Half or whole

[jr montgomery]

Hi everyone,

I was hoping for a little advise. Tomorrow I will be serving pulled pork to about 40 people at my sons wedding reception. I bought 3-14lb pork shoulders and plan on starting them at 6 tonight and cooking them through the night. My time line is to have them cooked rested, pulled and sauced by 3 PM the next day. Here is the question my wife is worried about getting them done in time and wants me to cut them in half. If you think they would get done I would really like to leave them whole. Thanks for any advise this is my first time cooking for this many.

J.R. 

 

[s2k9k]

I recently did two 9lb pork picnics and they took 22 hours. 14lbs is pretty big, think I might be cutting them in half.

I see this is your first post here, when you get a minute would you do us a favor and go to "Roll Call" and introduce yourself so we can get to know you and give you a proper welcome, also would you add your location to your profile, we like knowing where you are when we talk to you, Thanks!

 

[jirodriguez]

You should be fine. I cook 10-12 lb. butts on average and the usually take 11-13 hrs. foiled or 13-15 hrs. unfoiled.... course you still have to go by temp, but that has been my average with my chamber temps between 225° & 250°. Since you have a 21 hr. window between your start and target finish times you should have no problems.

Once you pull them out of the smoker leave them whole, double wrap them in heavy foil, and place them in a dry towel lined ice chest with more towels on top. They will stay very hot for over 6 hrs. without any issues.

 

[biteme7951]

14 lbs sounds like a big shoulder.  If you bought it from Sam's or Costco it will probably already be in 2 pieces. Otherwise cut it in 2 and it will cook quicker and you will have twice as much bark!

Good luck.

Barry.

 

[jr montgomery]

Thanks every one for the replies and welcome. Yes I did buy them at costco so it might have been decided for me 

Thanks again

J.R.

 

[oldschoolbbq]

Personally, I would cut (bone and all) in half, that's a lot of mass to heat through,and at (rule of thumb-1.5hrs./lb. ) your decreasing the thickness will give you a better shot of making your deadline and have resting time too...I do it all the time:

just make sure you give yourself time, the cook's best friend. Cooking them cut makes for more surface area and thus quicker cooking...

Have fun and...

 

[jr montgomery]

Barry,

you hit the nail on the head it was in 2 pieces. Don't know if I like the quality now that it is opened up but will have to run with it. Just might have learned another lesson. 

J.R