Had a week where every pork shoulder came out perfect, then one day everything went wrong...

Last Tuesday I nailed 6 shoulders in a row with perfect smoke rings and bark, but Wednesday morning the walk-in cooler hit 48 degrees and I lost 200 pounds of primals, so which do you trust more - your routine or your equipment?

2 comments

2 Comments

ivan8736d ago

Lost 200 pounds of primals" is the kind of sentence that gives pitmasters nightmares, and honestly I'd trust my routine more since a cooler can fail but muscle memory never quits. You can check a probe battery but you can't check if the walk-in compressor decided to take a nap on you, so I'm keeping my fingers crossed and a backup plan ready. Ever had a cooler fail on you before or was this a first?

evanpalmer6d ago

Man, I've been there but not on that scale. I remember one time back in 2019 a condenser fan motor in my walk-in just locked up overnight, and I woke up to a unit sitting at 48 degrees. Luckily it was only about fifty pounds of pork butts and chicken quarters, and I got it under 40 within a couple hours with some emergency ice bags, but I still felt sick about it for days. The thought of losing two hundred pounds of primals like that makes my stomach turn just thinking about the money and the work down the drain. You really think you got everything covered and then the one thing you never worry about just gives up on you.