Need some help with a big cook!

D

Duckboats

Knows what a fatty is.
Joined
Oct 14, 2011
Location
Omaha, NE
Okay y'all,
I'm going to need some help with this one. We are going to be cooking for a large benefit for a fallen officer. We are trying to keep it easy by going with pork sandwiches. We are borrowing an trailer mounted Ole Hickory smoker to do the cooking for us. My question is on time and temp for 50-ish butts. We are going to begin serving at 11 am for lunch and obviously want to have it ready by then. I'm making a couple pork shredders to shred the butts in seconds, so I'm not worried about that.

When would you guys start?
What temperature would you run the smoker?
Anything else you can think of to make cooking more efficient?

Thanks guys!
Brian
 
You should plan on having them ready by 9 at the latest so you have a buffer and time for them to rest. I would shoot for 8.

Cook at whatever temp your cooker runs best. That way you are not fighting temps.

At 275 you are looking at about an hour per pound, for for an average 8 lb butt you are looking at 8-9 hours.
 
Hi Brian. Need a little more info. What size is your smoker? What size are the butts? More than 1 smoker will decrease your cooking time and allow you to keep some warm while serving or continue cooking if needed.
 
Thanks Pigville. We have done several benefits for officers with medical bills, but this one as you know, is different. So, we are going all out.

The smoker is an Ole Hickory on a trailer. Not sure which model yet. I'm guessing its one of the EL versions, but it's buried in the back of a barn and can't access it until it dries out a bit. We do have another smoker available also for over flow if we can't fit all the meat into the big Ole Hickory.

Good idea Blu! I may consider that when I figure out how much meat I can load into this beast.

I just did 4-10lb butts yesterday and noticed a longer cook time, so I was curious how long it would take with the added meat. I guess that will depend on the pit and temperature.

Any other suggestions? The fundraiser runs from 1100-1900, should I run a batch for lunch and then run another batch later for dinner? Or just do them all and let them rest in warmers and shred when needed. By the way, I have already secured materials to weld up a couple of drill powered pork shredders, so shredding will be done in a matter of seconds.

If anyone else has suggestions, throw them out.
Thanks,
Brian
 
Cutting the butts in half is a great way to shorten the cook time and creates more surface area for bark. Good luck with the cook and props to you for doing this! :clap:
 
The Ole Hickory is a commercial smoker so it should have no problem getting the meat done in 8-9 hours @ 275. These have a convection fan to move air and speed up cooking. Once it is out, I would run it empty for a while just to make sure there are no issues from sitting in the barn.
 
I wouldn't worry about staggering the cooks. If anything, I would imagine you can run the old hickory like a warmer at a low temp, and keep the pork in there until it's ready to be pulled. Otherwise, throw the cooked butts in some coolers and they'll stay warm for hours.
 
Will do Pyle's. I planned on that anyway. I have used an Ole Hickory before, it made some damn good wings, clod, and ribs. I'm hoping the thing runs right, but I'm sure if I get it early enough I can get it fixed if anything is bad.

My thoughts exactly CPW. Thanks!
 
I would wrap them once you got the bark you wanted and the fat splits across the top. Save all the juices from the foil and mix it back in when you pull the butt to serve. You can easily have them done in 8-9 hours.

Also, a 9lb butt just wrapped in foil and sitting out on the kitchen counter in room temp will stay above 150* internal for 3+ hours on its own.
 
I agree have your butts done and resting in foil down in coolers ( cambros etc) by 9 giving you a 2 hour window for stalls 8 to 9 hour cook id start around midnight ...meaning everything is prepared and the cooker is lit and ready to go at midnight. while the meat is on that will give you time to prep all the other stuff and get it on ice. ie tater salad slaw etc.
 
Ok, this benefit has blown up. I'm now cooking 1200 pounds of pork and 140 lbs of brisket. I got the smoker to the house and its an Ole hickory EL ED X. I ended up replacing the ignitor board and gas valve to get it running, but its good to go now. I think I can put about 70 on there at one time.
The brisket I'm going to make for the volunteers to eat. I was actually going to do that hot and fast after the pork.
I'm dreading the logisistics right now. Anything I can do to help myself at this point? I eliminated sides and went with bagged chips. Easy. Any help would be appreciated.
Thanks.
 
A few years back I cooked about this much as well. is there any way to get more than one cooker? Here's why I ask. When I did it we got one cooker completely full and cooking. A few hours later we loaded a second cooker. By doing this we were able to save space, and help with timing. As one load was resting, the other was finishing up. By the time the first load was served the second batch was good to go. This system worked beautifully!

I wish I lived closer. I LOVE doing stuff like this!
 
So we are using the Ole Hickory and a trailer sidebox smoker. We can get the Ole Hickory going filled with butts early Saturday afternoon like 2.p Then get the 18-20 butts on the sidebox going a couple hours later. Then, we can throw the briskets and other pork butts on the Ole Hickory when the first batch gets done.
I think the cambros and coolers will keep the butts from the first batch for at least 10 hours, but I'm worried about them drying out and continuing to cook.
Should I wait to shred them just before serving?
 
Duckboats said:
So we are using the Ole Hickory and a trailer sidebox smoker. We can get the Ole Hickory going filled with butts early Saturday afternoon like 2.p Then get the 18-20 butts on the sidebox going a couple hours later. Then, we can throw the briskets and other pork butts on the Ole Hickory when the first batch gets done.
I think the cambros and coolers will keep the butts from the first batch for at least 10 hours, but I'm worried about them drying out and continuing to cook.
Should I wait to shred them just before serving?
Click to expand...
Good plan! Yes, most definitely wait to pull until just before serving. Plan on having a couple people managing the serving line, and other working on the butts. Pork is the most forgiving meat of them all! You should keep some apple juice or broth to help monitor dryness one it's on the serving line. I usually cook a few to around 185-190 or so before holding. The longer the hold the more the meat will break down.

That meat will stay extremely hot for hours! Keep in mind that most folks like well broken down meat. The more tender it is, the better for most people. Cook 5-6 of them all the way to 195 or so before resting, then pull and serve as needed. The others go a little less so if they have to sit for a really long time in the box, then they should be perfect when you are ready to serve them.
 
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