Arranging two butts on the WSM?


 
C

ChadVKealey

TVWBB Pro
I'm doing up two 10-pound pork butts next Friday night on my 18.5" WSM. I realize there's no "right" or "wrong" answer, but I'm looking for opinions on how to load things up. I figure there are three options:
  1. Put them both on the top rack
  2. Put them on separate racks and rotate about ½ way through
  3. Put them both on the bottom rack
 
Both grates cook just fine. Some of my best BBQ has been two big pork butts cooked one to a grate in the 18" wsm, so the only reason I'd squeeze them onto the same grate would be if I needed the bottom grate for something else. If one is thicker than the other, put it on the top rack and you probably won't even need to rotate. As long as I don't inject, I find that the bottom grate butt will still have good bark.
 
I usually put #2 butts on one grate. The biggest reason is laziness on my part - I don't want to clean #2 grates. They always come out fine this way.
 
I put two on the top rack. Not sure about two 10 pounders though. I usually get a pack of two buts from Sam's or Costco and one butt is usually bigger than the other. The pack is usually about 15 pounds so there is usually one that is 8-9 pounds and one that is 6-7 pounds. Basically though, if I could fit two of them between the handles, even if I needed to squeeze them in a little bit, I'd go with just the top rack.

One problem with doing so, however, is that drippings from the outer edges of the meat will drip outside of the water pan so it will be a little messy at that end.

I think with two honest 10 pounders, I'd probably suck it up and use both grates. I'd at least be prepared to do so until I saw how they fit on the top grate.
 
I'm not concerned about using both grates, but I guessing that since they're both about the same weight (literally only a few ounces difference), I should rotate them at some point to account for the difference in temp between the two. I figure I'll get them on about 10-11 Friday night, get up around 6-7 AM to do the switcheroo and then foil them and transfer to a warmed cooler around noon Saturday. Then I'll need to clean the grates and add some fuel to warm through 4 dozen (chicken) hot dogs (there will be a few folks there who actually - believe it or not - don't eat pork; forgive them for they know not what they miss).
 
I primarily cook on the top rack as well. But there is no reason not cook on the bottom as well. I recommend you monitor with temp to see if they are on the same track. ...and go for it!
 
Put 'em both on the top rack and leave the bottom rack out of the smoker (saves time on the clean up)..

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I'd do one on each grate and not worry about rotating.
You can check temp and tenderness of the bottom one through the door. If it gets done first, pull it out, foil it and hold it in a cooler until the other one is done.
 
So, I put one on each and didn't bother rotating them. At the time I would have done that, I was too concerned with getting the temp back up. About 4:30 AM my remote therm started beeping because the smoker temp dropped to 150! It took some stirring and adding a fresh chimney of lit coals to get it back to temp. Now, 7 hours later, it's still chugging. The meat hit 196 around 11:00 AM, and didn't budge past that until I pulled it off around noon. The one on the top seems perfect texture-wise, but the small sample I tasted seemed a little flat. The one on the bottom fell apart when I tried removing it, so I'd say that's plenty tender. They're both resting in foil inside a cooler with some hot bricks until the part starts at 3:00. Gonna throw some (chicken) hot dogs in there for the non-pork-lovers who will be attending around 2.
 
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