Expert: John Langenfelder - 3/8/2010

Question
I just smoked my firt small 15lb pig in my barrel smoker yesterday. It is two drums welded together long ways. I just make fire on one side and put meat on other side. It does have vents and a chimney. I smoked it for almost 10 1/2 hours at 225-260. I have to open the whole smoker every 30 minutes to add lump and hickory, but the heat comes back up within 2 minutes. After 5 hours the internal temp was 138. After 10 hours the temp was only 140 and not moving. I had to finish the pig in the oven at 350 to bring meat to 165. What am I doing wrong? I cooked it belly side down in a laying position. The skin became so tough, I feel like it was blocking the heat. Maybe skin it next time? Thanks in advance.

Answer
I suspect that your temperature was lower than you thought.

Not too sure why you would need to keep opening it that often.  Once you load it, the vents should be able to maintain the temp for longer than that, but I don't really know your setup.

Generally my rule of thumb when I cook pigs is 1 hour for every 10 pounds plus one hour.  A 40 lb pig would take about 5 hours.  Now this is in good weather, 70 degrees and up.  If below that I do add additional time 1/2 to 1 1/2 hours more.  I also cook more at 250-275 degrees.  Obviously, the lower the temp, the longer it will take.  Do you have a tested thermometer to accurate gauge the temperature of the pit as well as the meat?  If not, try taking a glass of ice, fill it with cold water swirl it around, then stick in the thermometer.  You should get a reading close to 32 degrees. Then boil some water, remove it from the heat, put in the thermometer and you should get a reading close to 212 degrees.  This may change depending on your altitude as higher altitudes affect temperature.

Fluctuating temps are not a good thing and you should try and find away to keep the temp stable.  Try looking fitting a bbq guru (http://www.thebbqguru.com/) to your pit to help keep stable temps.

Realistically, for that size pig, I would think 3-4 hours would have been good enough. I probably would have cooked it for a couple hours in the pit, then moved it to the oven anyway to finish it.  

The skin was probably tough from the long slow cooking time.  Skin does better at higher temps.  I doubt this was a problem as I cook all my pigs with skin on.  It helps keep the pig moist and helps to keep the heat inside the pig.