Six butt cook - results and question


 
D

Don R

New member
I recently did six butts - about 40 pounds total - for a block party. They turned out great! I did three top and three bottom and was blown away by how well everything came out. The neighbors inhaled the stuff so fast my wife didn't even get any!

Here's the question part: The first butt was done at just over 16 hours and the next three came off within the next two hours. However the last two took just over 20 hours to finish. I pulled those two last and noticed that the meat seemed significantly drier and with fewer pockets of fat that the previous four. I assumed the first four cooked quicker because they had more internal fat. Is that right? If so, was there any way to have known this ahead of time and could I have done anything to get them all to finish closer together? They were all close in size so I don't think that was a factor. I got them all from the same independent grocery.

BTW - When I served this, I mixed the meat from all six butts across two large pans so if some bits were drier than other bits it would have been hard to notice.
 
You would think that a fattier butt would plateau longer than a leaner shoulder, but that doesn't match up with your experience.
Any correalation with rack location or butt size?
In all honesty, with comingled butt, i wouldn't have been fixated on temperature doneness and just pulled them together (with a good rest).
 
Well the more fat and conective tissue that's in a butt the longer it takes. See when that starts breaking down during the cook it cools down the butt and that's the plateau we all talk about. Maybe you had the temp probe in a vein of fat or up against a bone which will give you a false temp? Usually if you measure the temp of the bone and or fat that will give you a lower temp reading than the meat. Dunno what else it could be
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One of the two that took longer was started on the top and one on the bottom - so location was not it. After I removed the first four, I put the last two both on top. All of them were in the 6.5-7 pound range, and the only correlation with size was that the very first one done was definitely the smallest. But all the others were very similar in size.

In the end I put all of them in a cooler for a good rest and pulled everything together. (Two hours of fun and taste testing!)

Again the flavor was all fantastic, it was just that the timing that seemed odd and the meat a bit drier on two of them. From reading postings on this site I'm getting the impression that each pork butt is a bit different.
 
<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">Originally posted by Don R:
From reading postings on this site I'm getting the impression that each pork butt is a bit different. </div></BLOCKQUOTE>
Don't forget Brisket and Ribs also. Chicken is pretty consistant.
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