Newbie Needs Help with Pork Butts

[msu-smoker]

Hi all.  I recently purchased OBS and have been loving it!  A couple of weeks ago I smoked 2 butts that finished rather quicker than I planned (temp was too high), but turned out great.

I need some help/advice for this weekends smoke.  I plan on smoking 2 butts that each weight 9.5 lbs.  Assume cooking at around 220, would it be safe to plan on 20 hours of total cook time (approx. 4 hrs. of smoke time) due to amount of mass in smoker? 

Have a big game against TN on Saturday and I want to FTC the butts at 9:00 a.m. so we can pull @ 11:30.  Should I be starting around 1:00 p.m. on Friday?

Any help/advice is appreciated  :)

[Wildcat]

Welcome to the forum.  I normally keep temp around 200, smoke for 4 hours and total cook time of 18 to 24 hours, depending on load, etc.  You will also have at least 4 hours of FTC time to play with if you get done too soon.

[LowTide]

Welcome to the forum.  It seems strange as I am pretty new here as well, but I just posted a pretty detailed thread on the butts I did last weekend.  If you take a read of that you will find links to other information.

Basically I did 2 x 7.5 butts at 210 - took about 22 hours for the first and almost 24 for the second to finish.  I did crank up the temp to 220 in the last 4 hours to make sure to hit dinner.  Make sure to read the link on the pataeu data - mine stayed between 160 and 165 for about 10 hours.

I racked mine in the two middle racks and they were right on top of each other.  That might have been whey it took so long, they were touching top and botton - almost like one huge piece of meat.  Next time I will stagger them.

Hope that helps out!

[msu-smoker]

Thanks for the welcome and the information.  This is a great forum and I am so glad I decided on a Bradley!  I will let y'all know how things turn out.

[Wildcat]

Take picture - we like to drool.

[Arcs_n_Sparks]

msu-smoker,

Welcome. Is that msu as in Michigan State University?

I'm trying to determine if there is going to be severe impedence mis-match on the forum   8)

Arcs_n_Sparks

[Lefty_Smoker]

Howdy fellow spartan smoker!  I too attended MSU, as did my wife.


I've done quite a few butts in my Bradley smoker and have found butts to be extremely forgiving of cook temp/time.  I used to do them low and slow, always tinkering with the bradley to maintain a steady 200F temp, and cook times always were around 15-16 hours, but as I did more and more butts in the Bradley I found that increasing the temps, thereby shortening the cooking time really had no effect on the end product, it always came out juicy and falling apart no matter what so I've ultimately decided just to crank the Bradley up and let it do its own thing.  I generally do 9-10 lb buts and they generally take 12 hours to hit 195 IT.  Add a few additional hours for a second butt.

Insert your temp probes into the lower of the two butts, when it hits 195 pull it out, then put the probe in the second butt and pull it when it too hits 195 IT, shouldn't take more than additional couple hours. 

You can FTC your first butt until the second one is also ready.

enjoy the game!

[icerat4]

 :D

[West Coast Kansan]

Here is Rats drill on Butts.

http://forum.bradleysmoker.com/index.php?topic=5147.msg47460#msg47460

At first i did not like the full on idea - but above link works great.

On the DBS if have been setting it at 220 - 230. It is a nice easy go-to-sleep approach.

[msu-smoker]

Arcs -

It's Mississippi Sate - not Michigan State. 

Thanks for all the good info.  The butts turned out perfectly and the timing was just right.  I loaded the 2 9.5 lbs. butts on the smoker at 1:00 p.m. and smoked with Pecan for 5 hrs.  After 20 hrs at 210-215, the two butts were at 188 and 185.  Would have liked to get them to 190, but the wife was ready to hit the tailgate for our game against TN yesterday (we lost  :( ).  Game was a bust but the pork was a huge hit.  approx 19 lbs. gone in record time!

Next time I will take pictures.