Weight vs. dimensions in butts

[T Bounds]

I just read a good reply in another thread about butt preparation...cutting in half vs butterflying. It makes me wonder:

I know, I know, I know bbq is ready when it's ready, and temp is just an indicator, but I generally plan on the 1.5-2 hours per pound for low and slow butts, but that's for untouched butts. If a butt is butterflied, essentially flattening it significantly, does anyone have a rule of thumb for the time estimate to done? I know there are many variables, but I'd bet done would begin in the 1 hour per pound for butterflied butt. Any suggestions from experience?

Thanks for any helpful answers that come.

 

[Chris E]

I have the same question as a butt newbie (at least smoking them...)
I did an 11.5 but from walmart with a blade bone in. Overnighted it from 8:30 pm and at 8:30 am it was at 200 meat temp. (Maybe the cooker spiked overnight but was an even 230 at 11pm and 225 at 8am. Then I did two 4 lb butts with blade in and after 5 hours they were barely getting to 180. I learned my lesson about BBQing on a timeline. don't know how the comp guys hit those tigth turn ins.

 

[TravisH]

Time will be shortened but not proportionally.

If a 10lb'er takes 10hrs that doesn't mean a 5lb'er takes only 5hrs.

It's like the "mythical man-month". It might take 1 man 30 days to do the work but that doesn't mean that 30 men can do it in 1 day.

The reason for lo-n-slo is to give the colagen and connective tissues time to breakdown. Just because you half the amount present doesn't mean it will breakdown twice as fast.

 

[Michael Freeman]

I just did a 10lb butt this past weekend and the times were very different from what I was used to. But, this butt was also shaped a bit differently. I'm used to using butts that are more cube shaped and they usually take me about 1.75 per hour. So, I figured the same time for this butt. Except that this butt wasn't shaped like a cube, but it was more flat like a rectangle.

This made a big difference in the time. It ended up taking me about 13 hours instead of the 18 hours I had planned on. Luckily, it held very well in the cooler.

But, I definitely think the shape of the meat is a factor in cooking time along with the weight of the meat.

 

[K Kruger]

Shape is far more important. Thicker meats require more time because the distance for the heat to penetrate from surface to center is greater than one that is naturally thinner or one that is butterflied.