9 Pounder-- Cooking time?


 
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Wade G

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I just made it to the butcher, the smallest one he had was a 9 pound butt. Woof. Thought about having cut it, but it was already sealed ready to go, plus- -I have 6 folks coming over and would like some left over for next week, or even Selection Sunday.

Starting to panick a little though. Does this mean it will take roughly 18 hours to smoke?

Even using the minion method-- how am I going to keep the fire going for that long?

Newbie. Preciate all the help.
 
That cook would last 14 to 16 hours for me. You can slow it down and take longer if you wanted.
Fill the firering as full as you can and start with about a half a chimney of burning charcoal.
Jim
 
Thanks for the reply, Jim

I dont necessarily want to cook it slower, I just want to make sure I render out all/most of the fat, instead of ending up with a greasy batch of meat.

And, you are saying I should only need 1 full fire ring for the entire job? That sounds doable.
 
Wade,

My last cook went 19 hours on a full ring of charcoal. I left the vents open when I took the meat off, and there was still fire in the bowl the next day when I was cleaning the WSM. Sometimes it's amazing how long a load of charcoal will continue to burn.

Wayne
 
Wade, I'm a newbie also but have had some fun over the past few months with a lot of different recipes. You may want to try the pork butt slathered w/mustard recipe on this site. I did it last week with a 7 lb bone-in butt, and it was done within 8 hrs. And tasted excellent. There was no water in the pan (as in the recipe) but I was able to control the temps around 275 or so. Not that I'm some Q expert, but based on Chris' recipe and info and my results, it seems that the butt can handle some higher temps with shorter cook times. Let us know how it went! /infopop/emoticons/icon_wink.gif
 
Although it may be getting up to temperature by allowing the temps to be around 275, the amount of fat rendered out of the butt will not be as much. Wade, if you are looking to render out that fat, there's nothing like the long cook times. Even if your charcoal burns almost out at the 12 hour mark, you can always add a lit chimney of coals, fill you water pan with new cold water and add another 6 hours or so of burn time that way.
 
Just an update for those interested. Thanks for all the helpful replies, I appreciate it.

Started the butt at 1:30AM last night. So we are 12 hours into the smoke. Temps have ranged between 225 and as high as 275, using the MM. It was a little breezier during the night than I had anticipated. Temps actually dropped to around 205 this morning while I was at a friends helping with a move. But I came back and stirred the coals to get back up a bit over 250. I plan to have to go to another chimney of fresh coals probably in a few hours.

I have already flipped, and apple juiced it- -so now just heading toward an anticipated finish time of 5. However, if that gets pushed out til 8, I'll do it to make sure the fat is rendered.

I'll post an update after its all done.
 
Finally finished the smoke after 18 hrs 40 minutes. 2 lit chimney's and the MM for the entire load of fuel. Meat temp topped out at 190 before we finally were too hungry to keep waiting.

Turned out great. Everyone was very impressed. it wasn't greasy and it produced a ton of good meat for everyone (6 adults) to eat their fill and have seconds.

Couldn't have done it without all the help on this forum.
Thanks.

I'm Tired. Going to bed, happy and full.
 
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