Help!!! Smoking 4 pork butts, 5 pounds each

[audomatic]

First time poster, long time follower!  

So I am having a BBQ tomorrow with about 40 people coming over and am making, among other things, 20 pounds of pulled pork.  I have 4, 5 pound Boston Butts to throw in the smoker.  Due to the thickness of each, I had to remove 2 of the 4 racks from the smoker.  I can fit 2 butts on each rack, but they will be touching each other as it is pretty tight in there.  My question is should I treat this as 2 ten pound hunks of meat and adjust the cooking time accordingly.  I was planning on starting them around 3am at 225F and cooking until about 3 or 4pm tomorrow afternoon.  Ill be using my Bradley Electric Smoker.  Any advice would be appreciated as this is the first time Ill be smoking meat for the inlaws.

Thanks, and look forward to talking to you all in the future!

 

[vonk15]

Hopefully things are going well for you so far. I would simply suggest to just keep an eye on the IT. Hit around 200 and your home free! I wouldn't over think it, that leads to bonehead moves. Believe me! Good luck

 

[dward51]

Cook by internal temp.  The only thing that will be different is the area where the two butts touch will not pick up a smoke ring or bark as it acts likes one piece of meat in any area they touch.  Other than that's it is a normal pork butt smoke..  Times may be a little less than for a larger butt as the thickness overall is less so the heat can penetrate to the core quick.  Just smoke like normal, but start watching the internal temps a little earlier. 

5 pound butts sound like they are boneless?  If they are still bone-in, they are small (at least for what I see around here. ours run 8-11 pounds, bone-in).

 

[audomatic]

Thanks for the insight! Sitting at 185 right now and cruising along nicely..started around midnight last night and on track to pull at about 430 or so! Really appreciate the help!