Pork Cook time and temp

[DGJFF4114]

I bought a Woodridge Elite. This is my first time using a smoker of any kind. I bought a pork shoulder for my first smoke. I was told 215-225 degrees for 6-8 hrs for the size of meat purchased. I threw it in at 10:30am. It’s now almost 9 pm and it’s struggling to hit 190degreea let alone the 205 I’m looking for. I wrapped in foil at 160 and that was 5 hrs in. I’ve even seen temps decline from 194 down to 186. I’ve checked with the wired meat probe, and another digital wireless probe just to be sure and found the same readings. I’ve gone through almost two whole hoppers of pellets. Oh and since about 5pm I’ve increased the temp from 225-275 and now at 8 I went to 300. Am I missing something ??

 

[RayClem]

Although your controller temperature might show 215-225F, the actual temperature might be lower than that. If you want to finish at 205F, bump the controller temperature up to 250-350F. While starting off at a lower temperature is good as that provides more smoke flavor, once the pork butt is wrapped, it can absorb no more smoke. Now the objective is to increase the temperature to render fat and connective tissue. The greater the differential between the chamber temperature and the meat temperature, the faster the meat will cook. The chamber temp of 215-225F works well when the meat is below 160F, but it does not work well when you are trying to reach 205F.