Anything different cooking 4 butts instead of 2?


 
J

John_H

TVWBB Member
Friday night I'm cooking 4 butts on two racks. In the past I've always cooked 2 on one rack with good success. Here are my questions.

1) Does it take longer to come up to temp?

2) Does it take more charcoal?

3) Does it have to cook longer?

4) Do I rotate the meat between the upper and lower racks?

5) Anything else I need to know?

Thanks in advance for all your help.
 
<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">Originally posted by John_H:
Friday night I'm cooking 4 butts on two racks. In the past I've always cooked 2 on one rack with good success. Here are my questions.

1) Does it take longer to come up to temp? <span class="ev_code_RED">yes</span>

2) Does it take more charcoal?
<span class="ev_code_RED">yes</span>
3) Does it have to cook longer?
<span class="ev_code_RED">not much as long as it's not too slow coming up to temp</span>
4) Do I rotate the meat between the upper and lower racks?
<span class="ev_code_RED">No, but I cook around 250 and use the water pan for what it's for</span>
5) Anything else I need to know?
<span class="ev_code_RED"> Not really. I cook 3-4 butts or a brisket and a butt or two quite often, rarely needing to add any charcoal, and I recommend Stubbs if you can find it.</span>
Thanks in advance for all your help. </div></BLOCKQUOTE>

Good luck with it. I highly recommend cooking overnight low-n-slow and keeping hot in a cooler til meal time, whether that's lunch or supper the next day.
 
If i may add in my two cents....I'm not as experienced a BBQ master as Dave, but I did this exact cook just this past weekend. I did the minion method overnight, and started with a 1/2 chimney of lit (using all kingsford blue). The temp shot up to 200 quick, and i made the mistake of choking down the vents too low, it dropped to 150, then I let the vents go wide open and it came back around to 225 finally. Once I got to 225, I adjusted each vent to halfway and went to sleep, got up and it was still about 225.

Also, 2 butts were done after 10 hours, and the other 2 took 14 hours. I think this is just due to the "every butt is different" rule. I'm not sure having more in the cooker had anything to do with it, other than just it prevented the temps from rising higher.

All in all, I would basically give yourself 4-5 hours more time than you would with just cooking 1 butt just to be safe. The cool thing about cooking with more is the meat is a heat sink, and it prevents the crazy temp spikes that may occur otherwise during the middle of the night.
 
Thanks for all of the help. This made me think of one other question. I'm going to use the water pan with this smoke. Should I put bigger butts on the top or bottom. I thought that with the water pan there the higher temp would be up top and therefore I should put the larger butts up top. Ideas?
 
Can't really speak to that...I THINK of my two butts done early, 1 was on top, 1 was on bottom...but I was not using water. The temp was super steady between 200-225 with vents halfway open so I'm not sure adding water would be necessary. If you are more comfortable with it that's OK, but I think the combination of that as well as 4 butts, might be too much of a heat sink.
 
Thanks Bryan. That does make me wonder about the heat sink? If you don't do water do the drippings go into a foiled water pan with no water in it? Does this put off a burning smell?
 
<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">Originally posted by John_H:
...That does make me wonder about the heat sink? If you don't do water do the drippings go into a foiled water pan with no water in it? Does this put off a burning smell? </div></BLOCKQUOTE>

John, a foiled water pan with no water in it isn't a heat sink, but four butts in a 18.5" wsm is a "meat sink".
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If you're already accustomed to cooking with no water in the pan, just go ahead that route. Just expect the bottom two butts to be done first. (If you do want to try using water, start off with HOT water.) Although I prefer to use water in the pan, I've never had a problem with drippings burning when cooking dry as long as I left a gap between the foil and the pan.
 
<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">Originally posted by Bryan B:
If i may add in my two cents....I'm not as experienced a BBQ master as Dave, but I did this exact cook just this past weekend. I did the minion method overnight, and started with a 1/2 chimney of lit (using all kingsford blue). The temp shot up to 200 quick, and i made the mistake of choking down the vents too low, it dropped to 150, then I let the vents go wide open and it came back around to 225 finally. Once I got to 225, I adjusted each vent to halfway and went to sleep, got up and it was still about 225.

Also, 2 butts were done after 10 hours, and the other 2 took 14 hours. I think this is just due to the "every butt is different" rule. I'm not sure having more in the cooker had anything to do with it, other than just it prevented the temps from rising higher.

All in all, I would basically give yourself 4-5 hours more time than you would with just cooking 1 butt just to be safe. The cool thing about cooking with more is the meat is a heat sink, and it prevents the crazy temp spikes that may occur otherwise during the middle of the night. </div></BLOCKQUOTE>

Bryan, don't be so modest. I haven't tasted your 'Q and you haven't tasted mine, so who knows who's the "BBQ MASTER"?
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Now, from one "wannabe BBQ MASTER" to another
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, I've NEVER had such variance in all my four butt cooks, but I use water in the pan so I think that really helps to even up the cooking times between the grates.
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Makes sense, does seem that the bottom ones cooked faster....I basically just said that because you were one of the people who gave me a lot of advice a few months back before I bought my WSM..so thanks again! best purchase I ever made!
 
<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">Originally posted by Bryan B:
Makes sense, does seem that the bottom ones cooked faster....I basically just said that because you were one of the people who gave me a lot of advice a few months back before I bought my WSM..so thanks again! best purchase I ever made! </div></BLOCKQUOTE>

Man, you're most certainly welcome, and I'm glad I was some help. Can't wait to smoke some ribs and chicken for Memorial Day!
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Two days ago, I smoked 3 butts for a party tomorrow. I put two on top, one on bottom and always had water in the pan.
The two on top were done about 1 hour ahead of the lower one, which I had moved to the top when I took the first two off.
I use an 18.5" WSM.
 
Thanks for all the responses. I'm gathering that if I use water the top cooks faster but if no water that bottom will cook faster. Thanks for all your help
 
<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">Originally posted by Aram Chakerian:
Two days ago, I smoked 3 butts for a party tomorrow. I put two on top, one on bottom and always had water in the pan.
The two on top were done about 1 hour ahead of the lower one, which I had moved to the top when I took the first two off.
I use an 18.5" WSM. </div></BLOCKQUOTE>

Aram, I find that's pretty typical for three butt cooks with the bottom rack pork butt directly over the water pan. However, if I put TWO on the bottom rack, they seem to cook a bit faster in relation to the top rack meat because they're absorbing so much more heat that's coming up from around the pan, being so close to the outside of the grate and cooling off so much of the heat rising to cook the top grate meat.
 
Dave, that makes sense too. So if I'm using a water pan, Do you think the bigger pieces should go on the bottom?
 
John, that's advantageous from the standpoint of making sure the top rack butts are done first. However, if depends on how they spread out on the grate, and obviously, you can't tell that when they're in the plastic. In other words, I wouldn't sacrifice having at least a tad of space between all the butts, just so I could have my largest ones on the bottom. It's not a big deal, though. I just want all the bark I can get on a butt.

I usually just try to find four butts averaging around eight pounds each, and I find that most of the time, all four are pretty close to being done at the same time, so it's no big deal, really. They're very forgiving. I just stick a probe in the one that I suspect will be done first, which I usually put on the top rack. Unlike many that never use the door, I try to turn my bottom rack butts where I can get a peek at the bone through the door, and I use my Thermapen to check them for doneness as well as reaching in with tongs to see how loose the bone is after it starts poking out good.
 
Dave, just wondering. Have you ever measured the temp at both grates with a pan full of water to actually see the temp difference?
 
<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">Originally posted by paul h:
Dave, just wondering. Have you ever measured the temp at both grates with a pan full of water to actually see the temp difference? </div></BLOCKQUOTE>

Chris A. has already documented that on the informative part of his sight somewhere, but the key is WHERE you measure both grates, and the affect of the meat. I've measured 275* right next to the door on the bottom grate and where I prefer to measure my temp, the top vent, was still a little less than 250*.

I think of the wsm as having FOUR zones, from HOTTEST to COOLEST: Outside of pan on the bottom grate, Outside of pan on top grate, Over the pan on top grate, and then the very center of the bottom grate being affected most by the 212*-ish water temp, therefore the coolest. Now I know that might be obvious, but start putting a bunch of meat on there and how much you put on can really affect cooking times, as already discussed before in the comparison of cooking on vs. two butts on the bottom rack.

I like to use the grate variance to my advantage when I can. For instance, when cooking chicken leg quarters, I'll first sort into lefties and righties. I'll put the lefties on one rack, and the others on another, with the odd leftover ones going to the freezer for the wife to put in something at a later date. I lay the legs on the grate with the drumsticks at the center and the thighs pointed out since they require more cooking. This way I can fit about nine on a rack. Last cook, I cooked six of the smallest one on the bottom rack squeezed above the pan. I then put two more racks on above that with nine legs on each, for a total of two dozen, and all were done around the same time that way.
 
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