Yesterday I smoked my first boston butts. One was boneless just shy of 4 lbs and the other was bone in around 5.5 lbs. I also smoked a pork loin at the same time, and since I'm a newbie I mis judged the time it takes to smoke these pretty hardcore. I'm using a MES 30" and added apple wood chips about every hour or so.
So now you know the context here is what happened. I started out cooking at 225 and left it there for about 3 hours. I then noticed the loin was cooking way to fast for the timing in which I needed it to be done for when we had people over. I wanted to take it to about an IT of 140-145 and it was 130ish at the 3 hour mark so I turned my smoker waaaaaay down to about 190. This bought me about 2 more hours but sacrificed my butts and really slowed them down. So the loin was done in about 5 hours and I let it sit for 2 hours before slicing it (not desired but just needed to wait because I wanted to keep it warm before we had people over.)
After I pulled the loin out of the smoker I had no idea how much longer the butts were going to take. But I kicked the smoker back up to 230 for about 2 hours and then kicked it up to 250 to finish them off (again not desired but needed them to get done because I had people salivating to try them). They both stalled hard at 145 so i foiled them at 160. I pulled the boneless butt at IT of 190 and let it sit for 15 min and attempted to pull the pork.....would have been better off slicing it. It still tasted good but not as good as what it could have been. However it satisfied everyone that was still hungry after eating 6 lbs of loin and some chicken drumsticks.
Now for the bone in butt I took more time with it mainly because nobody was hungry anymore. So I took to an IT of 205 and let it sit for about an hour. Put it in the pan and man o man it just fell apart. Major difference in just 15 degrees IT and letting it sit longer after pulling from the smoker.
All in all the the boneless butt took 9 hours and the bone in tool 11 hours. I know these times are much longer than what I should have taken because slowing down the cooker because of the loin. So next time I know to start the butts early and add the loin later.
So now you know the context here is what happened. I started out cooking at 225 and left it there for about 3 hours. I then noticed the loin was cooking way to fast for the timing in which I needed it to be done for when we had people over. I wanted to take it to about an IT of 140-145 and it was 130ish at the 3 hour mark so I turned my smoker waaaaaay down to about 190. This bought me about 2 more hours but sacrificed my butts and really slowed them down. So the loin was done in about 5 hours and I let it sit for 2 hours before slicing it (not desired but just needed to wait because I wanted to keep it warm before we had people over.)
After I pulled the loin out of the smoker I had no idea how much longer the butts were going to take. But I kicked the smoker back up to 230 for about 2 hours and then kicked it up to 250 to finish them off (again not desired but needed them to get done because I had people salivating to try them). They both stalled hard at 145 so i foiled them at 160. I pulled the boneless butt at IT of 190 and let it sit for 15 min and attempted to pull the pork.....would have been better off slicing it. It still tasted good but not as good as what it could have been. However it satisfied everyone that was still hungry after eating 6 lbs of loin and some chicken drumsticks.
Now for the bone in butt I took more time with it mainly because nobody was hungry anymore. So I took to an IT of 205 and let it sit for about an hour. Put it in the pan and man o man it just fell apart. Major difference in just 15 degrees IT and letting it sit longer after pulling from the smoker.
All in all the the boneless butt took 9 hours and the bone in tool 11 hours. I know these times are much longer than what I should have taken because slowing down the cooker because of the loin. So next time I know to start the butts early and add the loin later.