COSTCO Pork Boston Butt

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jmpusateri

Newbie
Original poster
Mar 31, 2016
3
10
So the rule of thumb is approx 1.5 hours per pound... the Boston Butts at Coscto are about 15# each... if I cut them in half does it become 2 - 7.5# butts and will take less time to cook?  I am doing 50# and don't want to be up for 24 hours.  I also know the meat is done when its done 205*...  just asking for direction --- please and thank you!!!!

JP
 
First question, are they actually 15 pounds each or are there two cryovaced together? (If the former, then it is probably the whole shoulder and not just the butt, I suspect.)

If you cut them in two, they will get to temp faster than one big piece, as well as take more smoke and get more bark. I don't know if the 1.5 hour per pound "rule" is useful, though.
 
Read on another post that it is 2 roasts in the package... so my question may have been for not...  but if so then it answers my own question.... should have looked further before asking.  The 1.5 hours is a general statement.. I know it is by temperature more than anything.  :) 
 
Even as a general statement, it isn't of much use. It really depends on your smoker and temps. Some people take more than twice as long as others for the same sized butt.
 
I had some costco butts last weekend,  I didn't realize until I got them home that they were boneless butts and I see that Costco usually sells boneless.  I don't normally buy boneless so I had little idea how to smoke them. 

That was a problem because the ones I got looked like the butcher was blind and I had huge flaps of meat on the ends where they cut the bone out (why would they do that?). 

What you (probably) need to do is cut the smaller meat flaps off, because those are going to cook faster, and pull those when they get to 205, then monitor the larger chunks of meat until they get to 205.  I left the flaps on mine hoping that if they were pressed together it would cook like regular like if they weren't separate flaps, but those flappy ends were way overdone at the end of the cook, so I was really left with about half the meat that I should have had.  Which was ok because I wasn't feeding too many people.
 
 
I had some costco butts last weekend,  I didn't realize until I got them home that they were boneless butts and I see that Costco usually sells boneless.  I don't normally buy boneless so I had little idea how to smoke them. 

That was a problem because the ones I got looked like the butcher was blind and I had huge flaps of meat on the ends where they cut the bone out (why would they do that?). 

What you (probably) need to do is cut the smaller meat flaps off, because those are going to cook faster, and pull those when they get to 205, then monitor the larger chunks of meat until they get to 205.  I left the flaps on mine hoping that if they were pressed together it would cook like regular like if they weren't separate flaps, but those flappy ends were way overdone at the end of the cook, so I was really left with about half the meat that I should have had.  Which was ok because I wasn't feeding too many people.
Instead of cutting off the flaps, tie up the butt like a roast (which it is).
 
I have never seen a 15 pound butt at Costco, only two in a package that might be 15 lbs together and I personally don't like Costco butts for pulled pork because they are deboned and I like that bone for flavor. Curing for ham is another story, I would rather have boneless in that case. But yes if you cut a big 15 pound hunk of meat in half you now have two 71/2 pounders that take less time to cook just as if you had bought two 71/2 pounders from the store and smoked them one at a time or both at the same time. The last one I smoked which was last week weighed 9 pounds and took 14 hours to reach 205 cooking at 225.

Randy,
 
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