Trying to work backwards, but still give myself some wiggle room

[shush]

I decided that I was going to step up and cook 3 pork butts (8.3, 8.5, and 8.8 lbs) for a party on Saturday. I figured ~90minutes/lb as a guideline. Now, I know you guys know far more than me, because I am still learning, and could offer some advice. I am an early bird, and as such, I am already sitting in my cubicle at work. I plan on rinsing, drying, and rubbing them once I get home. I had originally expected to start the smoker about 1am and have things ready by roughly 3pm, so I could head over, have a few more beers, and serve at 4pm. I would keep the butts in the faux cambro for transport/rest and then into a slow cooker on warm for presentation. The issue I have now, is that I fear I am not going to provide enough time for the cook. I just looked at http://meatsmokingcalculator.com/ and they recommend 97 min/lb and starting the smoker at 8:45pm tonight. I know these are just guidelines, but there is almost a 4 hour difference, plus they want me to crutch! I would rather just let the smoke do it's thing and ride out the stall... Advice on when to start based on your experiences? Planning on setting my pellet smoker at 225 and letting these bad boys cook. Should I really start that early? So you don't have to look me up, I am using a RecTec RT-680 pellet smoker, I live in Virginia (there is a chance for rain today), and the pork butts will be right out of the refrigerator.

Should/Could I have put the rub on last night? How far out is too far? Will it do any good to dry brine for 4-8 hours, or is that just wasted effort? Can I combine Memphis Dust and the salt, or is that asking for trouble?

I trust that you guys won't lead me astray. =)

[RonB]

If your butts are ready early, you can hold for a long time - just wrap in foil and either faux cambro them, or put them in a 170* oven. If they take longer than you think, and you have not allowed enough time, you're in trouble.
As far as dry brining, the thicker the hunk of meat, the longer the time needed for the salt to work it's magic. 4 hours will give you some benefit, but not as much as 2 or 3 days on a hunk like a butt. The rub does not penetrate the meat, but some think it sticks better if it is applied a day or two in advance. Others apply just before placing the meat on the grill. Just be careful handling the meat after the rub is applied. Personally, I try to add the rub an hour or two in advance so that it gets a bit damp. It seems to me it sticks better that way. YMMV

Good luck with your cook.

[LA Pork Butt]

I did 40# of Boston Butt (10# each) on a large Big Green Egg. If my memory serves me correctly they took 22 hours at 225 to an internal temp of 200. I don't know your cooker, but more meat means longer cooking times on mine. I would err on the side or ready too soon rather that haveing to pull the meat late and eat immediately. Plan on pulling your meat and putting it in an ice chest with old towels. The meat should stay warm fro 2-4 hours especially if you first heat the inside with hot water before draining and putting your double wrapped butts and towels in. Fill all empty space with towels.

[shush]

Ok, thanks. I was afraid of that.

FWIW, I _never_ thought of putting rub/salt on days in advance. I thought ~24 hours was the point where you got the best bang for your buck... Longer needed much longer, shorter didn't matter so much... but this is why it is a learning experience for me. Thanks again! I will see if I can get home sooner and get this stuff started tonight.

[martybartram]

The thicker the meat the more time needed for dry brining to work its magic

[LA Pork Butt]

shush also, the thicker the meat the longer the cook time. Thickness determines cook time.

[Steve R.]

When time is of the essence, I see nothing at all wrong with crutching. This will also buy you some more time for dry brining. You can always unwrap after they get through the stall to firm up the bark. Also, I wouldn't get too hung up on cooking at 225 with butts. A lot of times I run at 250 or a little more, with no noticeable difference in quality, and it cooks faster.

[Abom]

+1 on the higher temp. Also, don't be afraid to finish extra early to be on the safe side. As long as you can wrap the butts, and store them in a good cooler (I line the inside of mine with an old comforter as well) it will keep for hours. I've gone as long as 8 hours once, and the butts were still too hot to handle. Not saying you should make a habit of that kind of hold time, but the point is you got wiggle room.

[fuzzydaddy]

About 10-20 butts ago (8 to 9 lb), I started smoking them ~250 and they have consistently been probe tender in the 14 to 16 hour range (I've never crutched). I plan for ~18 hours and hold them in a faux cambro for the time needed to finish at 18 hours. I've noticed no issues with increasing the temp from 225 (my first 20 or so I cooked at 225) to 250. Like LA Pork Butt, I heat my cooler with hot water. I also heat my towels in the dryer. I keep the meat probe in the butts so I can monitor the temp.

Edit to add: My butts are usually probe tender at 195 or just a few degrees more, so my first check is at 195.

[Nate]

Pork Butts are very forgiving... you can run them a lot higher than 225 without sacrificing much... I have finished them over 300 before when timing was not in my favor and they still turned out fine.

Don't be afraid of the crutch! If you need to do it then do it. If you are worried about bark formation then take it out of the foil and roll it around on a hot grate for a while at the end of the cook and it will firm things back up a bit.

The timing I am worried about is you wanting to be done at 3, transport, drink beer, shred, then serve at 4... One hour is a short window for all of that. You may want to rethink giving yourself some more time.

As mentioned above I would recommend starting earlier if you have a way to hold the butts at around 170 if you get done early. I think this will play to your advantage.

As far as brine and rub goes don't get too worked up over it. Personally on a large hunk of meat like that I inject with a solution that contains salt and some other things. I then use a rub I make that already has salt mixed into it. At a competition I do this all within an hour of putting it on the smoker and it still comes out great. I have put this same rub on the night before and it has worked fine too. You aren't going to ruin your pork butt by not putting it on at a specific time and letting it set for a specific amount of time.

Big thing is always allow yourself more time than you think you will need so you aren't running around at the last minute panicking and so you can have fun and enjoy the festivities.

[Mosca]

I'm not really all that experienced either, but there is one reason everyone recommends pork butts for a first cook: pork butts are extremely forgiving.

You're just cooking meat. A caveman can do it (apologies to Geico circa 2011). I've actually had one competition chef tell me I could do them at 325* without any compromise in quality. So, start them at 250*, and if you aren't happy with the progress when you wake up, bump them to 275*. They'll be great.

Although dry brining is now a thing, remember that people smoked pork butts for hundreds of years without dry brining them, and it must have been pretty good because people kept eating pulled pork. Remember that a lot of the information here is nuance: the difference between spectacular and maybe a little more spectacular. Don't sweat it if you didn't have time to dry brine.

I used to crutch, I stopped because I thought it was a huge pain in the patoot. Your roasts will probably be done on time either way.

Have fun!

[RonB]

You can adjust the temp as much as necessary. Start around 250* - 275*. If the meat comes out of the stall way to early, cut the temp back to 225*. If the temp doesn't rise fast enough, bump it back up, but please don't micro manage either. Let the changes have some time to work. Also, try to allow at least 2 hrs cambro time. That will yield more tender meat.

[AZRedneck]

Everyone has covered all the good points here. All I have to add is my cook data from my first 8.5 lb butt on my pellet smoker last weekend, I have a GMG Daniel Boone. I'm still learning the smoker, so as a baseline I micromanaged the grill temperature with my MAV-232 thermometer at 225-235 the entire cook. I pulled it probe tender at 196F but the bone felt a little bit firm, wrapped it, rested it in 170F oven for 2 hours, and the bone easily pulled right out. Super tender and juicy. The time on the smoker was 17 hours.

[vandy]

I have cambro'd the last few butts that I have cooked for at least 2 hours and sometimes in runs 4 hours and they have all turned out great, very tender and tasty. I try to pull them with and IT of 195 to 200 before I double wrap them. I also poor the juices from the foil when I unwrap them over the meat to moisten it up even more. Like others have said, pork butts are very forgiving.

[shush]

Great info everyone, and thanks for taking the time to comment. I started ~8:30 last night, I have my maverick set up and it is currently showing 183. I think I am in the middle (beginning maybe) of my stall. I think if it isn't too temp by 12:30, I'll wrap (crutch) and turn up the heat a bit... Hopefully I won't have to, not because I am afraid of crutching, but because I just want to see if I can taste a difference.

Anyway, I have my faux cambro ready to go, I'll let you know how it turned out.

[LA Pork Butt]

shush how did it turn out?

[shush]

Thanks for asking... Here is my rather long response. The TL;DR version is "great, everyone loved it. I needed to crutch and turn up the heat, but otherwise just fine."

Getting them out of the refrigerator... I had never used the 'pink butcher paper' before, and I am SO glad that I wrapped them with foil too. The Rub and juices pretty much deteriorated the paper. I would have had one hell of a mess had I not double wrapped.

Getting them situated. I was really trying to make sure that I had good spacing between them, and good airflow all around.

First peek
Just before I put on the corn and peppers.
I was so rushed when they were done that I completely forgot to take pictures. But they came out beautifully.

Here are my notes though. Somethings that I learned.

Outside temperature, and the fact that it was raining, _really_ messed with the timing. Although you all mentioned that these are forgiving, and their is nothing wrong with a crutch... I really wanted to go all the way through without having to turn up the heat, nor wrap them. I decided to start about an hour earlier than expected, just to give it plenty of "extra" time. My stall seemed to happen between 180-190. With my expected departure time set at 3pm, I chose to turn up the heat, wrap them in foil, and hope to press through the stall and get to that magical 203F temp. It was right around 1:15 that I went out, cranked the smoker to 300, and foiled them. Temp was hovering around 192, and had actually dipped for a few minutes to 189. After reading that dipping in temp is not out of the ordinary, being new to this definitely pushed me into a slight, yet understandable, panic. I put the corn and peppers on, and hoped that by 3:00 they would reach temperature. Thankfully, my Maverick started beeping, alerting me that my temp threshold of 200 had been reached. 2:45! I knew that anything past 195F was good, I still hoped for 203F. By the time I got the faux cambro ready to rock, the crock pot, cole slaw, and everything else ready to go, I checked the Maverick and it read 203F!!! So, I pulled them off, put them in the cambro, and then grabbed the corn and peppers. Using the Bundt pan trick, I cut all the corn off the cobs, chopped up the peppers, and mixed them up. Packed everything up, and away I went. I had only pulled the first pork butt, until more people showed up. At 8:30pm (5 hours after I put them in the faux cambro), I pulled the second butt out... it was still almost too hot to hold bare handed! My glasses steamed as I tore the second butt apart. I fed roughly 20 people, and there was _plenty_ of left overs. Everyone was happy... I brought a full bottle of BBQ sauce, and most people thought it was better without sauce. Almost an entire pork butt, still warmed in the crock pot, was put away and has been taken to the NFL Game today in Washington, D.C.

This leads me to express my thankfulness to the 'faux cambro' ideas. My old Coleman cooler and some beach towels do a fantastic job!!

I do have some questions... I have one pork butt left. I brought it home, took it out (still quite warm) and put it in the refrigerator. What is the best way to keep/reheat this thing? Back on the smoker, in the oven? How hot? How Long? Should I have torn it apart first, or is it better that I left it whole?