re: how long to smoke a pork shoulder

quote:

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thats not enough time to get a good smoke ring imho. its more like 6-8 hours of smoke before the flavor decreases.

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Again, that was a short cut tip. Great for when pressed with time. I don't do that very often but if something has kept me from starting early enough I don't completely change my menu. I still smoke the meat and then heat the meat to temp in the manner in which I laid out.

However, smoke ring and smoke flavor are two different things. You can smoke something for 30 hours and it clearly will have way more smoke flavor than something smoked for 15 hours. But the difference in smoke ring size will be not be much. Also, the amount of flavor injected into the meat is not constant and is like a bell curve. I would rather something smoked 6-8 hours than 3-4 like you said. But, generally there is not a HUGE noticeably difference.

The smoke ring is a chemical reaction and is the break down of a certain chemical. The slower you heat up the meat the bigger the smoke ring. When the chemical completely breaks down the smoke ring will stop forming. Smoke flavor still penetrates the meat even after the meat stops making a smoke ring. This is why I put my meat on the smoker right away and slowly let the heat rise.

The point of my post was that you can still get the benefits of smoking a shoulder without having to wait 10-18 hours. The most important time in smoking is the very beginning.