Smoking times

If folks were caught at a comp and running behind, they foil -after they have bark and color, can speed the cook.

I can't picture anyone foiling a load of butts,for any reason.

I'll give a guess as to times,until some of the cater guys check in.

When cooking full loads,we do run the cooker at temp,empty, to be sure it is stable.

We'll usually let the butts come to temp for an hr,before loading.

At 225º,butts on around 8 PM,we'll usually start checking butts around 7 AM,pulling out/foiling to the hot box,as they come ready.

Might take a couple,three more hrs,until the last one is ready.

15 lb butts are a good bit larger than we cook,so 18-20 hrs wouldn't be unusual.

Briskets ,will depend on them

Your single one cooked as fast as a prime.

Don't cook full loads of packers,but would allow 1.5 hrs/lb

I'd allow lots of time for both,as that much meat would probably hold in a hot box,over eight hrs.

I'm sure the cater guys have better times,and tips about rotating racks,etc.

Hope this helps a little.

First off, the pork butts you will be cooking are probably not 15 lbs. each. You probably have cryovacs of two butts together for a total of 15 lbs. A single 15 lb. butt would come one REALLY large hog. Bigger than I have ever seen.

On cooking the butts, the FEC will actually run more efficiently with a full load. A full load of butts for me is sixteen butts and a total of about 130 lbs. Some of the butts will cook faster than others in the FEC due to to hot spots and such. Because of this, I just take the finished ones off first and move the other butts to the hot spots to finish off.

For a full load, it takes me about 10-11 hours for the first ones to be done and 12-13 hours before the last ones come off.

The only time I foil a butt is if it is not finishing fast enough and I need it off of the cooker. Foiling it will speed the cooking process up. But this is very rare that I do this.

On briskets, Tom will most likely stop in and comment on this. Whether you foil or not is a personal preference. I tend to foil when the brisket reaches 165-170. I like to capture any juices let out during the smoking process towards the end as I like to let the slices soak in it after I defat it.

Hope all goes well for you.