Cooking butts the day before

Since butts take 10-13 hrs. on average I do it this way:

Prep butts the day before and put them in the fridge. Light the charcoal at midnight (or whatever your heat source is), get the smoker up to temp and running steady (usually a 20-45 min. process). Putt the butts on, watch it for half hour or so to make sure it is stable - then if your smoker is efficient and stable enough you can go to bed till about 6 or 7 in the AM, if not set the alarm to every 2 hrs. or so.

Check the butts in the morning make sure the smoker is running steady, if all is good let them keep riding. Toss the ribs on about 5 hrs. before you want to eat. The butts will probably finish up first, so you can foil them and put them in a dry towel lined cooler to rest for an hour or two while the ribs finish up. If need be you can hold butts hot in towel lined cooler for up to 6+ hours without any problems.

james1nc said:

 
that's the problem my smoker will last about every 90-120min.my butt is going to take around 14 hours . and I don't want it to feel like a job starting it at midnight because by the time were ready to eat and guest arrive ill be ready to sleep.
 

Click to expand...

Smoke the butts the day before, pull and put the PP in bags or in aluminum half pans along with some of the foiling juice if you have it, or spritz with some apple juice.  Next day while the ribs are smoking, reheat the pulled pork.   If you used half pans, just throw them in a 350 degree oven for about an hour until it's nice and warm (about 160 degrees).    If you bagged it, bring a pot of water to a low simmer and drop the bags in to reheat.  This works best with heavier duty bags (freezer bags or vac pack bags).

Both ways sound legit to me....also, many have used the crockpot with low even heat and some leftover piggy juice with success if doing the reheat. The meat must be pulled ahead though after resting some. FYI, I'm basically lazy so IF you use the crockpot I highly recommend those liner bags for easy clean-up....just sayin'........Willie