More Pulled Pork Questions. . .

[Indy Smoker]

Hello fellow Smokers,
More Pulled Pork questions . . .

I have completed my first smoke with 2 Boston Butts. They came out GREAT !

Now I am going to smoke a total of 4. More people at this gathering.

The first time around I smoked for 41/2 hrs and cooked at 200 for another 18 then FTC.  Any ideas on how many hours it may take for 4 to cook?
I also am using a BDS, I am told to go for an internal temp of 190, should I still cook at 200? The first time around I startet at 200 and bumped up to 240 for the last 2 hours. Should I stay at only one temp, if so what temp should I cook at ?

Any advice or direction is appreciated.

[KyNola]

Hey Indy,
In my opinion the time to do 4 butts would be no different than doing 2.  What you will see is a very slow temp recovery when you first place them in the BDS as you will have quite a mass of cold meat in there.  As for the temp to smoke/cook, there's nothing too magic about 200.  Somewhere between 200-225 is fine.  Some users do bump the temp up the last couple of hours after the butts have come through the "stall" period.

Some of my more learned colleagues will be by shortly to correct any mistaken information I may have given to you but I think you're good to go.

KyNola

[pensrock]

I agree with KyNola.
   I normally do butts 210-220 F. It will take a little longer because you are going to have a longer recovery period. But if you up your temp 10-20 degrees your overall time may end up about the same. also if you do not have a brick or some other type of heat retaining source in the bottom of the tower, do it. Keep the vent open. And preheat to 250-260 F. Then after loading the tower, drop temp to 210-220 F. Hope this helps. I cannot say if it will take 15 hrs or 25 hrs. One never really knows.
pens

[Wildcat]

If you smoke at 200 then you can stop the cooking anywhere from 175 meat temp and up.

[bluefrog]

I disagree with the above... with more volume of meat to absorb the heat, the time will increase. It will not be twice as long for twice as much meat but it will increases the time somewhat in my experiance.

[classicrockgriller]

Blue, I did two butts last week total 18 lbs and I smoked them on 220 and it took 25 hrs to reach it of 186.
If you foil,towel,cooler you can pull them about 8 degrees before your target it and they will heat up to that temp