Can it be done in time??


 
R

russell swift

TVWBB Super Fan
Question for the board: I have less than 15 hrs to have 4 7lb butts ready to travel for a football game in the morning. Normally I would estimate 16-20 hrs for a cook of this proportion....low and slow all the way! But this time, both time and the weather are working against me. I was thinking of taking my meat up to 150F internally, then foiling the remainder of the cook so that it can reach 195F by 8AM. I don't get off work until 6pm, and probably won't start smoking until 8pm. The forecast here calls for rain and lows of 49F. That gives me roughly 11-12 hrs for 4 butts. I'm hoping that the 150F internal will be reached by 2AM so that I can go to bed. Any suggestions?
 
In Paul Kirk's class we cooked butts at regular 250 temps to a pullable consistency in eight to nine hours. We removed the bone and butterflied the butts in order to be able to do that, though. They turned out very nicely.

Alternately, take your butts up to 160 in the WSM, foil them well, and put them in the house oven set at 300 until they reach your desired temps. I've done that before when time was tight, and it works perfectly well, especially if they're going to have a nice resting period.

Keri C, still smokin' on Tulsa Time
 
If you cook them hotter, you'll have no problem.

I think a lot of people cook butts in the 260-270 grate temp range- It'll reduce cooking time significantly. You'll just have to watch your fuel supply.

I've never done a butt at say 320 lid, but have accidently spiked to the high 200's for who knows how long, and didn't have any noticeable reduction in quality.....just a bit fattier inside.

The difference was that the butts were done a lot sooner than I had anticipated (about 4-5 hours sooner).

You can do it!
 
i regularly cook butts at 260-270 grate temp and ramping even higher to finish. No problems, just a quicker cook.
 
Yes, I have 8 pounders get done within 12 hours at 270-280 lid temps. Most times, I do 2 at a time and they are done. Will say that the Guru helps to get temps up faster, so that saves time also.
What temps I cook at depends at what time I can start, and how much time I have.
 
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