My first butt cook!!!

Jake

My first pork butt cook on the LBGE was eggcellent. I had two and they weighed 3.02LBS and 3.37LBS. I cleaned the BGE completely. Loaded it with lump like ELDER (2 hours, and it was fun!!) Turned the platesetter upside down, sat the drip pan on it, then the butts on the grid. I averaged roughly 230-250 degrees. It took 13 hours. That didn't seem right? I was thinking 1.5-2.5 hours per pound. From what everyone says (time should be based on the 3 pounds) it should have taken 6-7 hours. But maybe it was based on 6.39LBS? A little clarification would help?[p]BTW, I loved it. It was so fun and great to eat! How would you rewarm the second butt if been in the fridge?[p]Thanks![p]Jake

Kelly Keefe

Jake,
If I'm not mistaken, the rule of thumb is 2-2.5 hours per pound at 225-250° but that's not carved in stone. Lot of variables can come into play and often do. Just to give you an example, I always here about the plateau at around 150° internal. Except for the very first butt I did I've never seen a plateau again. Since you can keep the butts warm wrapped in foil and disk towels in a closed cooler for several hours I've started "erring" on the side of having it ready too early than too late.[p]As for reheating, it depends on how much I'm doing. If it's a lot I put it in a baking dish, give it a liberal squirt of vinager based sauce, cover with foil and bake at 350 until it's warm. If it's just enough for a couple of sandwiches I put it in a bowel, give it a liberal squirt of sauce, cover with a small plate and nuke it. In either case, if you don't have any vinager based sauce, I'd substitute a little water. Not a lot, you don't want it soggy, but a little moisture will keep it from drying out.[p]Kelly
Jeff City, MO

BigT

Jake,[p]Parallel universe. I set up two 3.5 lb butts at 8 AM / 250 Guru and wound up the cook @ only 190 meat 13 hours later (no ramp).[p]Very tasty, but too late for dinner. One was mustard and Loveless Cafe BBQ rub, the other was Dr. BBQ's injected / foiled.[p]I got behind on my errands Saturday and went with the two small butts. As I had a lot of unburnt lump after 13 hours, I will load the egg to bursting next time.[p]BIg T

TulsaMurph

Hey Kelly, I have a 7# pork butt in the freezer waiting for a nice rainy day. Should I expect 12-14 hours to hit 190°? I tried a brisket a couple of weeks ago, with a dome temp of about 270°, I could never get above 186 or so and that took forever. After some appropriate time, maybe when it looks like the plateau has been passed, should I bump the temp up to 300 or so? I think I dried out the brisket waiting for 190 which never came and I don't want to do the same to the pork. I know I am mixing apples and oranges here, just working from my very limited experience.

Thanks for any tips,
John