Boston Butt

smoken tank · January 14, 2006, 06:25:43 PM

I know there are threads galore on this but I haven't found one that deal directly with my question.

I'm doing by first butt today. I have two boneless butts just over seven pounds each. Do I figure cooking time as 14 pounds or 7 pounds?

Tank

tsquared · January 14, 2006, 06:40:20 PM

It's total weight of meat in the smoker.
Go with 14 lbs.
T2

nodak · January 14, 2006, 06:42:01 PM

Here is my opinion to get you going til one of the more experienced answer. 14# Probably 20-24 hours from my limited experience 4 1/2# usually takes me 12 hours. Don't forget about FTC time also 2-6 hours. I would think if it's tomorrows supper you might want to get going. Anybody have better advice???

That's my 2 cents, was going to refrain but thought if you needed an answer right away I would try. My first Butt was late to the supper table[8] and was about ready for midnight snack. Luckily it was just for me, my wife and son so sandwiches we had. But it tasted excellent[:p] next morning.

Good luck

"If you're not living on the edge, You're taking up way too much room, so get the he-- out of my way."

JJC · January 14, 2006, 09:22:30 PM

You can't really be "too early" if you're getting a butt ready for a particular meal. It's much better to finish early and then heat it up later than to turn up the temp to finish it sooner. One other thing to consider in case you do find yourself running late getting the butt finished for dinner: take it out two hours before you need to eat it, FTC for 2hr, and then serve it sliced rather than pulled. I believe Olds usually does it that way . . .

John
Newton MA

IKnowWood · January 17, 2006, 04:34:41 PM

This timing thing is still a mystery to me.

I did 6 lbs (two seperate roasts, one 3+ lbs another 2+lbs) and it still took me 19 hours. Does that sound right?

bsolomon · January 17, 2006, 07:54:59 PM

IKW,

I have found that items like boston butt or brisket tend to end up at 1.5 to 2 hours per lb. The last 15 lb. brisket I did took 25 hours, or about 1.7 hr/lb. Nodak's answer for 14# at 20-24 hours seems about right (1.4 to 1.7 hr/lb), and his 4-1/2 lbs at 12 hours seem a bit on the high side at 2.7 hr/lb. 6 lbs. at 19 hours is 3.2 hr/lb, which does seem excessive.

The standard questions are: where in the cabinet are you measuring the temperature, and are you using the Bradley thermometer or something else? The Bradley door thermometer is notorius for inaccuracy, so check it for calibation if you use it, and it is also relatively high up in the cabinet, so if that is not the level in the cabinet where the meat sits in the rack, you may have additional discrepancies there as well.

In short, this may be the first time this has been said in the history of "low and slow," but you can probably turn up your temperature a bit and get to dinner a little sooner...[:)]

IKnowWood · January 18, 2006, 01:36:32 AM

Barry, I use the ET-73 and place the probe in the 2nd to lowest rack, not to close to the meat. but also not to hight up. and nothing above it to accidentally dripping on it.

No opening, and all temps seem good.

I let the meat warm up for an hour to 51 degrees before placing them into the hot cabinet. And it only took 1 hour to get back to 200 degrees.

So I am still confused.

bsolomon · January 18, 2006, 11:29:42 PM

IKW, give a little fuller description of which racks had the meat, where the temp probe was in relation to that. For example, if you are reading 200 degrees on the 2nd lowest rack, toward the back, but the meat is in the topmost rack toward the front, you might have as much as 20+ degree difference. so although the probe reads 200, the meat might be cooking at less than 180, which might account for the difference. I would try to put the cabinet probe directly underneath the meat in the lowest rack you place it in. This will give you a "worst case" for the lowest meat, and if you don't roate racks, anything higher in the cabinet will not be as well done as what you are measuring.

IKnowWood · January 19, 2006, 05:10:16 PM

I had two roasts. One on 2nd lowest and other one above it. I had the roasts on the left side of the rack midway from front to back. I had the ET-73 smoker probe on the lowest rack, mid-way from front to back about 2 inches from the wall of the smoker and about 6 inches away from the roast.

bsolomon · January 20, 2006, 09:36:06 PM

IKW, based on the placement of your cabinet temp probe, this will account for some of the discrepancy. You are measuring the cabinet temperature at a location that is not necessarily representative of the location of the meat. With one roast on the 2nd lowest and one above that on the 2nd highest, I would settle for the average and put the probe on the underneath side of the 2nd highest rack. This should show you a reading most similar to the way the meat sees the heat. Hanging it below the lower rack in this case is proably giving you a good reading of the areas nearest the two heating elements (slightly artificially high), and you will have a gradient of temperature lowering to the top of the cabinet, and with no circualtion fan, that can be substanital, depending on how open the vent is. I wouldn't be suprised if the difference between bottom of the lowest rack and the bottom of the 2nd highest rack is 10-15 degrees or more. As I stated before, the effect is that the meat is probably cooking at closer to 180 than 200, and this will result in longer cook times you are seeing.

Of course, all this is speculation based on the assumption the temp probe is accurate. If you haven't calibrated it against ice and boiling water to see if it reads correctly, it might be worth the check. These theremometers can easily vary by up to 10 degrees, which added to the above might move you closer to 170 than 200, again adding substantial cooking.