6 hours vs 14 hours Pork Butts

[Jessop]

Ok i've not quite figured out the difference between my 6 hours smoke time and a 14 hour smoke time. I have an electric smoker i normally smoke one pork butt and i've had it take 6 hours to get to 215 and i've had it take 14 hours to get to 215. I've not figured out why one takes longer than the other. This time I did get 2 pork butts and they are blade in.... Does the blade in take longer to get to 215 than non blade in? If no what could cause the disparity of smoking times? Thoughts?

 

[rob g]

A number of variables:
- weight of butt
- temperature of smoker
- the meat itself
- wrapping

I've started cooking at 275-325F . I still take usually 8 hours getting to my target temp of 203F internal. I'm not seeing any difference in the final product from cooking at 225-250F. I don't usually wrap because we like the bark better on an unwrapped butt. Wrapping will cut the cook time further.

 

[indaswamp]

How thick the meat is makes a huge difference as well. Thicker butt will take longer.

 

[indaswamp]

215*? Is that the Internal temperature you are trying to cook to?

 

[Jonok]

Yeah, in order to get something to that temp at ambient pressure, you’d have to first boil all the water out of it. Butts just fall apart at 205 in my experience...

 

[Jessop]

sorry i meant 205 not 215 (fat fingered lol) i smoke it at 250'ish till it gets to the range my thinking it is the bone in the butt or the "thickness" as someone else mentioned is the reason it can take longer than others....

 

[Jonok]

It has been my experience that putting them in my (modded, as described in another post) MES at 250 and leaving things alone for at least 10 hours invariably produces excellent results assuming that I cook at least two bone-in butts weighing at least 8# each.
Leaving them in for another couple of hours doesn’t really seem to change too much (the bark may be a little more pronounced, but the internal temp seems to stay at 200-207)

If I cook smaller or boneless cuts, it’s pretty easy to dry things out by going too long and having insufficient ambient moisture though.

I generally do not use a water pan, and the drip pan will not dry out and start to smoke with an adequate amount of meat.