Can I halve a Boston Butt?

[uncle phil]

Hi all,

New to smoking so a rookie mistake I am sure.  I picked up a 15lb "pork shoulder steak ready butt" from Sams Club but somehow missed the correlation to smoking time of 20 plus hours.   That said, is there significant downside if I cut it in half to half the cooking

time?   I have a Meadowbook PR42 so plenty of room for 2 pieces.   Thanks in advance for any guidance.

 

[yotzee]

You wont notice a difference

 

[uncle phil]

Great.  Thanks for your help

 

[pineywoods]

You can cut it in half but I'd about bet it's already two butts in the same package. Many of us buy butts with two in a vacuum sealed package

 

[yotzee]

I've actually bought vacuum sealed packages like that of 2 boneless shoulders at Costco.  I have them cut them into somewhat equal size portions and tied them to even sizes to help cook them at about the same time.  Plus MORE BARK!!

 

[van holton]

I buy my butts from Sam's and there always 2 per package.

 

[uncle phil]

I was wondering about 2 in a pack given the size at 15 lbs. 

Thanks for the additional feedback.

 

[demosthenes9]

If you are just cutting them down the middle top to bottom, there won't be that much of a difference as cook time is governed by the thinnest dimension of the meat.

To really cut down on cook time, you want to debone and butterfly the butt horizontally.


Alternatively, you could leave the butts whole and just go with a higher chamber temp. Have seen people around here who do butts at 300 - 325.

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