First cook for large gathering, pork butt?s


 
J

J Reyes

TVWBB Pro
I've done one pork butt on the top rack but this time I'm attempting to cook a few more and have some questions.

I need to have food ready for an event around 12 noon this coming Saturday.

I'll be bringing pork butt as one of the main food items. Hamburgers and hot dogs will also be cooked on site.

My local butcher has pork butts two to a pack (cryovak) each weighing 5-6 lbs, (bone in).

I'm estimating that I may be able to fit 3 of these sized butts on each rack.

I'm also estimating that the cook time should be in a range of 8 to 12 hours to a meat temp of 195-200. (based in 1.5 to 2 hrs per lb.)

I plan to start the cook around 11pm and be done somewhere between 7am to 11am.

Using Minion method
fuel: lump-mesquite (15%), Kingsford brickets (85%), with chunks of apricot
Brinkman charcoal pan for water

I don't plan on getting up to baste much, other than maybe spray a little apple juice when I check temps and water once in the night.

Any comments on my estimations are appreciated.

John
 
A recent similar discussion can be found here

In short, you could do 3 per rack and stand them in a triangle/pyramid. Given the amount of pork butt that will be in there, I'd also consider cooking with an empty water pan. Crumple up 3 sheets of foil, then unfold and lay them in the empty water pan, then wrap the pan in foil. That will provide enough protection from direct heat, and will allow your fuel to focus on the 6 butts instead of heating water
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Timing of your cook will of course also depend on the temp you decide to cook at. I would think it will tend to be closer to the 2 hrs per pound given the larger mass being cooked.
 
Depending on the temperature you run the smoker at, you may want to consider starting earlier. If the cook ends up taking 12 hours, then an hour to pull the meat off, wrapping it up to let it rest, and then preparing it in time for noon might be cutting it a little close.

This past weekend I smoked a couple 6 pound bone-less pork butts at around 240 degrees (average) and it took about 12-13 hours, a lot less than I was expecting. As a result, I had to hold the meat for a good 6 hours. I wrapped them in foil, blankets, and newspapers and placed them in one of those heavily insulated coolers, and they were still too hot to handle when it was ready to serve.

I'd recommend giving yourself some extra time in case it does take longer.

Good luck!
-Kyle
 
I have to agree with Kyle, John. I would start earlier. Last week I had two butts go in at around 8:30 pm on Saturday, and they were not ready until 2:15 pm on Sunday. The smoker was holding steady at around 225. Then I wrapped both with double foil, started eating one at 3:00 pm and the other at 9:00 pm. I must say, the 9:00 pm butt was much much better than the first, moist and very hot (even after sitting in the ice chest for around 7 hours).
 
I agree with Kyle and Erik, starting earlier is better. My wife and I usually host a 4th of July party for the neighborhood. I do six 6-7lbs pork butts which I get from Sam's. We plan on eating around 3:00 in the after noon. I like to start the butt's the day before in the morning around 10:00 or so. I always use foil instead of water, the butts will finish sometime in the early morning the day of the party. When they finish I pull them, wrap them in towels and some blankets I keep around just for that purpose. As Eric stated they stay hot for a very long time, at our last party I foiled and wrapped the butts 9:00 in the morning. When our neighbors and friends came I shredded the pork as needed the last one at 6:00 and it still was to hot to hold. When serving I put them in a slow cooker and add a bit of the rub I used and some apple juice for taste and added moisture. I almost always have nothing left by the time we start the fire works that night.
 
John,

You may be cutting it a little close with the time you're thinking of starting at. If it were me, and I had to be ready to serve around noon, I'd start the process of firing up the WSM at about five the previous evening, targeting meat-on-the-que sometime between six and seven.

The reason for this is simple. If your estimated time - 12 hours - is spot on, you can pull the meat from the WSM, wrap it in foil and towels, and plunk in a cooler for several hours with no harm done. And if you're running a tad toward the twelve to fourteen hour mark, like some of my butts have gone, then you have a little breathing room before you have to serve. Putting the meat on at 11:00 pm does not afford you the time to make up for the variables that lurk over virtually every que - temp control, wind, longer times, and on and on.
That said, however, you may have to get up a bit earlier just to check the temps at around the eight hour mark.

Remember, temps not time will tell you when to take the butts off the pit.

Just my $.02...

Alan
 
Thanks all.

I was projecting 1.5 to 2 hours per pound based on previous experience cooking butts.

Lee... your cook..3-4 hours per pound.

Alan...suggested... 3 to 3.5 hours per pound with a 5pm start.

Erik...your cook of 17.5 hours didn't indicate how large (pounds) the butts were.

Kyle... your cook...slightly more than 2 hours per pound (close to my target projections)

The Mr. Brown Recipe which should be close to the total weight I expect to cook took about 17 hours for two butts weighing about 12.5 lbs each (trimmed) which equates to 1.3 hours per pound. A lot less than than any suggestions above including my experience. It's hard to project timing with so many different experiences.

I never loaded the WSM up with as much meat as I intend to this Friday so I'm not sure how much to compensentate for the extra load. I will start earlier just in case it takes longer.

I don't have experience using only foil so I'd rather not practice this time around.

John Reyes
 
John, did 50 lbs on the WSM once. The WSM takes longer to get up to temp once the meat is on but after that it's like any other cook. You may have to had more fuel but the cook is not that far out of the ordinary limits
 
John,
I did four 8 pound pork butts last week end that took right at 13.5 hours on the WSM using the minion method with kingsford charcoal, hickory chunks and water in the pan the temp. ranged anywhere from 225 up to 275 briefly but averaged out at 250, hope this helps. Also I don't try to figure time per pounds because there are so many factors that can change that I am just sure to give myself a min. of 12-13 hours for the cook if they are done early then you foin and put in a cooler and they are going to be late then you foil and leave on the cooker that will bring them up quicker, but I will tall you to give yourself at least 12-13 hours

Jason Duhamell
Smokey J's BBQ
 
John, I put two butts weighing roughly 7 lbs each. Remember, the temp. held steady at 225, with barely any fluctuations.
 
Update...

Short story: The cook turned OK good but I should have taken the sage advice in the earlier threads and started earlier that what I projected.

Long Story:
I picked up the pork butts from my local butcher Friday mid morning. Instead of 5-6 lbs untrimmed each as I expected they turned out to be closer to an average of 6.5 lbs trimmed for a total of 39 lbs. The good part was that the butcher trimmed almost all visible fat from the butts. The bad part was that they were larger than expected.

I was going to try and fit 3 butts on each rack, but no dice with the larger butts that I had. I even tied the butts to condense the size. Friday afternoon, I ran to the hardware store and get bolts to add a rack/grate to add between the two standard racks.

First mistake was I bought a Weber grate that fits an 18.5 inch grill. This did not fit inside the WSM either by hanging from the top rack or attaching to the bottom rack. I did have a smaller grill that I use to cook veggies that I attached on top of the bottom rack. This allowed me to barely fit 2 butts on each of the 3 racks. I say barely becasue the top rack was resting not on the rack supports but on the middle butts.

The cook started at 8pm Friday, at 4am everything looked pretty good, meat at the top grate was at 165, but by early-mid morning the cook started to stall with meat temps around the 170 range with the mid level butts cooking slower at around 160.

At 10:30am I moved the mid level butts into the oven in a covered foil pan (at 350 degrees) and added mesquite (lump) to the WSM to get temps up for the final push. This allowed the butts in the WSM to get past the stall temps.

At 11:30am the butts in the WSM reached 190 and the oven butts measured 200.
Wrapped all butts with foil, into the cooler, and pulled around 12:30.

After getting a whiff of the meat when the ice chest was opened, it was decided not to cook the Costco sirloin burgers.

Lessons Learned: When cooking pork butts, the WSM is more suited to cooking a maximum of 4 butts of 6-7 lbs, with 2 on each grill. With 4 butts I think my cook projection of 2 hrs per lb would have been close. Adding a middle grill is possible but the lack of space between the meat will likely cause slower cook times and uneven cooking. In fact the top grate was resting on the middle butts not the grate holders. I didn't think this would be a problem since I thought the middle butts would eventually shrink up, but by choking off the space between the meat it didn't allow for even cooking. The middle butts suffered the most.

As far as taste, I don't think they came as good compared to when I've had less meat in the cooker and although they were beyond temps for sliced pork and could be shread apart, they were not very moist.

John
 
John,
I use threaded rod, washers, nuts, and wingnuts for my extra grate. In a pinch, you can use unwrapped soup cans to support the extra grate. I have done 5-6 butts several times. I add a few more chunks of smoke wood, that's about the only difference.
 
Bob, I also used hardware that you mentioned. What type extra grate are you using? The 18.5 did not fit as a middle grate.

Also it depends on the sizes of the butts. As I said the 6.5 pounders were so large/thick the top grate was resting on the middle butts not the grate supports. I could have lowered the middle grill but then there would not be enough room for the lower butts.

Perhaps one butt in the middle (5 total) instead of two would have been much better because it could have laid out flatter than with two in the middle, thus allowing more air/smoke/heat flow.

As I had them stacked, it was as if it was one large hunk of meat with little smoke/heat/air flow between the meat pieces.
 
I bought another charcoal grate and use that. 15" if I remember right. (Did I mention that I bolt it on above the top grate lol) The part number is 72601 and the last time I looked (over a year ago) the price was around $10.
I also use a Guru, so I would say that I get more flow through the WSM and smoke to all areas than with a natural draft.
 
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