Pork butts, to hang or not to hang?

[AdamJG]

I'm the best man in a good buddy's wedding this summer, and for his bachelor party 8 of us are taking an RV to the Pocono NASCAR race this weekend. Best man honors earned me the right to plan this whole outing, and I'll be the one doing the cooking on my PBC as well.

I'm going to take a trip to my butcher shop tomorrow and decide what's on the menu. My question is this, has anyone done a couple pork butts on the rack the whole time rather than hanging them? I've hung one butt on the hooks and then wrapped it toward the end, and it came out great...but if I'm going to be doing two, I think I'd rather not deal with hanging them and just place them on the rack. It doesn't really seem there is any benefit to hanging butts, is there? It make sense to hang ribs, chicken halves, brisket vertically...but pork butts take up the same space hanging or sitting on the rack. So if anybody can tell me I'm right I'd be happy...but any comments based on experience are much appreciated.

Lastly, if I end up deciding on ribs instead..has anyone actually hung 8 racks as the PBC advertises? I haven't done this large of a cook, so I'm curious about any variables I'd need to take into account (lower temps, etc). I'd be doing loin back ribs in this case.

Thanks in advance!!

[MBMorgan]

I'm the best man in a good buddy's wedding this summer, and for his bachelor party 8 of us are taking an RV to the Pocono NASCAR race this weekend. Best man honors earned me the right to plan this whole outing, and I'll be the one doing the cooking on my PBC as well.

I'm going to take a trip to my butcher shop tomorrow and decide what's on the menu. My question is this, has anyone done a couple pork butts on the rack the whole time rather than hanging them? I've hung one butt on the hooks and then wrapped it toward the end, and it came out great...but if I'm going to be doing two, I think I'd rather not deal with hanging them and just place them on the rack. It doesn't really seem there is any benefit to hanging butts, is there? It make sense to hang ribs, chicken halves, brisket vertically...but pork butts take up the same space hanging or sitting on the rack. So if anybody can tell me I'm right I'd be happy...but any comments based on experience are much appreciated.

Lastly, if I end up deciding on ribs instead..has anyone actually hung 8 racks as the PBC advertises? I haven't done this large of a cook, so I'm curious about any variables I'd need to take into account (lower temps, etc). I'd be doing loin back ribs in this case.

Thanks in advance!!

I've done six without issues.

[Jerod Broussard]

I prefer to hang butts since there is a thicker side I can face towards the lid. You just need to tie them really well.

With that said, I had two nice ones that I just laid on the grate last weekend (was cooking sick) and got handshakes when I saw who consumed them since I had to leave as soon as I pulled and chopped them up.

[AdamJG]

So it sounds like they do just fine when placed on the rack...maybe I'll give that a shot

[jtabasco54]

Great question! The way Noah (PCB creator) hangs them it would mean the are 6 to 8 inches closer to the charcoal, but facing the same exact way they would be if hanging. I suspect in the grand scheme of things, the ease of use may be worth a few degrees of raised temperature. So glad you raised this point.

[cosmo]

I prefer the rack as a precaution. Have to be really good at hanging to make sure a piece doesn't shear off lol.

[Jerod Broussard]

These rode the whole way on the hooks.

[jtabasco54]

Interesting use of the cross rebar. Do you do that often?

[rototiller78]

I am smoking a pork shoulder roast right now & what I do when I cook pork butts is I hang them till around 160°F. By then a good bark should of occurred then I finish the butt on the grate til it hits 203°F. I hope your cook comes out great!

[Jon Solberg]

Hang!!!

[JPP]

I usually wrap a PB at the stall as I'm an impatient short... not to mention some in my house expect things to run on schedule. In any event until they do not the stall, I have always hung PBs. I've always imagined that it could stick to the grate... which would bum me out for sure.

[IvyH]

I don't think it matters. I've hung and used the grate with similar results. And simply throwing it on a grate is much easier. Now if you're doing more than 1, you should hang to create space to allow for the PBC to do it's thing.

[AdamJG]

I didn't hang or wrap, let it roll through the stall (2 hours or so). Two 8.5 pound butts, total cook time about 10 hours. Had to over fill the coal basket a bit to burn that long. Used some apple wood chunks and rubbed with my tweaked version of MMD. Lightly used a Carolina mustard sauce on one and a vinegar based red sauce on the other just to give the crowd a choice...mustard sauced pork was the favorite, but nothing went to waste. Also did some beans on the pit while I shredded the pork, and some classic slaw. All came out great and using the rack just seemed easier. Thanks all for the input!

[fzxdoc]

Ohmigoodness, that looks like the perfect cook, AdamJG . I overfill my PBC's basket for a long cook as well. Works nicely to eke out a few more hours of good cooking temps.

Congrats on doing such a great job. I bet there were a lot happy faces around those picnic tables, thanks to you.

Kathryn