u/bass4life15

Cooking for my son’s first birthday today, about 40 adults, so I decided to make this as stress-free as possible and start everything early.
The beef:
26 lb American Wagyu chuck roll
No trimming needed; very little exterior fat cap
Seasoned heavily with Meat Church Holy Cow
On the smoker at 12:00 PM at 225°F
5 hours: 92°F
6 hours: 108°F
9 hours: 139°F
9¾ hours: 145–146°F
10 hours: ~152°F throughout
Bark was fully set, so I wrapped in butcher paper at 10:30 PM
Bumped smoker to 250°F
At 5:30 AM it was probe tender in some areas but still tight through the thicker muscles
Kept cooking until it was probe tender everywhere
Off at 7:00 AM
Total chuck roll cook: ~19 hours.

The pork:
Two bone-in pork shoulders
22 lb total, roughly 11 lb each
On at 6:20 PM at 225°F
At 10:30 PM they were around 125°F
Went to 250°F when I wrapped the beef
Left completely unwrapped the entire cook
5:30 AM: both around 185°F
Probe tender and off at 7:00 AM
Total pork cook: ~12 hours 40 minutes.
No spritzing. No wrapping the pork. Beef only got wrapped once the bark was where I wanted it. I didn’t cook either meat to a specific finishing temperature — they came off when the probe slid through every section with basically no resistance.
Now everything is getting a long hot hold before lunch.
Biggest lesson: start way earlier than you think you need to. Finishing at 7 AM for a lunchtime party is infinitely better than trying to force a giant piece of beef through the finish line while guests are showing up.
The bark on all three pieces came out absolutely filthy.

Couple 7.5 lbs boneless Pork Shoulders Smoked at 250 until probe tender. Injected with pure apply juice. Used Kirkland blend pellets and hickory and apple chunks, no wrap. This was about halfway through.

38 day Prime NY Strip from Costco. Nothing fancy, just sat in the bottom of my fridge and flipped once after 10 days. Saving the fat trimmings to render into tallow.