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My first boneless butt


 

Scott P.

TVWBB Super Fan
I'll be cooking my first boneless butt tonight. The woman and I both felt like some pulled pork. The only thing they had in the case at Sam's were some big ol' boneless ones. We grabbed a 15 lb one and brought it home.

I've done some searching here since I've never done a boneless one before. I know I have to tie it up and everything, but my main question revolves around cook time.

How long should I expect it to take to cook a 15lb boneless butt? Am I better off splitting it into two smaller pieces to shorten the cooking time? I'm looking for 18 hours or so of cook time. The last but I did was about 10 lbs and took 16 hours. I plan on cooking it at 250-275 degrees. I was wondering what effect the lack of a bone would have on cooking time.

Any thoughts or experience out there?
 
if it is still in the cryovac, it may look like one but actually be two pieced packed together. If it is one, there is no harm in cutting in half, which will also cut in half the cooking time.
 
a single boneless butt@ 15 pounds= one big "***" pig. pun intended
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I'd have to agree you've got two butts there, but are they actually labeled boneless? I only ask as I've never seen nor heard of boneless from Sam's before. I do know the bone-in ones are typically packed bone-sides facing eachother in the center. Guess you'll find out soon enough.
 
They are labled boneless pork butts. It does look like two pieces. They were $1.18/lb. I guess my cooking time might be quite a bit shorter since they are two 7.5 lb ones.
 
Scott, boneless will cook up just about the same as bone in. And yes you can tie them or you don't have to. All of the "nooks-cranies" just give you more surface for the rub to be applied. I've done 2 - 4 butt smokes and didn't tie them. They turned out great. It's all in what you want. M m m m m ...pork butt !

If you want to help hold them togother, you can use toothpicks or wooden skewers.
 
I've always gotten boneless butts from Costco. They come two per cryovac, as others have stated. I usually rub them up, tie them up, and cook them exactly as instructed for bone-in butts. They always come out fantastic.
 
<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">Originally posted by T.J. Balcerak:
I've always gotten boneless butts from Costco. They come two per cryovac, as others have stated. I usually rub them up, tie them up, and cook them exactly as instructed for bone-in butts. They always come out fantastic. </div></BLOCKQUOTE>

Yep, same here. I tie them because I like to keep them as uniform as possible to keep the cooking time as close as possible.
 
One thing though: If the butts are in fact boneless and if you put rub in the bone pocket it will become quite pasty during cooking. It won't dry, caramelize and become bark-y. If you want to put some in there do so with a very light touch. I don't cook boneless much but when I do I don't put anything in the bone pocket. I like bark-y bark.
 
I plan on tying it, then applying the rub. I thik I might do them both on the top rack to keep from having to move them around too much. If they don't fit, I guess I'll rotate them.

Two 7 lb butts should take 12-14 hours ar 250-270 degrees. Does that sound right?
 
Quite possibly a bit less at those temps.

You should be able to fit both upstairs. If you have a skewer handy you can use it to keep them from falling into each other if they seemed inclined to do so.

Have fun and let us know how it goes.
 
The tied up butts went on the smoker at 5:30 am. They are sitting at 195 now. I'm looking forward to dinner. I might just have to take a few "samples" now.
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The samples were good. The two butts are now wrapped in foil and sitting in a cooler. I suppose I should get started on the BBQ sauce.
 

 

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