What am I doing wrong?

[KamadoChris]

Sounds like you are on your way to success for the next cook, I'll just throw in a couple bits to think about.  You can cut down on time significantly, defeat the stall easier and get just as good of a finished product if you bump your temps up - I've had great results 325-350 and you can cut a few hours off the cook time.  Wrap it up when you get a nice bark consistency, let it ride to 203-205 when it probes like butter, and then let it sit in a towel filled cooler for 2 hours. It will still be too hot to handle when you pull it out even 3-4 hours later held that way. 

 

The other thing is you might consider checking your thermometer, maybe you weren't cooking at 250, and that could explain why you struggled to get over that 135 early on?  They normally cruise steadily upwards until the 160-ish mark.  Check it with boiling water just to make sure its on.  Good luck!

[JeffieBoy]

@Ronnie9  I am seeing several things on here that seem to differ from my experiences.  First of all, we are talking degrees fahrenheit and Imperial measure wherever possible.  Here in Southern Ontario, you see a bone in pork butt about as often as you see wild rhinocerus.  Almost totally, we get bonelss pork shoulder roasts.  My comments will be based on that.

 

1) Cook for internal temperature, never time.  9 hours for 4.5 pounds of meat sounds extremely long to me.  I usually take that kind of time for around 8 pounds.  I typically plan on about 1-1/2 hrs per pound at 240 degrees as a start with dinner being 2 hours  later.  This leaves me a small buffer plus resting time.  I aim for 201 degrees internal as my stopping point.

 

2). I always inject my pork shoulder with about 6-8 ounces of good quality apple juice prior to going onto the Akorn.  Damn the spritzing. That’s for people across the channel! LOL

 

3) Once the meat is on the grill, the lid stays closed. Full stop.  No spritzing, spraying, foiling, peeking or fooling around. The Akorn is fully loaded with charcoal and wood prior to starting, the meat is prepared properly, the temperature is adjusted externally. 
 

4) And if it’s a pissy/snowy kind of day?  Get an early start and give the meat about two hours in the smoke, then pull it off, carry it into the kitchen and drop it into the slow cooker/crock pot for the rest of the day.  You get to stay dry, the kitchen smells great when your guests arrive, and they will never know the difference 99% of the time.  Works great for me!

 

TTFN

[len440]

Ronnie

Every cook is a learning experience their all a little bit different. I keep a log of my cooks so i can tell when one is not cooperating I can tell what I did wrong. I was on the phone with my cousins very British husband and told me Scotland is good for 2 things Golf and Scotch he also touched on your weather. I think he might have been sampling the second thing.