Smoking a big pork shoulder

[Swine]

Looking for some advice.
I am smoking a port shoulder for pulled pork this weekend. They thing is, it is about 11.5lb and the size of a basketball.
I was thinking about cutting in half and smoking the 2 halves.
My worry with the big shoulder is the outer would dry out a bit too much. That and the time it will take.
Thanks for your thoughts.

[Celiacbrew]

Definitely won't dry out. Just make sure when you pull it you you get bark distributed evenly throughout.

For the time issue there really isn't a convenient answer. You can smoke it the night before and then wrap it very tightly in foil and leave it in the oven overnight. Then pull it in the morning. Just reheat it when you go to serve. The other option is to wrap in foil once you get your bark formed and then leave it on the smoker all day. It knocks off an hour or more. Both methods will soften your bark and wash away some of the flavour.

One thing I haven't tried yet but want to try is sous viding a shoulder overnight and then smoking it really hard the next day. I planned to do that last weekend but my shoulder wouldn't go in my bag unless I removed the leg bone. I will find bigger bags and do it on my next smoke.

[RossBee]

lb, that's an appetizer.

Wrap the thing in tin foil, low heat (250 F) 6 hours, unwrap, throw some honey or maple syrup in it, re-wrap for another hour. Enjoy.

Make sure the wrap it tight. When I do a pig, I tripple wrap.

[Swine]

I have a rub on it and wrapped. I am going to go as a whole unit.
I did an 8lb one before, started about 11pm, done by 1 or so in the afternoon. I just let it rest until a early supper and it turned out nice.
I haven't done a mop before, so may look at doing that this time.
It is for my wife's work group, so don't want to ruin it!

[sleepyjamie]

I recently bought an 11kg shoulder from costco. Cut it into 4 pieces and smoked each of them on the kamado around 220F. Was around 10 hours in total. I let mine go to 190F internal cooking temp, simply to melt the fat.