Cooking a pork shoulder on offset smoker

the 4 oz wood is probably when using the cookshack... it uses very little wood. You can use charcoal, lump charcoal, wood, or a combination... just what you prefer. You might do better with lump and wood, if you need more heat in the fire chamber to reach 225 in the smoking chamber (sometimes charcoal just won't get hot enough in an offset to maintain cooking chaamber temp of 225). You need to do some burning and find out what it takes to maintain a good level temp.

How long is answered best by the inimitable (sp) dean of BBQ, Smokin Okie, when he says "It's done when it's done." Meaning, get yerself a nice probe thermometer (Taylor, Polder, whatever), and stick it into the thick part of the shoulder and cook that bad boy til it reaches 190-200 internal temp. That's when it's done. Guesstimate would be about 1.5 hrs per lb., but, well, "it's done when it's done."

Denny,
I have a Brinkmann water smoker (and you think you'll take some abuse ). I've done many a pork shoulder and butt. I do mine at an average temp. of 230 degrees, and it usally takes me somewhere around 16 to 18 hours. Of course the shoulders I do are in the 8lb range. That comes out to around 2hrs per pound.

Woodburner gave you the best piece of advice, get yourself a digital thermometer (about $16). I've used them since I started doing BBQ and have to tell you I have never had a bad piece of meat come off my smoker. I always rely on internal meat temperature and it's never failed me.

Good luck...Ken

Denny,

Couple of points.

What you have is not a shoulder. A full shoulder weighs over 8 lbs. You probably have a picnic or a butt and 4 is a little small, probably a picnic. does it have a layer of skin?

To use your smoker, most of the advice here about wood, etc won't help.

You need to learn to get the temp of your smoker to hold a steady temp. Lump or Charcoal work well, but in some offsets it's a LOT of charcoal/lump.

Learn to keep your smoker at a specific temp, say 225 to 250 and you'll then be able to apply most of the techniques/recipes from here.

A "simple" rule of thumb for butts/picnics is 1.5 to 2 hours per pound. You need to cook it to a temp of at least 190 for it to "pull" apart easy. If it doesn't pull apart easy, it's not done.

And we welcome all smokers here you just have to remember that most of the smokers here have CS so the instructions might get confusing.

Denny, the above advice is right on target but I'd like to throw in my two bitts worth. When you buy that digital thermometer buy two. Use one for the internal temperature of the meat and the other for the smoker temperature. Poke the probe through a potato then put the probe on the grill in near proximity to the meat because that's the temp you are interested in monitoring. The temperature in your smoker can vary depending on location. Even though your smoker probably already has a thermometer on it don't rely on it. I've never seen one of those puppies yet that's accurate. Rely on the digital and Happy Smokin'

Thanks guys it came out GREAT.. I do need to get a internal thermometer do I can tell "When its done its done" I posted a few questions about the thermometer, if you dont mind can you give me some suggestions.

Thanks again for the help was nice to have a piece of meat come out better than if you had went to a restraunt and ordered it.