How many butts can I put in a 30”

[Cdl72986]

hey everyone, I just got a 30” Masterbuilt and the old lady wants me to smoke some pulled pork this weekend. I’m kinda stressing out about it because I haven’t smoked anything before. How many butts have y’all done at the same time in the smoker? What size were they? And how long roughly? Just trying to figure everything out! Any tips or input would be greatly appreciated! Thanks in advance!
Chris

 

[fivetricks]

The answer is 4.

You can do two butts per shelf, but will have to remove 2 shelves to accommodate height.

Expect a very very long cook time out of 4 butts. This Amt of thermal mass is a huge load on the 800w element in a mes 30. At minimum 2 hours per pound. I would figure in even more. You can always wrap and rest of they come off early.

Plus there will be a great deal of grease released by that many butts. Make sure to check and empty your trap as needed.

Not sure how many people you're cooking for but if it's just a family then 1 8-9lb butt will more than suffice.

A butt is a good starter project for smoking but 4 can be a bit of a hassle to manage.

 

[jcam222]

Here is a link to a step by step Bearcarver has graciously posted. Disregard the AMPs part for now and just use your wood chips in the standard manner.

https://www.smokingmeatforums.com/threads/boston-butt-pulled-pork-265°-smoker-temp.280661/

 

[tropics]

If you never smoked anything try doing one until you know what you are doing!!
Richie

 

[Cdl72986]

The answer is 4.

You can do two butts per shelf, but will have to remove 2 shelves to accommodate height.

Expect a very very long cook time out of 4 butts. This Amt of thermal mass is a huge load on the 800w element in a mes 30. At minimum 2 hours per pound. I would figure in even more. You can always wrap and rest of they come off early.

Plus there will be a great deal of grease released by that many butts. Make sure to check and empty your trap as needed.

Not sure how many people you're cooking for but if it's just a family then 1 8-9lb butt will more than suffice.

A butt is a good starter project for smoking but 4 can be a bit of a hassle to manage.

Thanks a lot! That was one of my main worries that it was going to be too much meat for the smoker to handle which is what im getting from what you’re saying. This is the case even if the 4 butts were 4.5 pounds or so? Thanks again. I may just do 2 and figure out something else with the others. I went and bought 3 butts today, 2 are 4.5 lbs and the other is about 5.5 I think

 

[fivetricks]

Regardless of their size you can do 2 butts x 2 shelves. They may speed up a bit with being half weight. Again, not sure how may people you're feeding. Good news is they freeze quite well. You're going to.wajt some sort of good quality multi prob Thermo it being your first time.

Do NOT trust the stock Thermo in your MES. It is no good.. id set your mes to 275 and roll that temp the whole time with that much meat in it

 

[Cdl72986]

I tried to make a post on here about how it came out but it keeps throwing me an error message, anyone know why.

 

[Cdl72986]

 

[tropics]

Here ya go grab a number and stay in line

Upgrade Issues

Im starting this thread so that you can post any issues your having with the upgrade. This way they are all in 1 place. Thanks. Brian

www.smokingmeatforums.com

Richie

 

[daveomak]

CDL, evening....l I split my butts at the blade bone... Make 2 out of one so to speak.... I add smoke for several hours at 130-140 then finish in the oven... Here's the meat in my MES 30... 2 butts split at the blade bone... Sitting on Todd's Q-Matz.... I rotate the meat at the 1/2 way mark...