Just verifying, first time smoking more than 8# at a time. Weber Smokey Mountain, 2 levels, it will take, approximately, 75 minutes per #, for a total of 31 hours +/-, correct? The time is cumulative, not concurrent, correct?
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The biggest Butt I've smoked was 20# and it took 27 hours @225F. That's a long time to wait for food to be done. If you are happy to wait that long then by all means do it. If I get a big butt I prefer to cut it up in 4 pieces, this shortens the cook time and you get more bark on individual pieces. -
I secon holehogg. I recommend subdividing it into 2.5 - 5 pound butts. You'll get much more bark doing it that way. It actually won't affect cooking time much - the stall is the stall. Also, 225 is WAY over-rated IMO, especially for pork butts. I recommend running your WSM up to 300 for pork butt. Just let 'er rip. Pork butt is tremendously forgiving when it comes to temps and it can handle 290 for the entire cook.Comment
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As long as you've got good airflow and add fuel when needed, multiple butts shouldn't take much longer than 1 butt. When I cook (3) 8-9 pounders on my 26" kettle I figure maybe 1 hour more (vs 1 butt) to overcome all that cold meat at the start of the cook.Comment
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It will not take anywhere close to the much time in a WSM. Make sure that you are not cooking by time, but rather by temp. Every piece of meat will cook different. The cooking time is concurrent and it should take about 8-12 hours.
The longest cook I have had for a pork butt has been 24-ish hours. This was in my BGE, running at 225 F. There is much less airflow in kamaods, which is why that cook took sooooo much longer. You should have no pro bless cranking this out in 8-12 hours.
The Texas crutch will also help speed it up as well.Comment
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Mongo_Only_Pawn Ok, the fact that you said you were smoking on two levels tells me the is not a 25# butt, but multiple smaller butts. Smoking 3 or 4 8# butts doesn't take much longer than smoking one, as long as they are not touching. When you add the meat, there is more cold thermal mass that drops the temperature of the smoker, but once you recover and get the air in the cooking chamber back up to temperature, those multiple butts take the same amount of time to smoke as they would if smoked individually.
The time is CONCURRENT in other words....
Now, if you really had a single peice of pork that was 25#, that might take longer than an 8# chunk...
I've smoked from 1 butt to 84 butts. In all cases, my cook time, depending on the cooker, was in the 12 to 16 hour range, depending on cooker temperature and which smoker I was using. Lately I've been bumping up to 275 instead of 225 or 250, to get done quicker.Last edited by jfmorris; August 23, 2019, 08:04 AM.Comment
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Remember that thickness of the meat determines cook time. I routinely cook 10 # butts for 12-14 hours at 225on my BGE. The butts are about 6†thick. How thick are yours? If the are 6†thick I would expect mor like 12 hours. I once cooked 40#s but they were stacked on top of each other and behaved like one piece of meat 10-12†thick. The entire cook took 22 hours. As Spinaker noted the Texas Crutch will speed things up.Comment
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Spinaker that's some serious dedication smoking a pork butt for 24 hours! I do not have the patience for that.Comment
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I’ll give you the Cliff Notes version. Everything is UP !! Cut it UP, wrap it UP, UP the heat. If you remember the 3 UPs no way will it take days to cook.Comment
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Related question: Even with the butts cut up, does it take more fuel to maintain temperature, since you're heating more meat?
I've always just smoked relatively small quantities.Comment
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Maybe a little, but I don't find my kettle with SNS to use any more fuel to smoke 2 butts than to smoke 1. Maybe it is, but the volume of one versus two 8 pound butts compared to the interior air space of the kettle. On my offset, I've smoked 1 to 8 butts, and can't say I noticed a huge difference. That thing uses so much more fuel than the kettle that it wouldn't matter. An 18 hour smoke with charcoal and wood chunks on the offset would use 2 bags of KBB, versus maybe 2 loads in the SNS.
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Thank you all for the guidance, I greatly appreciate it.Comment
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Thoughts? Cook is at 22 hours, haven't pulled the top yet, just the hatch to add fuel and water. Started smoker yesterday morning with 7.25#'s of lit charcoal, dumped into a 12.5# ring of unlit charcoal. Water pan had 10 quarts of H2O. Added 4 oz of hickory 3x over the next 2 hours. Last night at 1940 added 3 quarts of H2O and 3.5# of charcoal. At 0130 this morning added another 3.5# of charcoal, just added another 4# at 0645. Water pan is okay yet.
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It will not hurt to turn the heat up to 275 or 290. I use my wsm with 10- 10 lbs at that temp inside and it takes about 8-10 hours to cookComment
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Well, here's what I think. I think it's consecutive (a better term might be cumulative), not concurrent, in a Weber Smoky Mountain 22" Smoker. If I had a larger smoker, that could produce a higher volume of heated air that was able to maintain the 225°, without going over, then maybe it would be concurrent.
If I dabble in a bit of physics, what I'm really trying to accomplish is an exchange of heat (BTU's) from the charcoal to the pork. I've used about 30# of charcoal to this point, which is about 300,000 BTU's, if that's what I use for the total of 25# of pork that means it's about 12,000 BTU's per pound to increase the temp by 167°. or about 71 BTU's per pound per degree.
Since my WSM is limited in size, I can only produce "X" amount of BTU's without exceeding 225°. At 225° I'm generating about 11,100 BTU's per hour.
So if I had a larger volume of air (think about a smoker 3x the size of the WSM) that could produce 33,300 BTU's/hour at 225°, it would only have taken a little less than 9 hours, which is "normal" for an 8# butt.
So, assuming a temp increase of 167° (36° in the fridge to 203° finishing temp) my new formula is going to be: #'s of pork X (BTU's per # x °'s temperature rise)/smoker btu's per hour = time in hours on my WSM.
So for an 8# butt, it's (8 x 71 x 167) / 11,100 = time. Or 94,856 / 11,100 = 8.5 hours.
I acknowledge high degrees of variability, YMMV.Comment
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I normally cook my butts at 275-300 with out the water pan. They have enough fat to remain juicy without the water pan.
Just remember every butt is different and will cook at different times and pulling points. If they all weigh all 8lbs one will be ready at 193 an other won't be ready till 205.
Well good to you as you learn.
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Well I’ve cheated some. I modified my 22 wsm with more grates and also an extension ring for a total of 5 racks. When I load it up full, at my temp I use about a bag and half of a lump and charcoal mix with a larger water pan mod and it’ll kick em out in an average time of 10 hours. And it produces some great pulled pork.
ill be doing 35 lbs of brisket on it when I get home from work today.Comment
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