HEEELLPPP!!!!!

I'm confused.......I have a small (1.2kg) pork shoulder joint (no bone) on the smoker. It's been there for around 5 hours and still won't hit above 157F. According to the recipes in "Smoke n Spice" pork shoulder needs about 1.5jours per pound which would mean this shoulder should be done in 4 hours.

Should I be cooking to time or temperature??????

Hi Lozart,
It's normal for a shoulder to stall at 160f & sit there a while, sometimes even drop a little in temp. You just have to open a beer & sit it out, (I assume your meat thermometer is accurate), if your really worried, i understand you can cover it in foil for the remainder of the cook, this should speed things up, but i believe this does not help the bark on the outside.
I always cook to temp rather than time, & pork shoulder is 195f internal temp.
I guess thats why it's called low & slow cooking.
Good luck

Cool, cheers Novice!

I foiled it just after I made that last post and it has indeed risen nicely (179F as we speak).

Note to self......leave more time next time!!!!!

Unfortunately you'll never be able to predict the length of the stall. It can vary massively

I always leave plenty of time to spare, I can hold pork in the cooler for a good 3 hours.

Sounds good, make sure your thermometer isn't in a pocket of fat or something as well, I've had it in the past where the meat can be all up to temp, apart from a small pocket where my thermometer happened to be, you can sit there all day waiting, when it's actually already done.

Well, I took it off the smoker when it finally hit 181F at around 10:30 last night......

Let it rest a while and pulled enough to make a sandwich! It was worth the wait. Shame it was so late though, we ended up ordering pizza we got so hungry! Still....at least I know for next time.