Smoking a Pork Shoulder

On Sunday I tried smoking a pork shoulder again, using our ceramic smoker. I have (successfully) smoked pork before so this time we tried a different recipe.

I put the pork in a Carolina-style (vinegar based) marinade overnight from a recipe found in Still Smokin’. The marinade included cider vinegar, brown sugar, ketchup, Worcestershire, onion, garlic and some other spices.

This piece of meat was pretty hefty at about 6.5 pounds, and it sat on the smoker for about 14 hours. Going by the math (1 hour for every 1.5 pounds) it should have taken about 10 hours. At the ten hour mark, it was clearly not done, as there was a lot of fat throughout that hadn’t melted away, despite having done a good job of maintaining a 225-degree smoker. Also, a thick bark didn’t form on the outside of the meat like it did last time. I don’t know if it should have stayed on longer or if the marinade I used inhibited it somehow. The end result was still tasty, though!