Welcome to the EGGhead Forum - a great place to visit and packed with tips and EGGspert advice! You can also join the conversation and get more information and amazing kamado recipes by following Big Green Egg to Experience our World of Flavor™ at:
Facebook  |  Twitter  |  Instagram  |  Pinterest  |  Youtube  |  Vimeo
Share your photos by tagging us and using the hashtag #BigGreenEgg.

Want to see how the EGG is made? Click to Watch

Capacity of LBGE - Pork Butt Edition

MaskedMarvel
MaskedMarvel Posts: 3,417
in EggHead Forum
Greetings friends,

We occasionally do pork butt projects here for friends etc. Named, affectionately, after music festivals, we just completed LOLLAPORKLOOZA VIII. Frequently, the “festival” has 50-100 pounds of pulled pork orders. 

It’s not REALLY a festival. lol we just call it that because the BGEs work constantly until individual orders (of 1 to 30 pounds, usually) are satisfied, with extra for the “I ordered two, but can I get five” crowd. We’re keeping it fun. 

Ok.

Costco butts:
on a standard grate, single level, we can get four Costco butts cooked. They’re usually a bit larger, and no bone. 

On a dual grate, it’s also four. A little extra space, but the support for the second level limits the fit to form factor. 

We get the biggest butts they have in the cooler when running Costco pork. 


Harris Teeter butts:
when the HT butts going sale, perk up. On one of their “VIC Cards,” you can get four butts for 99¢ a pound, and each butt after that is $1.29 per. Screamin deal around these parts. 

HT butts are smaller, and bone in. Easy fit to get four in a standard LBGE on a single level. 

On the dual grate, we can get six, if they’re smaller. Easy five for their regular sizes. 

We get the extremes from HT, as a result. The biggest and smallest. It becomes culinary Tetris to make it work, when running the two BGE setup (we have four BGEs we can do at the same time).  

Restaurant Depot:
RD has different versions, but we usually grab the bone out butts.  A tiny bit more expense, but the ease of shaping them inside the BGE makes it worth it. They’re usually largest of the three providers. 

So, for fit, see Costco. 

But - honestly, we rarely use RD butts, because they typically have such a thick fat cap. We don’t trim the pork before cooking. Ever. That cap does render out.    But the product loss by cooked weight offsets the value of the raw. 

EXPECTED COOK WEIGHT:

Running a single BGE will give you 20 lbs cooked weight. That’s the Mendoza line. Rarely, it’s less. Frequently, it’s more. The number one thing that affects this number: cook temp. Period. All other things being equal, if you render at 225° you’re going to get more finally cooked pork weight than if even at 250°. 

The only explanation I have for this, is you’re rendering the fat OUT of the meat at higher temps, and INTO the meat at lower. The difference is obvious to me. Lower and slower gives more succulent and melt-in-your-mouth quality. 

And - our final product is vacuum sealed and deep frozen to -20°f which means some specifics when reheating have to be given to the customer. If they follow the reheating instructions (your basic boil the bag), the quality of the fresh pulled versus reheated pork is the same. Side by side, people can’t really tell a difference. That metric holds more true with the low and slow. Gives us another reason not to rush it. 


Ok. Enough for my first cup of coffee idle ramblings. 

We’ve got the pork cook system DOWN COLD. From cold idle egg to bags going into the freezer. 

Pretty fun, actually..
8-Damien

ps - I never proofread. I expect there are typos. 


Random pics of some setups from the past follow:



Large BGE and Medium BGE
36" Blackstone - Greensboro!


· Share on FacebookShare on Twitter

Comments

Categories