Pork Shoulder Smoking Time Calculator

Pork shoulder come from the front leg of a pig and contains high amounts of fat and connective tissue. Because pork shoulder contains high amount of connective tissue, that connective tissue must break down into gelatin during the smoking process in order to make the pork tenderly. When the connective tissue break down into gelatin during the smoking process, the pork shoulder will become juicy and easy to shred.

Because you should plan for cooking time due to the weight and size of the pork shoulder, the more larger the pork shoulder, the longer it will take to cook teh pork shoulder. The type of pork shoulder that you choose will change the cooking time for the pork shoulder. For example, bone-in pork shoulder will take longer to cook compared to a pork shoulder that does not have a bone in it.

How to Smoke Pork Shoulder

Additionally, picnic shoulder will take longer to cook than other cut of pork shoulder due to the fact that it is a dense cut of meat. Furthermore, the type of smoker that you use will also change the cooking time. For example, offset smokers will cook the pork shoulder faster at the edge of the smoker due to the fact that the offset smoker does not distribute the heat even throughout the smoker.

However, a pellet grill smoker will cook the pork shoulder more evenly throughout the smoking process. The internal temperature of the pork shoulder must be monitor to ensure that the pork shoulder was cooked correctly. Pork shoulder should be cooked to an internal temperature of 200 to 205 degrees Fahrenheit for the pork shoulder to be tender to the bite.

To measure the internal temperature of the pork shoulder, use a meat probe to measure the internal temperature of the thickest part of the pork shoulder that does not contain any bone. During the cooking process, the pork shoulder may experience a stall in which the internal temperature of the pork shoulder will stop rising for a period of time. This temperature stall occur when the moisture in the pork shoulder evaporate and cools the pork shoulder.

To move through the stall in the smoking process, cover the pork shoulder in foil or butcher paper to retain the heat and moisture in the pork shoulder. After you remove the pork shoulder from the smoker, the pork shoulder should be allowed to rest for at least 45 minutes. By resting the pork shoulder, the juices will redistribute throughout the cut of meat.

If the pork shoulder isnt given time to rest, the juices will escapes the pork shoulder when the meat is shredded. Pork shoulder should be removed from the smoker slightly before it reach the target temperature because the internal temperature of the pork shoulder will continue to rise by 5 to 10 degrees after it is removed from the smoker while resting. Due to the smoking process, the cooked pork shoulder will lose some of it weight.

The cooked pork shoulder will weigh less than the raw pork shoulder due to the fat that render from the pork shoulder and the moisture that evaporates during the smoking process. The cooked weight of the pork shoulder should yield 55 to 60 percent of the raw weight of the pork shoulder. For example, in order to have 7 pounds of cooked pork shoulder, the raw pork shoulder should weigh approximately 12 pound.

This amount is before the trim loss of the pork shoulder. There are several method for cooking the pork shoulder. Low and slow cooking methods will allow the pork shoulder to cook at a low temperature to increase the amount of smoke that seasons the pork shoulder.

However, cooking the pork shoulder slowly will take more time than cooking the pork shoulder at a hot and fast rate. Another method of cooking the pork shoulder is to cook it at a faster rate and at a higher cooking temperature. However, the pork shoulder will take less time to cook to reach the desired doneness.

Pork shoulder should not be trimmed of too much fat from the raw cut of pork shoulder because the fat will self-baste the pork shoulder while smoking. Additionally, you should not overcrowd the pork shoulder in the smoker due to the fact that this will lower the smoker temperature and increase the time it take for the pork shoulder to be cooked.