Is 99 cents a pound worth it?
 

Here's the story. And so you know, it's not over.

Last night I stopped at my local Lowes Foods and while in the meat department I noticed that they were having a sale on Boston butt for 99 cents a pound. Know that's a good price, I look into the cooler and see these monstrously large Boston butts. The smallest one was 8.5 pounds. I started to reach in to grab a few when it dawned on me that if this hunk of meat took 1.5 hours per pound that I was looking at a 12 hour cook time. For me, running the smoker for 12 hours is longer than I like and one of the reasons I don't do brisket that often. So I stopped myself from grabbing one and continued my shoppping.

The problem is that it's been over 12 hours and I'm still thinking about those hunks of meat. If I get one, I'll have to go to bed early on Friday and get up around 8:00 on a Saturday, something I don't usually do.

So, I've posted a poll and I'd like everyone's opinion.

-NCGrimbo

Do it! I try to find butts that are at least 9 lbs. I don't like cooking the smaller butts. If you don't have a vac-u-sucker, get one of those, too! :D

Cook it at 270 or hotter to cut down the cook time. Just watch the bark color and is it is getting too dark foil it.

I posted before you got your poll up :shock:

Don't cut it down. Just cook hotter.

If your smoker can run at least 10-12 hours on its own...

Fire it up... and put it on when you have your pit stabilized just before bedtime.
That timing is good enough for competitions during afternoon turn-ins.

Grimbo,

Do what I did: start that bad boy Friday night, and check it Saturday morning.

^^^Yep, cook hotter and faster or cut'em down, no reason to loose sleep over it all.

KC

you can also make it as pork steaks, or sausage. Or buckboard bacon

get some

dont F around.

What I find sad is that he had to even THINK about it in the first place. Unless his freezers were already full (Still got 4 butts from the last 99 cent deal here a few months ago in the double cryo packs in the deep freeze).

aint that the truth HA

What are you cooking on Grimbo? Is there not anyway you can set your smoker up around midnight and then get some sleep for a few hours?

That's why I love my USD lock the temp load it before going to bed and have it ready the next day. If you don`t have something you can lock your temp like that just use higher heat like Ron L recommends. I only use the larger ones myself and vacuum seal the left overs and I grab extras when that cheap to make Brats and breakfast sausage.

Don't you own a stoker? Put that bad boy to work! Stock up on 99 cent butts!

Have you bought them yet?

:-D

I thought that an 8.5lb was a normal sized butt and the 4-6lb ones were the small ones.

Sounds like a Hot-N-Fast practice to me.