Cutting meat in Half ?

[Marc L]

In order to reduce smoke times, can you cut meat (ex. brisket / pork butt) in half and smoke the 2 halves in less time than a full cut?

 

[J Reyes]

yes or cook at a higher temp

 

[Pat Smith]

Or go into foil after about 4 or 5 hours on a pork butt smoke.....

Pat

 

[Dave Russell]

Yes, but just to be clear, cutting a 10 lb. pork butt in half won't mean that you can plan for a 5 lb. butt cook. Seems like most folks, myself included, are surprised at the amount of time it takes to cook half butts, and so they often end up foiling and raising the temp as suggested above.^^^

 

[Marc L]

Thanks for the responses! Just wanted to know if there was some kind of taboo associated with cutting anything in half. Sounds like it's ok - but possibly may not gain that much time. Foiling recommended.

 

[MKEvenson]

Marc, in regards to brisket, my experience has shown that the flat turns out juicier and with better taste if you do not remove the point. This probably true only in the first couple of slices close to the junction of the point and flat. With butts there are I believe 7 different muscles in a butt, each with different qualities, ie money muscle, tubes, muscle on both sides of bone, and the muscle in the middle between the bone and MM. My recommendation is to keep the butt in tact if you can. As others have pointed out you can reduce cook time in other ways.

Mark