Advice on 20-25 Butts?

[TXArmy]

Cooking 20-25 butts this weekend on my new Shirley Fab. By far largest cook I’ve ever done. Any tips, advice, or lessons learned? Plan to inject, cook at 275, and let rest for a few hours ahead of serving.

Couple key questions:

Will 25 cook at roughly same rate as 1?
Wrap or No wrap?
Best way to hold/rest?

Thank you ahead of time for your advice!

 

[Back9Q]

All will cook close to same but some may lag. If you have access to foil pans you can do 2 in a pan with foil on top.

As far as resting since there are so many and heat retention will last long time you can throw them all in carboard box or giant plastic tub and keep temps for a while


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[sudsandswine]

My advice is…get a helper. :becky:

Logistically, just purchasing, safely transporting, and storing that much meat is a lot of work…let alone the prep work, both pre and post cook. The cooking part will be the easy stage.

 

[TXArmy]

Thanks for the tip on 2 to each foil pan. That makes sense and would be easy to store for the rest. I cooked one with Chud’s fancy foil boat the other day that turned out great. Not sure that’s possible for 20-25 butts but liked the end product.

Will definitely have helpers, 9 buddies/teammates. Thankfully live close to cook site too so won’t have too many food handling/transportation worries. Also got ribs and few other cuts going at same time.

Should be fun event/day!

 

[pjtexas1]

Start waaaaay sooner than normal. Best to have more time than less. Big meats will hold for several hours if done early. The last thing you want is hungry guests and no food.

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[cowboyupbbq]

150-200# of cold meat might cook different than smaller cooks so like Paul said start 3-4 hrs before you normally would. Way easier to hold than to will 25 butts to get done while people are waiting to eat. Wrapping helps preserve volume. A couple big clean coolers will hold them. Let them steam out good before you put them in the coolers and crack the lid periodically or they will continue to cook. Get 3 new clean gray bus tubs and that will help with processing. To get ready to serve, I pull out the bone and throw away the largest hunks of fat. Use the y part of the bone to chop the pork and the rest of the fat gets mixed in. Toss in a little glaze, sprinkle some rub and put in pans.

 

[TravelingJ]

I'm just going to say that it's kinda scary that you want to go from 1, to 20+, and other meats. 20 shoulders will feed hundreds of people, which sounds like an event that should be catered by someone that has proper food handling techniques, and likely has cooked more than 1 shoulder at a time before.

 

[TXArmy]

Thanks Paul, starting early also makes sense just in case. Was planning on having the butts done with 4 hour window till serving begins. We have several large coolers to rest the finished butts.

The bus trays are a great idea too. Actually picked up a few the other day at RD so that I could have a few extras. I like the idea of using the bone to start the pulling process. Quick and easy. Also ordered one of those drill paddles for fun but not sure how that’ll work.

TravelingJ, I understand the concern. We’ve cooked for the same size crowd for a few years in a row. Got a few teammates who have been in catering/food service as well. Appreciate the concern/comment. This is just the first time that I’ve had a smoker with the capacity to do this much meat in just mine. We’re normally running a few smaller smokers to make this happen which sorta turns into a few guys doing their own cooks, if that makes sense. Cooking for this size crowd is an annual thing but certainly not a regular occurrence. My normal cooks entail a few cuts and some ribs for family and friends.

Appreciate everyone’s tips and sorry for not providing more details/clarity in my initial post. Keep ‘em coming!

 

[TXArmy]

Few more questions too:

Is it worth spritzing or will humidity level in smoker be high enough?

Is it worth rotating meat or just pulling them as they’re done?

 

[Robert]

Few more questions too: Disclaimer: I have never cooked on a Shirley. So my advice is from over 20 years experience cooking large volumes of meat on an Ole Hickory Pits rotisserie smoker.

Is it worth spritzing or will humidity level in smoker be high enough? No. If you are looking you aren't cooking. JMHO, but with that many teammates, I can just imagine how many times the doors will be opened during the cooking process. I would not open the doors for the first few hours of cooking and when I do open the doors, it will only be to start checking temperatures across the grates to determine how the cook is coming along. Those temps will tell you if you need to rotate or not.

Is it worth rotating meat or just pulling them as they’re done?

Depends on how easy it would be to pull out a rack full of meat and rotate 180 degrees and do it without dropping the whole rack. You may have to rotate top to bottom as well. As far as will they cook the same? I've had two butts that are visually the same by comparison cooking side by side that finished at different times.



Pork is pretty resilient, so I wouldn't spend the time injecting. If you want to keep the meat moist after pulling, add 1 cup of chicken broth to each pan and mix it up.



If you have time before the cook, you could always do the biscuit test to find out where the hot spots are locate inside the cooker to give you an idea what you will be battling if anything.



Good luck and have fun,


Robert

 

[BDAABAT]

What TexasPete said! Start earlier than you normally would.

Pork is super forgiving. It just needs time to cook and break down connective tissues. Once it's done, it can safely hang for quite a while. As long as temps stay above 140 degrees (after thoroughly cooking), you should be safe. If you have a couple large coolers, you can wrap them and hold for several hours safely.

Butts that haven't had the time to break down the connective tissue are zero fun to work with. You may emergently need to switch from pulled pork to sliced pork. Unfortunately, during our first large cook, we went through this experience.

BTW: the pan advice is quite sound. Allows you to move the meat efficiently, if needed. When we've done large fundraising cooks, we've done butts in foil pans for the entire cook.

Other advice: K. I. S. S. Keep is simple silly!

Good luck!

Bruce

 

[gcooney88]

Totally agree with Back9Q on the use of foil pans. Not only does this save a ton of time compared to double wrapping each butt with foil, it just so happens that a full size pan is the perfect size for serving 2 butts (8-10lbs raw) once pulled. This makes it super easy to remove foil lid, remove bones, pull in place and serve. It's also a good idea to have the rub that you used on hand to add to the meat as you pull. I've found that when cooking for a large group it is better to go light on the rub before cooking and add to taste just before serving to prevent the meat from ending up too salty. Good luck!

 

[BuckN BBQ]

You'll hate yourself if you have to pull 20-25 butts, get a 5 gallon food grade bucket and a stainless steel cement mixing drill bit. Take the bone out and shred two at a time in the bucket.

 

[Mike Twangzer]

I sure wanna see some pictures of that epic cook !!!

 

[Back9Q]

You can always cook ahead, vacuum seal, and warm with water bath. I did this for 500pulled sammies at highschool football game. Had handful coals and one split going in smoker just to provide smoke smell. Reheat in water and stays moist. Plus flavor intensifies overnight


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[TXArmy]

Definitely like the foil pan idea and going light on rub.

Exactly my thought Buckn, we got that drill paddle and bucket to try.

Will take plenty of pics and post on Sunday. Gonna try to get 24 butts in main chamber and do brisket and 6 racks of ribs in warmer.

Question; can butts touch at beginning of cook and space open up around them as they cook down, or best to leave space between butts at beginning? Not sure it matters…

 

[Gnarlbecue]

Question; can butts touch at beginning of cook and space open up around them as they cook down, or best to leave space between butts at beginning? Not sure it matters…

I'm no expert on high capacity cookers, but I would think that there should always be space between each butt for airflow.

Otherwise they would act like one giant piece of meat or a giant baffle, disrupting ariflow and prologning the cook.

Let the smoke and heat swirl over and around each butt if you have the space

 

[Back9Q]

Gnarl is right. Try and get a little spacing for heat to flow around meat.


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[Juggy D Beerman]

One other thing to consider, If you have 20 or so 8+ pound pork butts on one smoker, you are going to have a lot of fat rendering in that smoker. Keep an eye on that grease bucket. As others have pointed out, good air flow between the butts is essential too. If they are packed too tightly, the restricted air flow could lead to inconsistent cooking temperatures in different areas of the cooker.


Lager,


Juggy