How long does it take to smoke two 4-pound butts

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I was readiing when to add more chips and water/apple cider....some say your water takes away some heat? Do I want to run just a little bit? Also planning to wrap in foil at 165 and take it to about 185 to prepare to pull... Thoughts?
 
Also make sure your temp gauge stem is not touching the meat 

Gary S
 
I was readiing when to add more chips and water/apple cider....some say your water takes away some heat? Do I want to run just a little bit? Also planning to wrap in foil at 165 and take it to about 185 to prepare to pull... Thoughts?
water can help maintain temperature but as a part of that it will cool down the chamber because it uses some of that heat to boil/steam the water...so yes you can run little to no water to get a higher temp. I sometimes dont put water in mine. If your running to hot definitly put water in the pan.

smoke stop penetrating the meat around 5-6 hours so after that time you can wrap and decrease cook time. If you want a firmer bark you migth want to unwrap around the last hour
 
Question... Once I'm at about 180, I'm taking the pork out of the smoker. I am going to pull and it will be served tomorrow. How long should I wait to start pulling?
 
Even 205º you want that bone to slide right out

Gary S
 
Oh wow. Ok, so i should be able to just grab the bone and pull it out easy? I won't over cook?
 
Oh wow. Ok, so i should be able to just grab the bone and pull it out easy? I won't over cook?
yes pretty much that's the case. When you do tug on the bone you'll be able to tell that it's loose and with a good tug it could come out. When you get to the 190/195 stage start continuous monitoring of the meat when you tug that bone Andes it seems right. Pull from smoker wrap in foil and place in any cooler to rest for about an hour then shred that baby up
 
Gary did you mean make sure the temp probe isn't touching the bone? So take off about 200 degrees and put in an empty cooler? Dumb question...not with ice right? And is there a temp to start pulling at?
 
when your butt gets to 195+ wrap it in alum foil and then towels (old ones you dont care about) and put in a cooler to rest. The temperature will rise about 5 more degrees while it rests. After an hour you can pull it out and pull. But at 180 it wont be tender enough to pull. 

no ice in the cooler LOL :) 
 
Hopefully one more question.... Do I remove the bone right away or is it left in for cooler stage?
 
leave the whole thing intact until you pull it apart. you can jiggle the bone to see if its tender enough to come out
 
Thanks for all the help guys! You rock. Pork came out perfect!:sausage::grilling_smilie::yahoo:
 
Here it is! Btw, any recommendations on cleaning an electric smoker?[ATTACHMENT=1464]image.jpg (2,727k. jpg file)[/ATTACHMENT][ATTACHMENT=1465]image.jpg (2,441k. jpg file)[/ATTACHMENT][ATTACHMENT=1466]image.jpg (2,176k. jpg file)[/ATTACHMENT][ATTACHMENT=1467]image.jpg (1,737k. jpg file)[/ATTACHMENT]
 
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Good job Aaron, looks mighty tasty to me.

Gary S
 
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