Pork question

[jimvans]

Ok, I have a big smoke coming up. I am going to smoke 25 pounds of Boston Butt for pulled pork. I am going to have it cut in 5 pound roasts. Now to the question. Can I still use the 1.5 hours per pound approximation per roast or should it be 1.5 hours per pound of total meat.

For example. 1.5 x 5 = 7.5 hours. or 1.5 x 25 = 37 hours. Now I do the math, 37 hours for 25 pounds of meat sounds a little off.

Please chime in and set me straight. This is for my nephew's welcome home party, so I want it to be as perfect as possible.


Thanks in advance.

 

[pignit]

I would say figure it as if you were cooking one butt and add a little time to it. If your smoking 5 5# butts in a smoker they should all get done about the same time as one would. Let's say your setting the temp on 250..... if your smoker maintains that heat through the smoke all the butts should be done about the same as smokin one. May take just a little longer. I'd figure in just a tad more time. Now the individual butts will vary in time also. We just cooked a whole pig and I'd say we are talkin about 135 pounds. It took about 14 hours.... could have probably gone another couple of hours without hurting anything. I think you can figure your time on your average size piece.

If it were me I'd figure smokin for about 14 hours give or take an hour and leave yourself extra time. Wrap them up in foil and slam them in the cooler to stay hot. Maybe wrap some towels around them. Just remember to go by your internal temp and not a time line.

 

[white cloud]

Five 5 #der's shouldn't take much more than 8 hours running 225-250 but keep in mind the foil time and the all important cooler time. If you don't have a digi I highly recommend getting one. Another point which is why a digi is important is that each hunk of meat is different, some stall some don't be patient and all will be fine.

 

[forluvofsmoke]

Dave pretty much covered it there.

May I also note that when you add large quantities to the smoker, it will take some extra time to return to your desired cook chamber temp, as the mass of the food will begin to absorbe alot of heat immediatley after placing into the smoker (absorbed from the grates, chamber gases and heat radiated from baffle/tuning plates, and the chamber walls). This will add to the cook time to some degree. I've noticed this with every smoker I own. When small amounts of food are added to the smoker, recovery time is a bit faster, even if the lid/door is open for a very short period of time.

Good luck with the upcoming smoke. Best wishes to you, family and nephew!

Eric

 

[bigsteve]

I agree with the above. As stated, it will take a little longer than cooking only one or two 5 pounders. Due to your cooker having to recover from putting 25 pounds of cold meat on at one time. Once the temp comes back up and stabalizes, it should be right on schedule. I can't see your sig line from this screen, so don't know what type of cooker you might be using. Propane, coal, electric, offset, water all have different recovery times under your circumstances.

 

[rickw]

I just did five pork shoulders weighing in around 5lbs a piece, with one 5.5 lb chuckie. It took me right at about 8.5 to 9 hours to get them to 205F for pulling. My temps were around 250F with some lulls and spikes in temps.

 

[ronp]

With my Mes I would give it 6-7 hours of smoke and foil with some aujus from the smoker drip pan and foil. Take it out at 190' 200' internal for pulling. You can do the same in the oven at 200' after foiling. Also once it is pulled you can bag it in ziplocs with the same aujus defatted and kept for a few days. I would start early and consider this. Better early than late, no pressure that way.

 

[mballi3011]

What they all said you can give it about 7 or alitle more hours and you should be fine. Just remember we smoke by temp not time. Good Luck on your big smoke.

 

[jimvans]

Thanks everyone. That is what I thought but it is always better to get a second opinion.


Ron, thanks for the ziplock advice but if I know my family and the fact I am using the method from here, there will not be a single string of pork left.

 

[macdad]

From my experience, the cooking time has more to do with the thickness of the meat than the weight. I think the 1.5 hour/pound guideline works, because most pork shoulders are about the same thickness. I recently smoked two 5 pound shoulders, and they took 10 hours. Just my two cents.