Advice on Pork Butt cook

asfish

I have a 30 or so people around next weekend for a barbecue. I want to start off with Boston Butt when people arrive (1pm) so that they get something to eat on arrival.

So I have an XL BGE and 2X 10lb butts, the meat is good quality from a local butcher.

I’ve done butts before and found the results to be a bit random, a couple of times its pulled, other times its not been at the required temperature by the time people wanted to eat.

My plan was to put them in at around 1am the morning of the barbecue and cook them for 12 or so hours. My concern is what happens if the meat has hit pulled temperature in say 10 hours?

Any advice on temps and cooking times would be greatly appreciated. I recently fitted a NOMEX seal so the egg is very good with its temperature now.

Also happy to hear any good rub suggestions for the meat!

lousubcap

Here are a few comments regarding your plan:  Don't know what temperature you plan to cook but it does seem that around 250*F +/- on a calibrated dome thermo is a "sweet spot" for the BGE so that's a good starting temp-you can run 270+/- 30 and still be fine. At those cook temps I always plan on two hrs/# cook time so you may want to start earlier.  I would err on the conservative side when figuring out when to  start the cook and back it up by several hours.  You don't want to be stressing over getting to the finish-line as the dead-line approaches-although you can jack up the temp to help punch it home.  BTW-you can hold a finished butt FTC (foiled, with towels in a cooler for 4-5 hours (and more) easily).  Also, if you can, monitor the temps of both butts (especially after you get into the 180's) as they will cook at different rates and likely finish at significantly different times.  That's about all I have to offer-enjoy the journey-

BYS1981

If you're cooking at 250 degrees I would start much earlier than 12am, probably closer to 4pm or 5pm. As lousubcap mentioned you can store a cooked butt wrapped in foil for several hours. I did this for my children's bday and cooked 2 8lb butts; it was nice to have butts cooked and waiting when guests arrived. 2hours per pound at 250 is the general rule of thumb, but isn't an exact science either. Have fun!

Jenny E.

I want to smoke pork butt today and have it for dinner, hopefully before 7 p.m.  If I start at 12 noon, can I cook two small (3 lb.) butts and have them ready between 6-7 p.m.?  I'm figuring two hours per pound for each 3 lb. butt at 250, for a total of six hours. 

lousubcap

Each butt has a mind of its own-did a 4.5# one last week and it took 10+ hours at a dome of around 250-260.  You can search turbo butts where some cook them at 300+*F til around 160 then foil til finished.  I would go with around 270-280*F for cook temp then check out Texas crutch (using foil) to punch them home if necessary.  Monitor the temps of each as you get into the 180's as no two are the same. 

asfish

Dropped them both in around 5pm on Friday night. When I got up the meat temp had droped to 146 (from 154 the night before)

Once up I turned the egg up a bit and the meat was fine, it hit 192F with 30 mins to spare as was rested for 45 mins then served

Everyone loved the meat.