Just curious, my two 7lbs butts have been smoking for about
15 hours at 225 and they just reached 160 internal. We have guests coming in 2.5 hours so I turned it up to 240, is that the proper solution? Should I be concerned?
Any other comments or suggestions?

hopefully you foiled this thing and back in the smoker at 250. you are already close to your guest arriving time, the oven at 325-350 will bring it up to the 190-195 range quickly.

A 7 lb. butt in my Smokette routinely takes a good 18 hours to reach 195 at a smoker temp of 225.

Guess it's too late for advice, but the oven is your best bet.

Next time, give yourself a good 4 hours to play with. If it finishes beforehand, put in foil, wrap in newspapers, and place in a dry cooler. The butt will stay HOT for at least 4 hours.

Hope all went well.

You are not supposed to open the door until the meat is done! Use a remote therm probe and let them butts go at 225-250 until they hit 195-205. THEN open the door and get em out!

Congrats on the birfday present! They did a good job!

I went with my plan and all turned out well. The meat just fell apart and was as moist and smoking as could be. Our guests went home stuffed and looking forward to the next time.

I learned a couple of lessons on how to smoke my meat and I get to eat leftovers for a week.

Thanks for the help.

NLSIS, I read a lot of posts where people plan a dinner and they wind up waiting for food that isn't done yet. The beauty of BBQ is that it benefits greatly from a long rest, so you can put your meat in 6+ hours before your schedule dinner and use the resting period as a buffer. The other thing I do is adjust the temp on the smoker as needed.

If I'm planning dinner at 5:00pm, the night before I'll put my butt and/or brisket in at say 212, then I'll gauge where it's at before I go to work in the morning and adjust the temp up a little if needed. If it's done by lunch, then foil and place it in a cooler--it will be perfect for dinner. And best of all--it's waiting on you rather than the other way around.

quote:

Originally posted by (No Longer) Smokeless In Seattle:
[qb] ...I learned a couple of lessons on how to smoke my meat and I get to eat leftovers for a week. [/qb]

Any lessons worth sharing? Other newbies might need some help (we always have lots of newbies/lurkers)

I have an SM150, bought it so I could set the temp & time.I usually use the pork butts from Sam's; 2 in a package and weigh around 15 or 16 pounds. Normally put them in, set time to 13 hours, the temp to 230 and let them go. Let them set for 1/2 hour or so, and then pull the meat. This has always worked for me. This is just my own experience.

Yep,KISS is a wonderful thing.