2 Nice Butts :)

[meyerbbq]

Hello all, 

Question for the more intelligent than myself, I'm smoking 2 butts for Sunday. The butts will be in the 8-10lb range a piece, I'm need them to be ready to pull by 1:00pm Sunday afternoon. Now this isn't my first boston butt but this will be the first time I've had to cook with a deadline in mind and not just my leisure. I'm guessing around 1.5 hrs per lb at 225* on my Primo Kamado which will be controlled by my Digi Q DX2 which my lovely girlfriend just purchased for me. 

I would like to pull the Pork Butts from the cooker by 11:00 am and then throw them in a cooler for the trip and let them rest before pulling. After all that rambling my question is, would throwing them on around 11pm the night before sound about right? I know I could always up the temp to speed things along if they're going to slow. 

Oh, and I'm undecided on wrapping at 165* like I normally do or just letting them ride it out the whole cook? Any input here is greatly appreciated as well. 

 

[smokesontuesday]

12 hours seems a bit short at 225 to me, especially if they're closer to 10 pounds.

I'd throw them on around 6 PM (maybe even 4 PM) the day before and let them ride if you're smoking at 225. The last 9 pound butt I did at 225 took 18.5 hours to hit 205

If you normally wrap I'd wrap them. A deadline cook isn't the time to be playing around with techniques..

If you're on a deadline I'd cook them hotter at 275 and wrap if you're running short on time. Ideally I smoke butts the day before and reheat.

 

[meyerbbq]

Thank you for the advice, I may wrap them like usual just to help with timing on the stall, but I'll still put them on about 6pm tomorrow night just to give myself a buffer, and if worse comes to worse, I can either raise the temp on the smoker, or reheat the butts when they get there. I gotta think that in a cooler wrapped they'd still stay hot for 3 hrs or more. 

 

[smokesontuesday]

 
Thank you for the advice, I may wrap them like usual just to help with timing on the stall, but I'll still put them on about 6pm tomorrow night just to give myself a buffer, and if worse comes to worse, I can either raise the temp on the smoker, or reheat the butts when they get there. I gotta think that in a cooler wrapped they'd still stay hot for 3 hrs or more. 

They'll stay plenty hot in the cooler for up to 5-6 hours.

 

[meyerbbq]

Quick question, after about 4 hrs on the smoker both butts are at 150 degrees. Does this sound right? Sounds a little too hot too fast

 

[meyerbbq]

One of the butts was around 5 lbs and it's up to 172 already after 5 hrs, if I won't be pulling it for another 12 hrs should I let it rest then put it in the fridge?

 

[SmokinAl]

Well how did they turn out?

Al

 

[meyerbbq]

So I may have just been on edge last night. The 5lb butt got up to 178 after 6hrs, but then it stalled and actually dropped 6 degrees. Now, 13.5 hrs later the small butt is at 190 and it'll be coming off at 200. The bigger butt is in the stall at 170. I can't say enough good things about my new digi q DX2. It's held 225 the whole time and made this long cook enjoyably. I will post updates later.