Hawkeye's post about a large butt makes me wonder...

RRP · May 2014

In his post he asked about egging a 13 pounder. I swear the largest butt I have ever even seen was a 9 pounder that I bought. Then I trimmed off 1.5 pound from an excessive fat cap carefully hidden by packaging. So my question is how large are most butts? What I always see and buy are 6 to 8 pounders. Are huge butts better? Also aren't they just from older fatter hogs?

Mattman3969 · May 2014

I have smoked/turbo a couple of 10 1/2lb butts. These are too big for this method. I now will cut them in half if over 8lbs

RRP · May 2014

Mattman3969 said:

I have smoked/turbo a couple of 10 1/2lb butts. These are too big for this method. I now will cut them in half if over 8lbs

In half? You have a butcher's saw to cut through the bone, or are you just carefully de-boning it in a sense so the smaller half is pure meat and the other half has the bone in it? Don't the two pieces cook a helluva lot different or do you egg them separately?

Chris_Wang · May 2014

10 is the largest I've ever cooked. Not even sure if I've seen larger poundage around these parts. I personally think 7-9 pounds with the bone in is the sweet spot...

Little Steven · May 2014

It could be a small whole shoulder but that doesn't change the cook.

Chris_Wang · May 2014

Maybe there are two butts wrapped in there... That's common.

Mattman3969 · May 2014

RRP said:

Mattman3969 said:

I have smoked/turbo a couple of 10 1/2lb butts. These are too big for this method. I now will cut them in half if over 8lbs

No saw here, just the trusty knife. So you are correct one boneless and one bone-in.And yes they do cook at different rates of speed. I put the mav probe in the boneless one and check both when that one hits 197-200. And then cook accordingly. The problems I had with turbo on the 10+ lbs is the center didn't want to pull very easily and if it went much longer the bark would turn into crust. Not good
In half? You have a butcher's saw to cut through the bone, or are you just carefully de-boning it in a sense so the smaller half is pure meat and the other half has the bone in it? Don't the two pieces cook a helluva lot different or do you egg them separately?

SGH · May 2014

RRP said:

In his post he asked about egging a 13 pounder. I swear the largest butt I have ever even seen was a 9 pounder. So my question is how large are most butts? What I always see and buy are 6 to 8 pounders. Are huge butts better? Also aren't they just from older fatter hogs?

Large butts are not better. They are usually of poorer quality in my opinion. The 4-9 pound butts are the most common and the best. There are exceptions to every rule. There are large butts that come from specially bred, raised and fed hogs that are of exceptional quality but you usually will not find these in the supermarket. 12-14 pound butts in the deep south are not uncommon at all. As I said I usually avoid these unless purchased from a farm or specialty shop. The very large butts that you see in supermarkets do indeed come from older swine. Stick with the 4-9 pounders and you cant go wrong.

Chris_Wang · May 2014

Chris_Wang said:
Maybe there are two butts wrapped in there... That's common.

Not the case

Little Steven · May 2014

SGH said:

RRP said:

In his post he asked about egging a 13 pounder. I swear the largest butt I have ever even seen was a 9 pounder. So my question is how large are most butts? What I always see and buy are 6 to 8 pounders. Are huge butts better? Also aren't they just from older fatter hogs?

Large butts are not better. They are usually of poorer quality in my opinion. The 4-9 pound butts are the most common and the best. There are exceptions to every rule. There are large butts that come from specially bred, raised and fed hogs that are of exceptional quality but you usually will not find these in the supermarket. 12-14 pound butts in the deep south are not uncommon at all. As I said I usually avoid these unless purchased from a farm or specialty shop. The very large butts that you see in supermarkets do indeed come from older swine. Stick with the 4-9 pounders and you cant go wrong.

Me no understand. Best butts I've cooked have been the bigger ones. Maybe a national thing.

RRP · May 2014

SGH said:

RRP said:

In his post he asked about egging a 13 pounder. I swear the largest butt I have ever even seen was a 9 pounder. So my question is how large are most butts? What I always see and buy are 6 to 8 pounders. Are huge butts better? Also aren't they just from older fatter hogs?

Large butts are not better. They are usually of poorer quality in my opinion. The 4-9 pound butts are the most common and the best. There are exceptions to every rule. There are large butts that come from specially bred, raised and fed hogs that are of exceptional quality but you usually will not find these in the supermarket. 12-14 pound butts in the deep south are not uncommon at all. As I said I usually avoid these unless purchased from a farm or specialty shop. The very large butts that you see in supermarkets do indeed come from older swine. Stick with the 4-9 pounders and you cant go wrong.

Thanks for confirming my suspicions!

SGH · May 2014

@Little Steven

As I said brother there are exceptions to every rule. But in general when speaking of store bought butts the smaller ones are usually superior in my opinion. Again that is my findings and im sure others have different thoughts on this as we all have different tastes. As I said above there is no doubt that some large butts are of outstanding quality but are not usually found at the local grocery. Most competition guys do indeed cook very large ones but I know of know one who buys them from Walmart or the chain grocery stores. As I stated above they are more often than not purchased from an individual farm or specialty breeder. Please don't think that im arguing your point as I am not. Just pointing out my own personal findings and thoughts on this my friend. In my area any thing over 10 pounds out of the local chain stores is usually very lacking in quality. Again other areas may be different.

Little Steven · May 2014

SGH said:

@Little Steven
As I said brother there are exceptions to every rule. But in general when speaking of store bought butts the smaller ones are usually superior in my opinion. Again that is my findings and im sure others have different thoughts on this as we all have different tastes. As I said above there is no doubt that some large butts are of outstanding quality but are not usually found at the local grocery. Most competition guys do indeed cook very large ones but I know of know one who buys them from Walmart or the chain grocery stores. As I stated above they are more often than not purchased from an individual farm or specialty breeder. Please don't think that im arguing your point as I am not. Just pointing out my own personal findings and thoughts on this my friend. In my area any thing over 10 pounds out of the local chain stores is usually very lacking in quality. Again other areas may be different.

I started it so you can't be arguing my point. I'm a dumbass northern boy far from the world of BBQ. I was only saying that the larger butts I have done have been more flavourful. Just wondered is all.

Tjcoley · May 2014

Biggest for me was early on in my Egg cooking. Did 3 ten pound butts at 225 for 29 hours. They were fantastic. Have since gone to turbo with 7 or 8 pounders that turn out just fine.

SGH · May 2014

Little Steven said:

SGH said:

@Little Steven

I'm a du***ss northern boy far from the world of BBQ.

Brother you and I both know that is not true. You are one of the more accomplished and respected cooks on the forum. Your advice is always true and sound my friend.

sstripes96 · May 2014

The largest Butt I ever did was 13 lbs. 200 degrees indirect for 18 hours. They have been awesome.

plumbfir01 · May 2014

I did 2 13lb butts for one og the first LowNSlows i did....not bad but definitely different then a 9lb

Hawkeye's post about a large butt makes me wonder...

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