whenever I cook a thick Porterhouse, the meat around the bone is less cooked). But the bone is not going to change the presence of collagen in the roast.

[scubadoo97]

No question about that!

[ricepad]

WRT cooking by time, I couldn't agree more. As the saying goes, "Cook it until it's done." With a bone-in butt, the bone tells me when the meat is done: If I can grab the bone with a pair of tongs and pull it out easily, it's time pull!

[sbp]

Yes, but I do recommend a remote thermometer. With a cut of meat that can take anywhere from 8-12 hours to cook low and slow, it's easy to overcook. The meat will be tender, but dry. With a remote, you know just when it hits 190, ready to take off the smoker and wrap for a nice long rest.

[SonyBob]

I go around and around with my son-in-law about this. You must reach an internal temp of at least 190 to break down the collagen in the meat resulting in that "pulled pork" tenderness. I recommend smoking for 5 or 6 hours then wrapping in foil and leaving it in the smoker or even in the oven at 250 or so 'till the internal temp reaches 200. There's no sense smoking any longer; it won't absorb any more smoke. If you don't wrap in in foil, it will dry out. Yum!
Bob

[tommy]

I'm not convinced that meat doesn't take more smoke the longer it's smoked. It defies common sense.

While the "smoke ring" is a chemical reaction, and it's believable that this reaction slows or stops occurring once the outside of the meat reaches 140, I don't believe that anyone has ever proven that the meat won't continue to take on smoke after the external temp reaches 140 (which is well before the internal temp reaches 140). My experience suggests that meat will continue to take on smoke, which has let to some over-smoked meats.

[SonyBob]

Tommy, I mis-spoke myself. You're right, the meat will continue to take on smoke to the point of resulting in a somewhat acrid flavor on the outside. I'm just been guilty of drying out a piece of meat trying to get that last little bit of smoke. I've found that smoking for 5 or 6 hours then wrapping in foil for the remainder gives me a good balance between smoke flavor, smoke ring, and moistness. It's just the way that works for me; everyone has their own way of doing it (probably better than I!).
Bob

[tommy]

many people subscribe to the very-likely-erroneous "140 degree-no-more-smoke-flavor" theory, which is the only reason i mentioned it. do what works for you!

i smoke for a few hours, take the butt to 170, the point at which it is most likely to stall, wrap and bring to 200-205. that generally works really well, and i'm a very big critic of my butts.

[Spot]

FWIW, I finally made Will Owen's adaptation of the LAT recipe last night for the first time, and it was splendid. Added just a bit of orange juice to the drippings before making gravy. Truly a keeper.

[scubadoo97]

I agree.

I think the reason the 140* F no more smoke theory persists is that the meat usually has a good crust or bark formed by that time and smoke will not penetrate that crust as well but will certainly continue to layer smoke residue on that bark. My feeling is that the meat will continue to take up smoke as long as it's presented but what happens early on is more significant.

[FrankD]

Do a search for "red cooked pork shoulder" - this is a Chinese recipe that we make at home frequently. The meat is flavourful and tender, although it does take time. Try it, you'll like it! Even your kids will, since it uses a lot of sugar in the recipe which gives the meat a sweet glaze.

[drlee_susquespine]

I'll second the no more than 225 for no less than 8 hours motion. I never go by temp when smoking/slow cooking. It's done when you can pull the bone out. Also, try putting it on a rack in a deep roasting dish with a little water/stock/beer under neath to keep it moist. When it's wrapped up tight, it steams which totally denatures the protein in a different pattern

[sbp]

I don't wrap until I take it off the heat, so it's really just a prolonged rest. As for "it's done when you can pull out the bone..."

Yes, it is, but it might also be overdone when you can pull out the bone. By using a remote probe thermometer, you can take it off as soon as it hits the "bone pulling" stage, instead of accidentally letting it go an extra hour or two.

Of course, generally, shoulder is pretty forgiving, and not a big deal if you miss the mark on the tender side by a bit.

[scubadoo97]

That's exactly true. A pork shoulder is one of the most forgiving cuts. As long as you take it to the point of collagen melt down your fine. Other cuts and meats are not so forgiving.

[tommy]

well that's the rub. if you don't cook it long enough and to a high enough temp, you'll get tough, dry meat. it's not all that forgiving in that sense. you can't just cook it any ol' way and figure "well, it's forgiving". it's not.

err on the side of overcooking, in my experience.

[ricepad]

I understand what you mean, but I'll disagree a little. It's more like, "err on the side of cooking it longer than you think you should." A shoulder that's been cooked too long *will* get dried out and tough, after all the collagen's melted away.

[sbp]

Right, but that's why you can "err on the tender side." Main thing from my experience - spend the $50 and get a remote probe thermometer. Nu-Temp works great.

[Iron Chef John]

Hey Joe--
This is what we do at the restaurant. We currently don't have a smoker (it actually kind of blew up before I got there) so we use a method called "braising".
It is pretty much fool proof!
Dry rub your pork shoulder (also called a Boston Butt or Pork Butt or Pork Shoulder Butt--it is still the shoulder of the pig why it is called the butt, I have no idea) with your favorite rub. Make sure you rub generously on all surfaces of the meat.
Place it in a roasting pan and fill pan with as much water as you can without spilling it.
Cover ENTIRE opening of pan with plastic wrap as tight as you can.
Then, cover entire opening of pan with aluminum foil making sure to coil the plastic wrap underneath the foil. Close tightly.
Place pan in preheated oven 250 degrees for 6-8 hours. Don't worry about drying out the meat--since it is bathing in water, actually spiced water, the meat will soak up the water and not dry out.
Remove pan from oven and remove foil and plastic wrap. Stick a fork or tongs in and give a twist. Should be perfect.
Remove pork from pan and let rest until you can handle it or pull it off, slather it with sauce and serve on your favorite white bun.
Good Luck and God Bless!

[invisiblechef]

You just need to cook it longer. 190 at least

[Carolinagirl76]

I'm glad to see I'm not the only one having this problem. I have two favorite recipes that I am having trouble with. One is a beef rump roast that I cook in the slow cooker on low all day with a can of beef broth & jar of peppercinis. The idea is that it falls apart when you shred it and you eat in on pita bread with pepper jack cheese. The other is a boston butt that you cook low (300) & slow in the oven...with salt, pepper, cumin & apricot jam rubbed on and wrapped in foil with onions & jalapenos. Again, it is supposed to fall apart and you serve it with juices on a tortilla topped with cilantro & lime juice. Delicious! If it comes out right. More than half the time on either recipe, instead of falling apart at the touch of a fork it is horribly tough and I can barely cut it with a knife. I have no idea if it just needs to cook longer or if it is overcooked.
Help!!

[tommy]

It's undercooked. Your be hard pressed to overcook a pork butt in that manner.

[Carolinagirl76]

Even though it is small...3lbs or so, and it cooked for 5 hours?

[tommy]

A pork butt decides when it's done. The clock and we don't.

[bagofwater]

What tommy said. You have to get the meat to a temperature that will melt the connective tissues contained within. If it's tough, it's undercooked. If it's *dry* (big difference), it's overcooked.

Rule of thumb is 1.25-2 hours per pound on pork butt, depending on the temperature of your cooker. But realize that it's just a guideline. Real results vary, wildly.

[foreverhungry]

For a pork butt to fall apart, it needs to reach an internal temperature of at least 190F, preferably 195. Anything less and won't fall apart. The meat shouldn't be tough - if sliced thin it should be fine - but it won't be fork shredable.

[ricepad]

Good advice here....and don't worry as you watch the temp climb from 160F to 170F to 180F. It's not going to continue shooting past 190F at the same rate. A pork butt will 'stall' around 195-200F for a LONG time, maybe an hour or more. The time/temperature window of perfection is pretty large.

[tommy]

I've found the stall more at 170-180. At 200 it's done for pulling.

[foreverhungry]

Agreed with the 170-180 stall. It tends to sit there for a looong time.

[Carolinagirl76]

I am so so excited! Thanks so much for the advice. I would have guessed it was overcooked b/c it seemed dry & tough....but I cooked the spicy beef recipe tonight and let it go way past when I would normally think it was done and it fell apart beautifully and was delicious! I watched it and was able to see what it looks like at different stages of cooking. Y'all are awesome!

[BlueTeam]

Just finished my first pork butt. I have a pellet smoker (MAK 1star). I used a 4 lb pork shoulder bone in. Rubbed it with a sweet rub the night before and put it on @ 225 for 8 hours. I saw two stalls. One at 155 and another at 170. The second stall freaked me out as I figured it should have been done by the 8th hour and I had my kids waiting on diner. I confess I cranked up the smoker to 300 and gave it an extra hour. When at 9 hours it was still only 175, I cranked it up to 350 and powered it to 185 over the next half hour.

In the end the meat was mostly fall of the bone although I my heart I know that if I had left it at 225 ( or even 250) for a full 10 hours it would have been that much better. I will agree that the pork shoulder is much more forgiving than brisket (which I messed up badly).

[bagofwater]

I cook my pork butts at 250 or so. Nothing wrong with taking it up to 300, though 350 may have been a little high. If you pulled it off at 185, you probably could have used another hour in the cooker.

The 170 stall is always the longer of the two, and sometimes it can sit there for a long, loooong time. I'm not sure which matter inside the meat is going through a state change at that point, but there is obviously a lot of it.

[fourunder]

Two thoughts......

1. I'm no expert on slow cookers, but some have two settings, high and low.......opt for the patter and expect 6-8 hours total time, not five.

2. I would not consider 300* to be low temperature.......nothing over 250* in fact. I prefer to maintain 215-225*....especially for pork roasts.

[moonbeamer]

Several comments quit rightly mention the breakdown of collagen (gelatinization) as the key to tenderizing pork; but then go on to specify temperatures in the 160-200° F range, and cooking times in the 6-10 hour range.

I've had excellent results at much lower temperatures, as low as 131-2° F (internal temperature, as measured by an accurate thermocouple probe), and much, MUCH longer cooking times, in the 24-to-48-hour range (depending on the size of the cut, etc.). I've experimented with different temperatures, and found that pork collagen will eventually gelatinize at 131-2° F: this leaves the meat still pink, and moist—not gray-brown and desiccated (from the shedding of the muscle-cell juices), as it will become at temperatures above 140° F. But this requires holding the meat at this temperature for AT LEAST 24 hours. One of the advantages of a probe thermometer, in addition to the temperature readout, is that it also gives a good indication of tenderness; when the probe can be pushed easily through all parts of the cut, it's done; not before.

I wouldn't use pork shoulder, however, as it's interlarded with lots of fat, which at these lower temperatures will not render or "cook": and biting into gobs of semi-raw fat is not pleasant. My favorite cut is a 2-3# piece of (lean) pork loin.

I usually poach the cut (whole) in a double-boiler setup, in whatever poaching liquid (cider, milk, wine) suits the recipe. (For a stew-type recipe, it's still best to cook the cut whole, then cut it up into bite-sized pieces afterwards, and combine them with the separately-cooked vegetables). The double-boiler setup is controlled by a sous vide type temperature controller, set so the poaching liquid never rises above 132° or so.

The same thing could be done in an oven or smoker, provided the temperature can be held at that level (the lowest temperature setting on my oven, unfortunately, is 170° F, which is much too high). Anyone tried this with a whole fresh ham (which, unlike pork shoulder, is not interlarded with lots of fat)?

[tommy]

How much collagen do you figure is in a pork loin? Probably not a lot. What you're describing seems to be something completely different than making pulled pork from a butt.

[moonbeamer]

The amount of collagen in a given muscle depends on the age of the animal, how hard that particular muscle has worked during the animal's life, etc.; hard-working muscles on older animals develop lots of cross-linked collagen (as well as more flavor-producing compounds), which unless cooked to the point of gelatinization, makes the meat "tough" (collagen is essentially a "rope" or "cable" made up of many intertwisted gelatin molecules, which bind themselves firmly together with many secondary chemical bonds; when cooked long enough, at a high enough temperature, these secondary bonds eventually break down, and the rope-like collagen fibers are converted into free gelatin molecules, a very useful cooking ingredient, for thickening sauces, or making Jell-O, for example). The toughness of a particular cut (when cooked to the medium-rare point of around 130 F, by conventional, fast-cooking methods) is a good rough-and-ready measure of how much collagen it contains; pork loin, though tenderer than fresh ham, for example, is still fairly tough; beef rump cuts (top or bottom round, sirloin roast, etc.) or beef brisket are MUCH tougher than beef tenderloin--and also more flavorful). (McGee's On Food and Cooking, 2nd edition, is a good primer on all this.)

But you're quite right, this is a completely different approach from "pulled pork" and the like, which is cooked well past the well-done 140 F point (usually in the 190-210 F simmering range), long enough to gelatinize all the collagen. By then the meat has turned grayish-brown, and the muscle cells have long since shed their juices; if eaten "plain" it would taste dried-out or desiccated; so the usual recipes strive to relubricate the dried-out muscle fibers with rendered pork fat (as in slow-cooked pork shoulder), or with some kind of broth or sauce using a meat stock (which has lots of gelatin).

My method strives to keep the meat well below the well-done temperature of 140 F (the temperature at which the muscle cells shed nearly all their juices), for as long as it takes to gelatinize the collagen. The meat remains moist (the muscle cells retain much of their water), so it's not necessary to relubricate it with rendered pork fat, meat stock, or whatever.

[tommy]

My pulled pork never tastes dried-our or desiccated, nor does it ever require broth or sauce or meat stock. Unless you are referring to loin, in which case maybe a new thread is best. This one seems to be focusing on butts.

[fourunder]

I've eaten a lot of pork prepared in every cooking application or method known or available......the loin is my least favorite cut....and I eat it medium -rare.

[fahrquar1]

I just ran across this thread while looking at another thread. If smoke is not your goal, then sous vide will also give you the tenderness you want. I did a shoulder a week ago - cleaned and flash heated the outside with boiling water, dried it off, added rub, vacuum sealed it and chunked it in the water bath at 140 for 72 hours. I divided this cook in two portions, and re-rubbed and sealed it in the middle. I pulled it up to 153 for three hours to get the pink out, then took it out, sauced it, and finished it in the oven at 250 for 45 minutes. Very tender and moist. I believe a 24 hour cook would certainly be sufficient, but this as a method has worked for me and is really no extra work. Maybe it's time to try a flight of cooking times!

[kunigunda]

I attempted to smoke a small shoulder roast 2-3lbs in an electric -big chief- smoker. Not sure but think I placed it too high in the smoker. After 3 hrs and lots of smoke it registered only 120. I moved it to the lowest rack and tested it after another 1.5 hrs. 160. Wrapped it in foil and put it in a 275 oven for 2 hrs. It was dinner time then. After resting outside the oven for maybe 15 minutes I had to serve it. It registered 180. It obviously was not going to fall apart so I sliced it thin. It was very juicy and flavourful and not at all tough....but it was not pulled pork. If anyone is listening, should the temp of my roast have been higher after 4 hrs in the smoker? Thanks.

[scubadoo97]

The answer is no. You didn't mention the temperature of your smoker. I usually set mine at 225.

Last pork shoulder I did was around 5 pounds or so. Took over 16 hrs to get to 205 internal for pulling and I did wrap it when it was around 165 and finished it in a 225 oven just because it was getting very late and I didn't want to have to go outside and deal with it.

[kunigunda]

Yow! That's a long time! I just pulled it out of the oven at 225 after 2+ more hrs after being refriged overnite. It's still in foil. Not sure I want to mess with it anymore. Unfortunately the smoker I have is a cheap one. It is either on or off. No temp gauge. The chips sit in an iron pan on top of the cooking coil beneath the drip pan. Sounds like I need to smoke for a few hrs for flavor and then throw in oven or crockpot til done.

[scubadoo97]

You can put a wired thermometer probe in the smoker to monitor your smoker temp. Another one in the meat to monitor internal temp. Usually you want to smoke at a fairly low temp like 225-250.

Once the meat hits around 140 internal many say the meat will not accept anymore smoke. Not sure about that but by then you should have gotten a nice bit of smoke flavor to the meat.

It is at this point that the internal temperature of the meat begins to stall. It is not uncommon for the meat to sit here for a few hours going up slowly by a degree or two. This get's many new to smoking meats nervous and they push the smoker temps up thinking something is wrong. It is also at this point that a lot of moisture is evaporating from the meat which creates the stall in temperature.

Just sit back and let it do it's thing until it reaches about 165-170 where the temp will start to move up more rapidly. You can mitigate the stall by foiling the meat to reduce moisture evaporation and your stall will be shortened. It doesn't matter if you leave the meat in the smoker or bring it inside to finish in the oven at this point as long as you have stopped giving the meat smoke. Foiling will soften the bark which has formed so some people refuse to foil to preserve the bark. Just depends on what you want in the end.

[ricepad]

Sometimes I cheat and take the butts out of the smoker once they hit 140F and put them in the oven at 225F so I don't have to keep running outside to check the fire. I keep a wireless probe thermometer (with an alarm) in the meat to monitor meat temps while I'm reading the paper or preparing sides or taking a nap or watching a game or drinking beer or....you get the idea.

[tommy]

"preparing sides or taking a nap or watching a game or drinking beer"

That pretty much describes my whole day when making BBQ.

[ricepad]

Yeah, mine too. Mrs. ricepad thinks that the only reason I have the smoker is so I do the aforementioned things without getting nagged.

[kunigunda]

Well, I did drink quite a bit of wine while monitoring the meat. Does that count?

[ricepad]

WINE?? Uh...only if you mixed it with 7-up!

[sandylc]

-no foil
-use a covered roasting pan
-cook it longer