Cooking time for 3 5lb pork butts

What temp?

TIM

at 225-255 you will be looking at about 1.5-2hrs per pound
at 260-285 you will be looking at about 1-1.5hrs per pound.
at 290-320 you will be looking at about 45mins-1hr per pound.

Edit - That would be per pound of the pork butt (3 5lb butts will cook in about the same amount of time of 1 5lb butt, but 1 15lb butt will take longer to cook than 3 5lb butts)

6 hours at 300, smaller cuts take a little longer than big cuts per pound. Plan for 6-7 hours, should set you up right to let them rest for an hour or two before eating.

aawa said:

3 5lb butts will cook in about the same amount of time of 1 5lb butt,

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My experience is that this in not true. When I load my cooker with 6 - 7lb butts, it takes a lot longer to cook them than 1 - 7 lb butt.

javahog2002 said:

My experience is that this in not true. When I load my cooker with 6 - 7lb butts, it takes a lot longer to cook them than 1 - 7 lb butt.

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You are comparing 6 butts to 3 butts. Of course it will take a lot longer for 6 butts to cook than 1. You have a lot less hot air circulating the cooking chamber when you pack in 5 more pork butts into it, as well as a considerably more mass trying to raise in temp. Try putting in 3 pork butts vs the timing of 1 pork butt and it does not extend cook times to where it takes "a lot" longer to cook than 1 7lb butt.

In my mini I can cook a single 8lb pork butt in about 8hrs. When I put a second 8lb pork butt in the mini it takes me about 8.5-9hrs. I dont consider adding in 30mins-1hr time a lot more time too cook.

javahog2002 said:

My experience is that this in not true. When I load my cooker with 6 - 7lb butts, it takes a lot longer to cook them than 1 - 7 lb butt.

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Do you monitor your temps closely? I only ask because I wonder if having that amount of cold meat in a cooker would work as some sort of a heat sink and make it so you have to wait longer (or open your vents more) to get up to the same temp as if you only had one or two butts in the cooker. Theoretically, I would think as long as the butts aren't touching, if everything else remained constant, the cooking time would remain the same. That means something else must be going on so that all other things aren't equal.