Cutting Pork Butt Cooking Time in Half


 
Marty W

Marty W

TVWBB Member
I was wonder if anyone has done this or if its just a bad idea. Using the rule of thumb of cooking times 1 lb. = 1.5 hours of cooking. So for a 10 lb. pork butt your looking at 15 hours of cooking time. What if I cut the 10 lb. pork butt into 2 5 lb pork but before cooking? Is my new cook time 7.5 hours? In addition to the shorter cook times would I also not get more bark in my finial product?

Am I missing something here that I wouldn't want to cut the larger butts into smaller pieces?
 
Something like that should work.

Not sure that it'll cut yer time in exactly half, but all other things being equal - it should significantly reduce the time. (Plus, you'll get more bark if you like bark, because you've increased the surface area.)

The main factor is that in a smaller chunk-o-meat, the heat gets into the core of it quicker and will render the fat & connective tissue more rapidly.

However, keep in mind that your figures for time are "ballpark". I've seen two nearly identical 8-pounder shoulders vary by about 2 hours under nearly identical cooking conditions. Every once in a while you'll get one that stalls / plateaus FOR-EHHVVV-ERRR!

(But long story short - you're on the right track.)
 
I do my butts similar to that all of the time now. I generally buy butts with no bone - I know I may be losing some flavor etc... but this is what i have been doing and my family and everyone has been pleased with the results. Get butts without the bone and then i cut them into quarters and sometimes even six pieces. Rub and then smoke at around 300 for 3 hours or so. Then place the meat in a foil pan, add a little liquid and wrap tight with foil. Continue to cook until tender, generally another 2 hours or so. It may not cut the time in half but it speeds things up considerably. Only thing to really watch is the rub. You get a lot more surface area exposed to the rub this way so you may want to cut back on the amount you use just a bit. I used some rub with a little heat the last time I did butts and although most people thought it was very good, some (my wife) commented it was "a little spicier" then usual.
 
Originally posted by Marty W:
So for a 10 lb. pork butt your looking at 15 hours of cooking time. What if I cut the 10 lb. pork butt into 2 5 lb pork but before cooking? Is my new cook time 7.5 hours?
Click to expand...
Yes, for an estimate only
 
Since I've only cooked half butts a handful of times, I'll defer to Mr. Minion. Besides, he knows a lot more about bbq than just how to start a smoke.
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Jim Minion
TVWBB Emerald Member
Posted September 04, 2002 10:01 PM
"I believe you can cut the time some by cutting a butt in half but it won't be half the time, you may gain a couple of hours. The reason is that collagen takes time to break down and as a piece of meat gets smaller the time guidelines become less useful." Jim Minion
 
I have cut my boneless in half and the time is shortened but not sure if the time is halfed but certainly shorter.
 
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