Help! My Butts are too small.


 
C

Chris Nielsen

TVWBB Member
I agreed to smoke some meat for a friend who is throwing a birthday party and I told him to get two boston butts, but what he actually got were two "boneless boston butt roasts" These are much smaller than what I am used to smoking for pulled pork. They are 2.5 and 3.5 pounds and I usually smoke at least a 5 or 6 pound butt.

My problem is timing. I need them to be done and ready to rest at 1PM. Usually when I do full-sized butts I start them about 12 or 1 AM and they're ready at lunch time. If I do that with these though they'll be done at sunrise.

I think I am going to start them around 6:30 or 7 AM but am wondering if 6 hours will be long enough? Sounds too short for a butt, but since they are small and don't have a bone, then perhaps it's long enough?

Anyone have experience smoking this cut and can offer some advice as to how long they'll require? My WSM (22") tends to run about 250.
 
Hi Chris, I've never done two that small, but 6 hrs. sounds to short. My first reaction was in the 8 to 10 hour range at 225-250 degrees.
 
that's my fear.

I should add that I do have the option of taking them off the smoker at noon if they look like they wont make it and put them in a 350 oven for an hour or so to finish. I don't love that idea, but it's an option.
 
Or, at noon you can foil them and put them back on the wsm and open all the vents...sort of like an HH brisket. People will see it come off the smoker too
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I hope your friend does not have too many mouths to feed. I just did an overnight with a 10.5 and 9 # pair of butts.
 
ya that's an idea, depending on how long they take at first. I don't want them to sit in a cooler for 6 hours before putting them back on. If I get 20 people sick I'll never hear the end of it.

And yes, he does have too many mouths for 6# of pork, but I'm doing a whole turkey too.

Does anyone have experience in the (estimated) cooking time for a 3# boneless butt roast?
 
Hey Chris,

I did a 2.8lb butt the other week thinking it would take 1.5 hours per pound.....total cook of approx 4.5-5 hours. Wrong. Ended up taking almost 8 hours at 225 degrees. The 1.5-2 hour per pound rule doesn't apply for smaller butts.....so go ahead and start them at 1AM and cook like normal. If they're done around 8 or 9am then just foil them up and throw in a cooler to rest until noon. It'll work out great.

Good luck.....Pat
 
Would amount of time per pound apply? I am not as familiar with Pork Butts as I mainly do Briskets. With briskets (although I cook till tender rather than to a certain time or temperature) I use Hrs/lb to guestimate about when it should be done. Depending on how high I smoke and how thick the flat is, it is usually between 1 hr to 1 1/2 hrs per pound. Not sure if this will work for your butt or not.

What about pre-smoking, then refrigerate until time to eat, then reheat and pull? If you use some apple juice or other liquid into a foiled pan and reheat in the oven, it should stay moist. I do this with brisket and it stays moist...and a pork but (IMO) is less likely to dry out than a beef brisket. Anyways, just my 2 cents
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Good Luck
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Weldon
 
Thanks Pat, the more I think about it the more I think you're absolutely right. Maybe I'll just start with fewer lit coals.

Better to cook to tender and reheat than under-cook.
 
If you HH them the whole time, prob around 4.5- 5 hrs. to cook them. Cook the butts at 300º for about 3 hrs. then wrap them up in foil and cook another 1.5-2 hrs. till tender. HH butts come out great. I just double or tripple the smoke wood, since they will only be in the smoke for a short period of time. HTH
High Heat butts come out great, give em a try sometime.
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Thanks everyone for the advice. I thought I would post the results for everyone's benefit.

I decided to go ahead and start them at 1 AM, due to the fact that it's better to keep them warm and reheat them than try to rush them to completion in the oven.

They started at 1 AM with 15 lit coals and once the temperature was up to about 200 I shut all 3 bottom vents down to 25%. I could have swore I had the top vent open (I always cook with the top vent 100% open) but nope-- it was 100% closed.

Still, when I cracked the smoker open for the first time at 8:30 it was a perfect 225 and the butts looked great, but still (after 7.5 hours) weren't perfectly tender. I left them on until 10:00 and then foiled them, put them in a styrofoam cooler (thanks, Omaha Steaks) and let them rest in the sun until 1:00, at which time I put them back on to reheat for 30 minutes.

When I got them to the party they had been off the smoker for an hour but were still warm and very, very moist. Some gentle pressure with a fork and they disintegrated. I've never made, nor seen pork so tender but it was still perfectly moist, thanks to that high fat content. It was widely received as the best pulled pork anyone at the party had ever eaten, and I would have to agree.

So, to summarize, my buddy got the wrong meat, I only got to brine for a couple hours and I left the top vent closed like an idiot for the first 7.5 hours of the cook, and it was the best pulled pork I've ever made or eaten.

Maybe there are BBQ gods after all
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