Finishing off butt in crock pot?

[howufiga]

ok, I have family coming over to my house on Saturday. I got a 4.5 lbs butt shoulder I want to smoke, but I don't want to get up at 3:30 AM to start my ECB smoker. Can i just start it in the smoker and finish it in a crock pot overnight? Maybe have it in the smoker for like 3 hours then switch it over to the crockpot at like 11 PM? Then by the morning it'd be ready and on warm until 1 PM when everyone is supposed to show?

 

[walking dude]

why not just smoke it all.......then fridge.....then pull it and reheat in the crock pot?

 

[bbq addict]

If you're just trying to shorten your smoke time, finish it in the oven.

 

[seboke]

Brace yourself for some nasty replies!!! At least you didn't say oven or <gasp> liquid smoke! Ya got yerself a relatively small hunk of pig there, why not make it an evening Friday? Start right after work, get yerself a bucket of cool tasties, a nice cigar maybe, a few friends / family even, and let the TBS waft over you for a while. That could only take as little as 5-6 (or 9-10) hours, BUT we smoke to temp, not time!!!!! If ya run out of steam, just shoot for keeping it in smoke till it hits 160-165, foil it, put it in a 250* oven till it hits 200* internal, then wrap it in a thick towel, still foiled, and put it in a cooler till time to pull it. If ha have the luxury, let the meat sit on the counter for a good hour before you sick the smoke on it, or at least while you're getting your fire ready/smoker temp regulated. The closer ya get it to room temp will save that amount of time you need it in the smoker...

Seems I jumped all over the place... Hope I made any sense! Good luck

 

[howufiga]

Finishing it off in the oven sounds like a good idea. But the earliest I wanted to start it is 8:30 am and the party is at 1 PM. So would I have enough time to finish it in the oven?

 

[seboke]

Ya can just never tell. You may hit a plateau that will increase overall time. Starting at 8:30 and wanting to serve at 1:00 is cutting it too close IMO. The 8:30 start - is that when you light the fire or start applying heat to the meat? I'd still say smoke Friday night till you reach AT LEAST 155*. Again, can't accurately say how long that will be, but I'd guess anywhere from 3 - 5 hours, depending on several things, like how well you maintain smoker temp and simply put, some cuts of meat just take longer. Then foil it, towel it, and stick it in a cooler. It will keep warm that way for several hours. Then in the morning, take off the towel, into the 250* oven till ya get 200 internal. Then back into the towel, back into the cooler for at least an hour till it's time to pull that sucker. It will fall apart having never come face-to-face with the crock pot!

 

[flyin'illini]

If you can, smoke it ahead of time then re-heat in crock pot or oven like D88de says, it saves the stress of trying to 'time it' for your event knowing you have to let the meat to get to proper 'temp'.

 

[luv2camp35]

I agree with WD. I did a shoulder on Sunday that hit a plateau of 165 after about 5 hours. It took 2 hours for it to get to 170 and another 6 hours to get to 205. Granted it was just under 9 lbs but took 13 hours in a propane smoker that never went below 235 on temp.

The only way you can bet on having your meat ready at a certain time is to give yourself twice as much time as you think you will need.

 

[howufiga]

LOL..sorry...this is my first post in the smoking meat forum.

Ok, did i caculate this wrong? I thought it was an hour to 1.5 hours for each lbs of meat? last time I smoked a shoulder was a Sunday morning, it hit a plateu at around 170 and I didn't know if my thermometer was broken or not. lol... I then fell asleep in the afternoon and the butt went to 210. lol

I meant that at 8:30 am would be the start of putting it in the smoker with smoker up to temp.

I just don't want to be stressing that it's not done when all the guests are there. I'm also smoking 4 slabs of spare ribs and making 6 beer can chickens not ot mention burgers and brats on a kettle grill. so I don't want to spread myself too thin. I'm beginning to think that waking up in the middle of the night to start it or cooking it in advance and the re-heating it would be too much of a hassle considering how much cooking i'm going to be doing.

Another stupid question, I have coyotes by me, my neighbors has seen them walking around the neighborhood. If I do decide ot wake up at like 4 AM and throw it on the smoker, anyone think there's a chance one of them would knock my ECB over?

 

[lcruzen]

I think the yotes will stay away from the heat of the smoker. As for the pork, I think an all nighter is in order.

 

[phreak]

I tossed a butt in my crock pot one time because I had to go with friends to float down a spring and I only had it to about 145 degrees...It ended up being in the crock pot for nearly 12 hours and came out nasty in my opinion. Everyone else loved it but to me it was way too mushy...DON'T DO IT!!!