A couple questions about pork butt burnt ends

clintmiller

I'm planning to cook pork butt burnt ends for a potluck lunch at work tomorrow. I'm cooking an 8 pound butt (bone in). My plan is to go turbo at 350 until internal temperature is 170, then cube the butt, inject with butter, add rub and sauce, and then put back on the Egg at 275 until done. Two questions:

1) Roughly how long should it take to hit 170 when cooking at 350? I'm thinking 3-4 hours. Does that sound about right? (Seems like when I've cooked butts at 350 for pulled pork, it only takes 5-6 hours to hit 200. But I've never timed them for 170.)

2) Can I FTC the burnt ends when the full cook is finished? Will they hold well FTC'ed for several hours like a brisket or whole butt would do? Is 3 or 4 hours FTC'ed too much to plan on?

Fred19Flintstone

I'm no expert.  I have only made pulled pork with pork butts.  That being said, you are talking about a pan of cubed meat with sauce.  That sounds tailor made for a crock pot to keep warm.  Good luck!

SGH

If you hold a solid 350 degrees from the start, 3-4 hours is pretty close depending on how big the butt is. I have never tracked the actual time, but that will be close, again depending heavily on what size butt it is. I have personally held pork burnt ends for 5 hours with perfect results. I'm more than sure that you could hold them considerably longer if needed. 

SmokeyPitt

1)The time estimate to 170 sounds about right to me.

2) That is a good question on the FTC.  I would think the smaller pieces might not hold the temp as long as a whole butt.  It would probably be fine for 3-4 hours but I think I would try to find something with good heat retention properties to throw in there.  This is a random idea but I have thought about using baked potatoes.  You could throw some potatoes on the egg and get them nice and hot then wrap in foil and throw in with the pork.  Taters seem to stay hot forever. 

If you don't want to have to make taters then maybe something like fire bricks or just some stone cookware.  My wife has a pampered chef cookie sheet that I think would work well. 

clintmiller

Thanks very much for the help. It ended up taking 3.5 hours to hit 170. So 3-4 hours was spot on. I'm wrapping up the second part of the cook over the next hour or so. It's tasting amazing so far, though. I'll post pictures once it's done.