First cook of 8 Butts in the 22.5


 
T

Tom Raveret

TVWBB Pro
I haven't cooked butts in 3 years and you would think I might have started back with a smaller quantity. My weakness is a deal! Found them for $.99c/lb at our Piggly Wiggly. They were super fresh with a pack date of 9/17 and looked good. I had the time this week so I thought I'd go for the motherload of 8 shoulders in the 22.5. 6 would have fit better as there isn't space between them. I think I could have handled 4 better on each level if they were smaller but several of these were large. Does anyone have any experience on how the lack of space between the roasts will affect the bark or the cook. Once they shrink down a bit things should be fine but its tight on both levels.

These are farmland all natural pork tthe fatcaps and false caps were significant.

Here are the package weights and the net after trimming form each package of 2 butts:

package weight, net weight
17 lb , 14 lb
18.8, 15
19.2, 16
16.3, 14

I had a scale nearby so I weighed the trimmings as I trimmed each up. At the end fo the cook I pack my foodsaver bags to weight so I'll be able to see what the net weight of the cook is (that is minus what gets eaten off when we pull)

So I have a net of 59 lbs in the smoker on Kingsford with some hickory and cherry. I rubbed them up this afternoon with a generous batch of Kevin's "A Butt Rub for Jane". I'm an hour in and haven't even hit 200 yet but it looks like I've burned a significant amount of coals so I'm concerned I'm consuming fuel too fast.

will update later any thoughts are welcome
 
Wow.

I did 6 butts a couple of weeks ago - on my 22.5 inch - I can see where the extra 2 would have put them in contact with each other - at least in the beginning.

I was using Ozark Oak Lump - cooked them for about 14 hours (foiled after 11 hours). I was measuring 250° or thereabouts at the vent.

I ended up using about 13 lb of charcoal for my smoke - but the WSM showed temps above 200° for 3-4 hours after I took the butts off.
 
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Tom;

I typically buy butts that weigh around nine pounds (which is fine by me). Those are MASSIVE butts (kind of reminds me of the lady down the street:rolleyes:). I digress...

I will follow this post with much interest. Ambitious cook but I bet you'll do just fine!!

Dale53:wsm:
 
Robert those weights are for the packages of 2 butts... the average weight of the butts after trimming is 7.3 lbs

Internals are only up to 145-155 on the top level. I set the smoker for 225 for the overnight cook (probably should have gone higher) set for 235 this morning and bumped it up to 245 just a bit ago after refueling.
 
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I'm having some trouble here and could benefit from others experiences. the internals on the roasts on both the top and bottom racks are in the 160's and I'm 19 hours into the cook ???

To recap I cooked with the smoker set at 227 overnight using a cyber-q ATC this morning added charcoal and kicked it up to 235. Later I went up to 245 and have been coasting at 250 for the last couple of hours and added more charcoal. I've checked the roasts in several spots with a thermapen and it confirms the digi-q reading. On one of the 8 roasts I'm at 178 on one side of the roast and 160's on the other.

What are my options at this point? If I let it ride I'll be pulling pork at 2-3 am?? I could foil but if I do at what temprature do I take them off the WSM and rest them then?

I also thouht of taking the mid section unit off the bottom and carefully pouring the coals into one of my 22.5 kettles and put a fresh charcoal layer in without ash and reassembling. I'm not using water so I'm not that worried about that though I've done it with 4 buts on the 18 but never 8 on the 22.5.

Could the cook conceivably go over a second night and not finish until tomorrow morning?

Thoughts, and others experiences are greatly appreciated at this point.
 
Little late to chime in, but those temps are way too low. I never understood the 225 pit temp mentality when you're shooting for an internal temp close to 200 of a 7+ pound hunk of meat. At this point, it's taken on all the smoke goodness it's going to take. Personally, I'd set the meat probe alarm for 195 and deal with it when it hit that temp. Tough situation to make a 'good' call.
 
Thanks Chad and Jim tested a couple and they were near 190 so I shut off the oven and will pull in an hour or so. I have an excuse to sleep in tomorrow...lol
 
Well it was a long night and I finished pulling around 2 am but I have allot of pulled pork here now!!! 16 gallon zip lock bags. No help at midnight from the neighbors so I had to do it all solo. To ensure I safely chilled it as I pulled a butt I then sandwiched each between a layer of ice in a cooler. By the time the night was done I had gone through a 30 lb bag of ice!! 6 out off the 8 were nice and gelatinous and two were a bit dry but still all pulled easily. and the bark from a "Butt Rub for Jane" recipe really accentuates the New Mexico chile pepper in a nice way.

I think the greatest challenge of the night was my almost 14 year old Beagle Charlie!!! With my wife already asleep I tried to keep him on a down stay outside the kitchen but that was a constant but losing battle as he kept the floors clean. When I finally got to bed he would not stay in bed at all. Like 3 times in 1/2 hour acted like he needed to go out (he didn't he had just been out) he woke the wife and she let him out while I was in the showering and he bolted straight for the kitchen looking for more. He was so excited it was neat to see the old man that excited even if he was being a bit obnoxious. Beagle= a nose with four legs attached...ya cant help but love the dog though.

I had another help thread going to help me get some ideas on how to bring the cook to a close. I was surprised that I could get all 8 foil wrapped butts into the oven. That probably saved me last night.

So either later today or tomorrow I will go get Foodsaver bags and re package the finished product. Boy do I have a kitchen to clean!!

Thanks to all for your help. There are allot of different new active names out here and a few old ones I recognize. I look forward to getting back into the swing as time allows and love this forum and all the great people who participate in it.

In breaking down the big issue I had with the cook I think someone may have had a point on my help thread that said because the butts were so close together and touching that they may have been insulating each other from the heat and thats why it took so long to get through the 150-170's Also it was clearly a mistake to start this cook at 225, that was way too low. 250 will be my start temprature next time I think. If the butts were this big again I would have preferred 6 to the 8 but I wouldn't rule out an 8 butt cook.
 
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