2 butts, 16 pounds and 14 hours

[DavidD]

I cooked two butts for a group of 17 this weekend and they turned out great. I probably could have used another hour or two, but it was getting late and the internal temp was 188 so I pulled them. The meat was tender and juicy. I thought the hickory smoke flavor was pretty good but i was surprised that the smoke ring was not very pronounced. I used a decent amt of hickory, but reading tonight i learned the smoke in the latter stages of smoking probably didn't do that much. That's one thing i haven't figured out is how much wood I should use, how frequently to add it and when to stop.

 

[Matt Jones]

What method did you use to fire the cooker? I just mix chunks throughout when I use the minion method making sure some are on top to fire off right away and it works well.

The other key is temps, put the butts on cold, the smoke ring forms mostly while the meat is between 40 and 140 degrees.

 

[Eric Koenig]

Three fist-sized chunks of smoke wood will be plenty. I agree with Matt-take the butts out of the fridge and put into the cooker as soon as possible.

Also, at what temp were you cooking?

 

[DavidD]

I am running on the lower end of the temp, between 225 and 250. You may not recall, but I am running an electric b/c i do the cooking while at the hunting camp and have very little time to watch over the cooker. I ran a dedicated power source and let it run all day. If i get into a time constraint, i'll foil them for a couple of hours but usually put the butts on early when leaving for the woods and we don't eat until 8pm, so it works out.