Bought two cases of butts, 16 total boneless, 125 lbs total weight.
Hit them hard with Bad Byron's Butt Rub at 10:00pm, Tuesday night. Set the FE at 225 setting, loaded with hickory pellets. Putting four butts on each shelf kind of crowded the FE but everything fit, barely.
The first butts that were done were on the bottom. The two lower shelves finished with approx internal temp of 195 about2:30pm on Wed or about 16 1/2 hour cook. The upper shelves were only about 172 at the time. These butts took an additional four hours to hit 195. Ended up with 12 1/2 pans of pulled pork or roughly 60 lbs, or a 50% yield. Nice product, very moist. Going into the freezer for tailgaters.
What did this show. 1. The bottom of the pit cooks much faster than the top when loaded to the max. Probably has to do with reduced air flow and having the bottom closer to the heat source.
2. A large load of meat takes longer than just a couple of butts. Normally a couple of 10 lbers takes about 15 hours.
What could I change for next time.
1. Nothing, having to split the pulling into two groups is not so bad. Gives to time to take care of product and clean up mess before you do the next eight butts.
2. If a person wanted to have all butts come off at once then you would want to move the shelves around in the FE during the cook or put the butts on the top two shelves a few hours before loading up the bottom two shelves.
Happy I did not get a grease fire. Having the FE at the lower temp setting assisted in this. I did create a lot of grease in the pan which I emptyed during the cook to prevent running over. It turned out this would not have been a problem since I probably did not get over a quart of pork grease.
Original Post