Good morning everyone. I am going to be smoking some pulled port tomorrow for a large group. Unfortunately I was only able to find smaller pork butts instead of a couple entire shoulders. I ended up with five butts, that are all around 3 or 4 lbs each.
Now Ive read that a rule of thumb is to smoke them for about 1.5 hours per pound at around 225. (Please correct me if Im wrong here). I was wondering though if I need to add time to this to account to the multiple pieces, or is it a factor that once its up to temp then I should be fine (I have a Bradley Original).
Based on this, my thoughts were that this would only take about 6 hours on the smoker? I would like to have them done a bit early to be sure so Ill likely allot 8 hours or so.
Does anyone have thoughts on this that might help me out?
Thanks.
with you having 5 butts, they will all get done at different times due to the nature of the meat, the smoker,,, the way the meat is stacked in the smoker,, I also believe you are on the right track,, smaller pieces due cook quicker...
what i would do is use 2 to 3 racks,,, most likely 3 racks starting at the bottom with the two largest buts... then them next two largest and the smallest on the top rack... place all the racks up as far as possible leaving the very bottom shelf support empty.
set the smoker tower at 225 F.. smoke for no more then 4 hours .. at the end of the smoking process start monitoring the temperatures of the meat starting with the bottom butts... and rotate the meat from front to back if needed .. and continue to cook till done... pulls the buts when they are ready.... again plan for them all to get done at different times...
I have done 5 cured pork loins in the past and it was almost and hour and half difference from when i pulled the first one till i pulled the last,,, they ranged in weight from 4.5 lbs to 5.3 with the largest on bottom...
this is only my two cents...
Splash, since you've got between 15 and 20 pounds of meat, cooking your pork butts is probably going to take longer than 6 hours. I'm guessing in the 8 hour range. You're talking about a pretty good load of meat and you need to consider that a stock Bradley has a relatively small, 500 watt, heating element.
To help speed things along, don't move your pork directly from the fridge to the smoker. Let the pork temper on the kitchen counter for an hour or two before putting it in the smoker.
I often use a foil wrapped brick or two tucked in out of the way spots in the smoker as heat sinks. Since they are preheated along with the smoker, they hold a lot of Btu's that can be transferred to the meat when it first goes into the smoker.
I, too, generally plan to have the meat fully cooked well in advance of when it will be served. As each piece of meat gets done, I start it on the FTC (foil, towel, cooler) process. I've held pork shoulder this way for 4 hours and it was still too hot to pull easily with my bare hands.
Another option would be to move the pork to your house oven to finish cooking, once the smoking part of the process is completed. This lets you take advantage of the additional heating capacity available in an oven.
If you want to complete the cooking process in your Bradley, rather than the oven, keep your puck burner operating after you have completed the smoking phase of your cook. The puck burner adds 25% to the heating capacity of your smoker and continuing to run the puck burner doesn't seem to have any effect on it's service life. Several forum members make a practice of keeping their puck burner operating all the time the heating element is on.
Good luck with your smoke. Your guests are in for a real treat!
Thanks for the helpful advice everyone. Ill follow your tips and see how it goes.
Now if only I could find larger pork shoulders in my neck of the woods.
Quote from: Splash on September 11, 2015, 09:20:31 AM
Thanks for the helpful advice everyone. Ill follow your tips and see how it goes.
Now if only I could find larger pork shoulders in my neck of the woods.
I buy boneless pork shoulder at Costco. Packed two to a cryopack. Normally about 7 - 8 pounds each.
ALSO PUT A FOIL PAN UNDER YOUR BUTTS TO CACH YOUR JUICES. AFTER THE SMOKE YOU WILL WANT TO CHANGE THE LIQUID OUT. YOU CAN USE PLAIN WATER OR ADD APPLE JUICE FOR SOME FLAVOR.