I see the topic of smoking times gets asked a lot by new smokers and some who are seasoned people. I just want to let you know that last night at 10:30 I put a 9 pound butt on my ECB and put 5 chunks of hickory near the element, filled the pan with water and kicked it on.
By 6 am I wasn't even pushing 155 degrees. I had little choice but to wrap it up in foil though since my church was holding a pancake feed till noon. And hey, who wants to miss a pancake feed?
So I wrapped it in foil (if you have no idea why I did this, read Meowey's excellent thread about basic pulled pork). When I got home at noon, it was only at 185 degrees. So 13 1/2 hours in the smoker (which maintained 223 throughout the night despite terrible thunderstorms all night long). By 4 PM, I was only at 197 degrees, so it took 4 hours to gain 12 degrees. I had no choice but to pull it out since dinner had to be on by 5:45.
I let it rest in a cold oven until 5:15. I opened up the foil and was greeted by juicy but firm meat and tons of juices. It was very good!
Now the butt I had was 33 degrees internal when it went on the smoker. So if you are dealing with a cut of meat that is still close to frozen temps, then 2 or 2 1/2 hours per pound may not be out of the question.
The point of this thread is to just remind people that a 9 pounder can push 17 to 20 hours in a cheap electric unit. Don't get discouraged and don't crank the heat in an attempt to hurry it up. Patience will pay out a huge reward with tender meat that practically asks to fall apart. Just plan accordingly and don't feel bad if you have to throw a plate full of pulled pork in the microwave for dinner if it finished at 2 pm. You'll get closer and closer the more you smoke em!
By 6 am I wasn't even pushing 155 degrees. I had little choice but to wrap it up in foil though since my church was holding a pancake feed till noon. And hey, who wants to miss a pancake feed?
So I wrapped it in foil (if you have no idea why I did this, read Meowey's excellent thread about basic pulled pork). When I got home at noon, it was only at 185 degrees. So 13 1/2 hours in the smoker (which maintained 223 throughout the night despite terrible thunderstorms all night long). By 4 PM, I was only at 197 degrees, so it took 4 hours to gain 12 degrees. I had no choice but to pull it out since dinner had to be on by 5:45.
I let it rest in a cold oven until 5:15. I opened up the foil and was greeted by juicy but firm meat and tons of juices. It was very good!
Now the butt I had was 33 degrees internal when it went on the smoker. So if you are dealing with a cut of meat that is still close to frozen temps, then 2 or 2 1/2 hours per pound may not be out of the question.
The point of this thread is to just remind people that a 9 pounder can push 17 to 20 hours in a cheap electric unit. Don't get discouraged and don't crank the heat in an attempt to hurry it up. Patience will pay out a huge reward with tender meat that practically asks to fall apart. Just plan accordingly and don't feel bad if you have to throw a plate full of pulled pork in the microwave for dinner if it finished at 2 pm. You'll get closer and closer the more you smoke em!
