Pork butt taking long time.

Several different things.

Do you have a remote thermometer? If not then when you open the door to check the temps will extend the cook 30 min to an hour.

Your cooker could run cool. When set to 250 my cooker doesn't average more than 240. So when I set it to 225 it's really averaging about 205-210. When I set my unit to 225 a couple 8 pound butts usually take 20+ hours. So I just put it about 240ish and that brings the cook to around 15 hours.

Could just be a stubborn butt. They ALL act different no matter if they are the weight or not.



I'm sure I forgot a few things, but I HAVE to say this. Do not ever go by time. Just go by temp and you'll be fine. As long as the temps in your cooker are within range there's no reason to worry. Just be patient.



I know it's tough when you can smell it!

Yep. You need to cook those big fat untrimmed 8-9 pound bone-in butts. Turn the smoker up all the way with 3-4 oz of wood, insert a wired probe in the meat, shut the door, don't open the door until the meat temp is at least 195*F.

If nothing is wrong with the Smokette, it should get more efficient as you cook more and more in it, as long as you do not clean out the seasoning. Just wipe it out with dry paper towels and put all the racks, grills, wood box, etc. in the dishwasher on pots&pans high heat.

Experiment, take notes, have fun !

Like the experienced cooks above said.

One other important thing is that butts are not linear for weight X temp X time.

That is, the goal is to keep the meat in the plateau, as long as possible ,to break down the collagen and render the fat.

A 10 lb butt may work at 1.5 hrs/lb=15 hrs.

Nice and pullable.


A 1/2 inch thick slice across the butt,cooked in a 375º iron skillet, for 2 mins on each side,may reach 195º,but need a meat grinder to eat it.

Something to think about.

The closer the cook temp (200) is to your finishing temp (195 or so) will mean it takes a LONG and SLOW trip.

I do mine at 250 in a smokette for that reason.

No, I don't have a remote probe yet so I did have to open the door some. However, I did not open it until after 11 hours of cooking at 225 and the temp was only 170 at that time.
So I'm assuming if you are cooking multiple butts at once you must put a remote temp probe in each one.
So some of you cook your butts from the start at 240-250 and leave it there.

I don't put a probe in each one.

I try to keep my butts as close to the same weight as one another as possible. If there are slightly smaller butts I put them in the middle(lower temps) so they come up to temps about the same time. Then I don't open the door and check them with my thermapen until the biggest butt hits about 190-191.

And yes, there are quite a few of us that put it on 240-250 and leave it. Even at a true 250 that is plenty low and slow. Especially in the moist environment that the cookshack creates.

Won't the top rack have the lowest temp? It seems that the Maverick ET-73 is the wireless thermometer of choice amongst forum writers.

Think heat rises.

The exception can be,directly over the firebox-with the shelf on the lowest,possible position.

Like the experienced cooks say,check/know the actual temp of the rack where the meat is setting.

The larger/fuller the load,the less the temp swings,and often,the more even the cook.

My own,old Smokette,"liked" to cook 1,or 2 butts
at an actual temp of 235º.

Part of learning your cooker and keeping good notes.

Smokin' can't repeat that enough.

Heat rises, so the top is usually the hottest. Now a btt on the very bottom rack would get a higher temp on the bottom(direct heat) from the heat element, but the top of the butt would be in a lower temp zone. For this reason I don't put butts on the bottom rack unless I have to and then I put the fat cap down to sheild it a bit.

I like the bottom rack for smaller items that benefit from the heat frm the smoke box.

As long as you know that the Maverick can be quirky and NEVER trust the distances claimed on the box you will be fine. I use one and keep the remote no further than 15 feet and have had no problems with drops.

Dangit! Tom beat me to the punch AND answred the question better!

That fast fingered Smokin'Okie does that to me all the time.

I was thinking about the lower racks being closer to the fire box and being warmer. Makes sense about the top being warmer with the heat rising. I may have seasoned with mesquite wood from the wood pack that came with my kit. Can't tell woods apart--any tips? Anything i should do since mesquite is not good to season with. I reseasoned with apple and hickory last night at 250 for 8 hours. Is there a better thermometer than the Maverick?

Yes and no.

If you really want the remote that will go into your house then there's not really much better than the maverick in my opinion. Not without some serious overkill and without using the primary functions.(stoker)

HOWEVER. If all you want is an accurate thermometer that can sit on the outside of the cookshack and you aren't afraid of spending a few bucks then THIS is what you want. With the BBQ probe attachment of course.

http://www.thermoworks.com/products/handheld/mtc.html



I love love love this thing. I picked it up the other day after someone mentioned it to me.

i hvae three probes. I had five total. All the probes have failed. The boil in oil seems to fix them. I prefer the Polder unit from bass pro shops.

Sorry this is a little late, but I'm still trying to work my way through all of the info here.

The themometer cronyism linked to is very good. I have 2 inexpensive multimeters from Sears with the thermometer function built in. One was $20.00 and the other about $32.00. They both came with probes that have an adapter for the K type probes and you can plug the ThermoWorks K type probes into them.

For the remote, everyone seems to prefer the Maverick, but I have the Oregon Scientific talking thermometer and it works great and is very accurate. The talking part can be irritating, but you can turn it off by pushing any button on the thermometer when it starts talking to you. I actually like it because I'm hard of hearing and if I'm off doing something else, I'll hear it remind me when it's almost done. I think they're all a little quirky. Sometimes I have to play with it a little to get them to communicate, but mine works anywhere in my house without losing the signal, once they're communicating.

I've measured the temps in my empty Smokette and in mine, it is about 10-15 deg. warmer at the top shelf than the bottom and cooler at the back than the front. The wood also seems to burn hotter at the front of the smoke box, so I try to get the meat closer to the door.

When there is meat in it, the temps drop a lot, but as the meat comes close to the set temp., the smoker temp. starts creeping up to stay above it.

I love my Smokette. All I do is check my remote thermometer occasionally and let the Smokette do all of the work and make me look good.

Pat