# Pork Butt Cook Time



## xtopher713 (Jul 20, 2015)

I was wondering if this is normal. The cook time for a 5.5lbs pork butt took me 15 hrs. I have a Smoke Hollow propane smoker.I smoked the butt at 245 until the internal temp was 205. I was using the Maverick 733 thermometer.


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## GaryHibbert (Jul 21, 2015)

15 hours is pretty long.  I did a 5.3 pounder and it took about 12 hours, but my MES temp was way off and I didn't have my remote therm yet.

Were you using a good therm?

Gary


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## mdboatbum (Jul 21, 2015)

That does seem long. Maybe your thermo probe was right in the path of the heat coming off the burner and giving you a false (high) reading.


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## chef jimmyj (Jul 21, 2015)

At 225-250°F  you can figure 2 hours per Pound. However, crazy things happen with Butts, long stalls, double stalls and just plain stubborn butts. They can go crazy long like yours. Oh yeah, just when you figure it out, the darn thing will go 1 hour per pound just to mess you you! As above the Therms are the first place to look for inaccuracy causing long cook times...JJ


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## gditys (Jul 21, 2015)

wow that's a long time to cook bur  I had a 9 lb take me 20 hours  of cook time at 250


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## aggie94 (Jul 21, 2015)

Not use to cooking pork butts, what temp should they be cooked to?  Smoked one last night and after 7 1/2 hours temps ranged from 160 to 190 degrees depending where I put the probe.


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## xtopher713 (Jul 21, 2015)

I was using the maverick ET-733. Where in my smoker should I place the temp probe? I had it on the grate just infront of the pork butt.


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## chef jimmyj (Jul 21, 2015)

Aggie94 said:


> Not use to cooking pork butts, what temp should they be cooked to?  Smoked one last night and after 7 1/2 hours temps ranged from 160 to 190 degrees depending where I put the probe.


You should get those temps up. For Safety, USDA and SMF recommend a minimum of 225°F. This is critical if you inject or punch, whatever, into your meats. If you want to make Pulled Pork, smoke to an IT of 205°F. If Sliced Pork is what you like, an IT of 185-195°F will get it tender.


Xtopher713 said:


> I was using the maverick ET-733. Where in my smoker should I place the temp probe? I had it on the grate just infront of the pork butt.


That is fine. We want to know temp at the meat...JJ


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## heubrewer (Jul 21, 2015)

For me pork shoulders always take a long time to cook. My first one,just over 4.5 lbs, that I graphed out took 17 hrs and ended up taking about 3hrs/lb when smoked at 220F















Graph.png



__ heubrewer
__ Jun 15, 2014


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## mummel (Jul 22, 2015)

It sounds to me like you were cooking at 205-220F.  Probably a bit low.


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## aggie94 (Jul 22, 2015)

Mummel if you were referring to my cook, I was smoking on a mini WSM, was trying to cook at 225 to 250 but had a little problem with vents getting clogged late in the cook, temps would sometimes fall below 200.  Jimmy thanks for the temp recommendation, I do take that seriously.  I was concerned about it not being hotter so I pulled it off the smoker (was almost 2am) and put it in the oven at 250 for an hour.  When I checked it an hour later I was still getting a range of temps so left it in the hot oven 2 more hours to slowly rest.


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