35 lb of pork butt


 
W

William Pidgeon

TVWBB Member
I have 35 lb of pork butt to smoke by Tues at 12 (noon). How long should it take and at what avg. temp. should I try to keep my WSM at? Any help would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks

PS: the outside temp will be 50 to 60 degrees (no rain)
 
what is your largest piece of meat? 2 hrs/lb of your largest piece would be a good guesstimate if you keep the WSM betwenn 225-250 degrees at grate level. put the bigest piece or pieces on the top and the smallest ones on the bottom grate. that should get them all done in roughly the same time. go by temp and not time though. 195-205 internal is what i shoot for.
 
I smoked roughly 60 lbs last weekend and it took 14 hours average for hte butts to come off. I had two really stubborn ones that decided to take 18 hours. Usually a full smoker full of butts only take about 14 hours for me.

Keep the temp between 225-270. Ideally, 225-250, but if it soars into the 260s, I have never noticed a difference. At 275, I think I would worry (maybe for no reason) and turn the vents down a little.
 
I would start them about 6 o'clock the night before. I would aim for a temp of around 250. I would get up early around 6:00 AM and check the temp in each one. If you have a slow poke, you can always raise the temp and foil the laggardly one. Temps over 300 won't hurt pork butt, though I'd stay south of 350 if you have sugar in the rub.
 
I use the clay saucer in place of water, but I'm not going to claim that it is the best way to get great results. There are many fine folks getting great results with water, sand, piedmont pan or whatever. If you are cooking for a big group I would stick with your usual method so that your cooker isn't behaving in an unfamiliar way.
 
Also keep in mind that it will take a bit for the WSM to hit temperature with that much meat. When doing larger cooks like this, I give the fire an extra 15-30 minutes to catch before reassembly (using the MM).
 
I cooked 4 butts totalling 38 lbs saturday night.

I put them on at 8:30pm, and the last ones came off at 3:30 pm.

(I had temps take a dive overnight, woke up at 5am, and temps were at 180).

Usually, I would have planned on 16 hours for this much butt, and cooking around 250 lid from start to finish, but temps took a dive......
 
Did six butts last Wednesday night. they came out great. the only issue I have is the accessability (?)to the butts on the bottom rack. Does everyone turn the butts on the edge to get more than four good size butts on their grates?
 
I'm planning on a full brisket and 4 pork butts this weekend. My first smoke with a full smoker. Any recommendations on whether I put the butts on top or the brisket?
 
Eric K , how is the bark? I noticed by putting the fat side in some bottom fat doesn't render as well as when I put the fat face down on the grate. I'm cooking next week for work . Will try the butts with the fat side out and see what happens. inally posted by Eric Koenig:
Yep. I turn them on the sides to fit 3 per grate, with the fat cap facing out to protect from the heat coming up the sides.[/QUOTE]
 
Eric A.,

I have had great success with Butts over Brisket. Fat side up on butts and down on brisket. Search on this site and you will find lots of threads no this topic. If you are doing just the brisket flats, you will want to start the butts well before with how much time depending on the size.

Bob
 
Awesome. First time I had used the search (i.e. find) function. A whole new world out there. Butts on top it is - with the fat cap on butts up and fat layer on the brisket down.

Thanks for the help.
 
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