What to put in the smoker this weekend?

[DenverGP]

You got up at 7:00am to smoke a butt at 225deg and were done in time for dinner? That's impressive. What weight was it?

Mine was 7 pounds trimmed, no bone. Got it on the smoker at 8am, kept the smoker at 250 for the first 5 1/2 hours when it reached 150F, then wrapped and into the oven for the last 2.5 hours (which took it to 4pm) when it reached 203F then it rested until about 4:45 or 5:00 when we pulled it.

So 8 hours total cooking time to get to 203F.

I'm using the maverick 73. It's wireless range is a little short, but it's worked great for me, and I can do an antenna mode on it to boost the range if needed.

[Jer]

Using a Camp Chef pellet. 5lb pork shoulder 1hr smoke. 5 - 6 hrs @ 225 pulled @ 180* and sat an hour or so. Should have wrapped it after removing from smoker. However, We had a great bark, nice and juicy / flavor. We're not big on a heavy smoke flavor, just something to accent , bring out the flavors of meats smoked. Still get a nice smoke ring going it this way. We're always open to ideas, suggestions. Worse that happens, it's shredded for chili OR jerky

Yeah, I don't like over-smoking either and SO many people use WAY too much smoke which makes the meat bitter and adds creosote which is dangerous. TBS (Thin Blue Smoke) is the goal and lots of people don't get you don't need billowing black smoke to be smoking. In fact, the opposite is true. Most of the shoulders I get are nearly twice that size so that's probably the key difference in cook times but I'm looking at like 18hrs give or take most times w/a few lengthy stalls in the 160's, 170's & 190's.

Mine was 7 pounds trimmed, no bone. Got it on the smoker at 8am, kept the smoker at 250 for the first 5 1/2 hours when it reached 150F, then wrapped and into the oven for the last 2.5 hours (which took it to 4pm) when it reached 203F then it rested until about 4:45 or 5:00 when we pulled it.

So 8 hours total cooking time to get to 203F.

I'm using the maverick 73. It's wireless range is a little short, but it's worked great for me, and I can do an antenna mode on it to boost the range if needed.

There's the differences. I throw the whole damn thing in... no trim & with the bone. Also, running 250 for 5.5hrs makes a big difference too. I'd also recommend doing this even if you do run 225deg to avoid the danger zone (40deg to 140deg in less than 4hrs) for most people anyway. Like I said, I've been experimenting with 275deg from start to finish and have had alright luck so far. Not ready to give it the 100% stamp of approval as I had slightly lower quality pulled pork the times I did it this way but had other circumstances that were likely to blame.