Cooking for a group in an ECB

[mbbarnes]

Now that I have my first couple months of smoking under my belt, I have been nominated to cater a camping trip for around 30 people.  I will be smoking on a Master Forge Charcoal Smoker (similar to a Brinkman Gourmet).

   My plan is to smoke three 9lb Boston Butts at once.  The other day I tried doing a test fit to see how the meat would fit. Unfortunately, there is not as much room as I thought.  I placed one butt on the bottom rack and tried to fit two on the top rack. To two on top were pretty squished together and I barely got the lid on. I am guessing having the two butts up against each other would have negative effects to the cooking.  I  have a couple of options.

   Would it be okay for one or both of the top butts to be placed on their side and cooked vertically until they shrink enough to fit flat? 

   I might also cook one butt ahead of time and freeze it.  Leaving only two butts to be cooked on site.  

What is the most some of you other ECB smokers have cooked at once?

 

[SmokinAl]

I have seen where you stand them up on the bone end, but I'm not sure how stable they would be. If they would stand on end you could easily fit 2 on the bottom & 1 on the top. I think?

 

[flash]

Well if you can smoke one in advance, by a day, just pull it and vacuum seal the meat if possible. Doubt you would need to freeze it. Standing them on ends would work, if they stay and do not hit the top of the smoker.

 

[adiochiro3]

I agree. If you can stand them up, you're golden. However, this stuff holds over really well, so prep ahead of time is no prob either. Do not let them touch during the smoke, though. They will not smoke or cook correctly.

 

[mbbarnes]

Thanks for the ideas. I think I might try to use two or three skewers stuck between them to hold them up during the cook.  This might give me an excuse to do a test smoke of two butts next week.  I don't have access to a vacuum sealer (yet) and will spend the day before the smoke traveling 6hrs to get there, so frozen might be the best back-up.

 

[smoking asian]

Maybe you could smoke them all in advance.

 

[scarbelly]

If you do the puncture the meat it needs to get thru the danger zone of 140 in 4 hours at the longest. You would be much better precooking and freezing with some juices. If you want to smoke at the campout do some baked beans or a few fatties on site.