# My First Pork Butt On My New Traeger - A Few Questions?



## huskerphil (Jun 21, 2013)

Hello Everyone!

Well I just got my Traeger last week and it couldn't have come at a better time because tomorrow is my son's 2nd birthday party.  We will have roughly 40 guests and I thought pulled pork would be a great choice for the meal.  I do have a few questions though.

My plan right now is to try and get four, 7-8 pound pork butts.  Do you guys think this will be enough to feed everyone?  I don't mind have extra.  :)

My next question is about cook time.  I've read that I should give an hour to an hour and a half cook time per pound.  So will that mean 8-10 hours should work?  Or since I'm cooking four at one time do I need to plan on more time.

My plan was to cook at 3 hours at 225.  After that I will transfer to a foil pan, kick the heat up to 250, and cook for 6-8 more hours.  The recipe I took this from was only cooking one butt.  Do I need to plan on more time since I have four pork butts?

I figured getting four smaller pork butts will cut down the cook time as opposed to one, big pork butt.

I would appreciate any thoughts on this!

Thank you.


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## dirtsailor2003 (Jun 21, 2013)

I usually figure a 1/3lb per person, if serving with other sides. Also you need to figure in a 40% loss, especially if these are bone in butts. I wouldn't bother starting at 225* there's no reason for it. I smoke all my butts at 265* now. Also I do not foil, that's because I like the bark. It will take the same amount of time to cook 4 butts as it will 4. I would figure more along the lines of 2hrs per pound. If your heaviest butt is 8 pounds that would be 16 hours. My last butt that weighed 9 pounds took right at 20 hours to hit an IT of 205*. My last 8lb butts took 18 hours. You also need to figure in at least an hour of rest time foiled prior to pulling.

Initially your smoker is going to lose a bunch of heat from the cold mass of meat. SO I would crank it up to 300*+ then put the meat on. AS the smoke chamber temp rises adjust the heat until you get to your cooking temp.


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## huskerphil (Jun 21, 2013)

Thank you for the reply dirtsailor2003.  Looks like I will be starting the pork butts tonight to be sure they are done by 6:00 tomorrow.  I still haven't purchased them yet so I better do that ASAP and get my dry rub on them.  Thanks again!


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## dirtsailor2003 (Jun 21, 2013)

I always smoke my butts a day or two in advance and then reheat the day I am going to serve them. Since you are doing them the same day/night you can add an additional 3-4 hours just to make sure. The butts will keep warm that long after the smoke wrapped in foil and towels in a large towel packed cooler.


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## huskerphil (Jun 21, 2013)

Yes, I will definitely give myself 3-4 more hours extra.  Hopefully I can find some smaller butts, maybe 6-7 lbs to get my cook time shorter.  Was hoping to have my rub on for a while, but that might not happen now.  Thanks!


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## driedstick (Jun 21, 2013)

Good luck let us know how it comes out and pics plz, I am with DS on this one  I just did a 7lb took 16hrs but I was at a lower temp of 220 just cause my smoker wont go any higher.


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## huskerphil (Jun 21, 2013)

Thanks for the advice.  I will try and update you guys on how it turns out.  Excited to get started!


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## dirtsailor2003 (Jun 21, 2013)

huskerphil said:


> Yes, I will definitely give myself 3-4 more hours extra.  Hopefully I can find some smaller butts, maybe 6-7 lbs to get my cook time shorter.  Was hoping to have my rub on for a while, but that might not happen now.  Thanks!


I used to rub and let my meat stew in it overnight. Now I season right before I put it on and have found that it tastes the same! If it was a liquid marinade or brine that'd be a different story.


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## huskerphil (Jun 25, 2013)

I went ahead and made a new post on my experience.  Appreciate the help!

http://www.smokingmeatforums.com/t/143712/my-first-pulled-pork-q-view


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